PAVEL FEDOSIMOV, HIS REAL NAME?

PAVEL  IVANOVICH FEDOSIMOV

This is a close up of the man who was referred to as Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov in the tag that accompanied this image. And this is this picture is the man I believe is the best candidate to be the Somerton Man. It is worthy of note, that this is the only known picture of Fedosimov, despite many attempts to track down other photographs after 1947, none have been found. The name crops up several times but no photographs are known to exist apart from this one.

The big question is this, is Pavel Fedosimov his real name or did he just make use of it, was he using a pseudonym? Throughout history those engaged in espionage had a habit of using the manes of others. Whether that was Louise de Bettignies AKA Alice Dubois in WW1 or Aleksander Fomin the name known to have been used by Alexandr Feklisov, the handler for Rosenburg and Klaus Fuchs 

A lot of work has been done by this blog in uncovering as much information as possible about Fedosimov, it started with a reference from Senator Cavanagh in the Australian senate to a book called  "THE ATOM SPIES" along with his thoughts that Australia had become the dumping ground for dead spies. The book reference turned out to describe a meeting between NKVD courier Harry Gold and a big man with broad shoulders, large hands and who walked 'on his toes' at the Earl Theatre in the Bronx on December 26th, 1946.

Perspective is Reality

A question of height.

Harry Gold was of short stature, about 5 feet 2 inches, and from that perspective Gold in a later interview put the man at over 6 feet tall probably 6 feet 4 inches. Put your self in Gold's position,  a darkened foyer, a tall man walking on his toes and wearing a hat, how tall would he have looked and how tall was the Somerton man?

Measured on the slab, the Somerton Man was said to have been 5 feet 11inches in height. Now, let's stand him up straight against a wall and have him stretch up to his full height. How tall would he be now? Over 6 feet and closer to 6 feet 1 inch in height. Now put on a pair of shoes, his new height, 6 feet 2 inches. Now give him a hat and have him walk on his toes and there you have the very tall man that Harry Gold saw. No smoke and no mirrors, just plain straightforward logic.

Vassiliev's Notes

In Vassilev's notebooks, (https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/86/vassiliev-notebooks) a record of a vast number of KGB agents. Fedosimov is mentioned as someone who was suspected as being about to betray the motherland, he was a likely defector.

The Pobeda Affair

Along with a number of other Russian diplomats and employees, 'Fedosimov' was due to depart New York on the Pobeda on 30th July 1948. Whilst his name appears on the passenger list, none of the outbound passenger certificates were in fact signed for that trip.

Importantly, three others were also on the passenger list for the Pobeda, Mrs. Kasenkina and a couple, the Samarins. These three were teachers at a Russian run school for children of Soviet officials. They did not board the ship and defected to the US amidst a storm of political controversy and protests from the Russians.

When the ship, having been delayed for several hours due to the hunt for the defectors, eventually left, it headed for numerous ports including Batumi in Armenia. There were many American Armenians being repatriated to their home country on board. It had left Batumi heading for its final port of call, Odesa, a short 24-hour journey. Some hours into their trip, a major fire occurred onboard killing 2 crew and 40 passengers.

Stalin was furious making it clear that he believed there to be American Armenian spies who had been onboard and who had caused the fire. Amongst the dead was a prominent ex Chinese Nationalist deputy leader to Chiang Kai-shek, by the name of Feng Yu Hsiang. This dealt a major blow to Russias attempts to join forces with the growing Chinese Communist leadership.

John Earle Haynes

Eminent Cold War Historian, John Earle Haynes, made mention of Fedosimov and his use of a cover name MAJ and then later thought to be STEPAN. Most interestingly he states that FEDOSIMOV may have been a pseudonym. Whilst it is not certain, it is yet another step that keeps 'Fedosimov' at the top of the list of candidates fro the Somerton Man.

SUMMARY

To date we have been able to:

1. Establish the description of Fedosimov to be a close match to the Somerton Man

2. We have established that the man known as Fedosimov was suspected of being a likely defector

3. We now have some evidence that suggests the name Fedosimov may well have been a pseudonym

Significant progress has been made and we continue our research work in an effort to uncover any photographs of Pavel Fedosimov after July 1948 and other lines of interest.

With many thanks to Clive Turner for his massive efforts and support in this project.