Nicholas Dozenberg

Nicholas "Nick" Dozenberg (; 15 November 1882 – 1954) was an American political functionary with the Communist Party USA in the 1920s. Late in 1927 Dozenberg was recruited into the underground Soviet military intelligence network, for which he worked for more than a decade under the pseudonym "Nicholas Ludwig Dallant." Apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in December 1939, Dozenberg cooperated with the investigation fully, giving oral or written testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on three occasions. Never charged for espionage, Dozenberg pleaded guilty to a charge of passport fraud in 1940 and received a comparatively light jail term of one year and one day. He lived a quiet and private life following his release from prison in 1941.

Biography

Early years Nicholas Dozenberg was born November 15, 1882, in Riga, Russian Empire, today the capital of Latvia, the son of a farmer. He attended school in the town of Talsi. He worked there in a plant making artificial marble, in an iron foundry and, during 1906 -1919 period, as a railroad locomotive machinist. He was a member of the International Association of Machinists from 1908 and the treasurer of IAM Lodge 391 in 1917 and its president in 1918.

Dozenberg was twice married. He married his first wife, Ancit (commonly known as "Katherine" and to some as "Anita"), in 1906. She died while they were away together in China in 1936. Later in 1936 he married Frances Davis Delawder, who gave birth to the couple's only child, a daughter, on January 1, 1938.

Together with the majority of the Latvian Federation, Dozenberg joined the Communist Party of America (CPA) at the time of its formation in the summer of 1919. At the time of the actual split, he was living in Canada and working temporarily for his sister and her husband as a clerk in a general store.

In 1921, Dozenberg moved to Chicago to become business manager of The Voice of Labor, a legal weekly publication of the underground CPA edited by Jack Carney. He remained in that position until the paper's termination by the party in 1923.

Dozenberg was active in Workers Party affairs and was a delegate from the Chicago district to the organization's December 1922 convention in New York City. Dozenberg was a loyalist of the faction headed by WPA Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg, Hungarian John Pepper, and top Ruthenberg lieutenant Jay Lovestone throughout the 1920s and was a beneficiary of their political patronage.

In February 1925, Dozenberg stood for election as the candidate of the Workers Party for Chicago City Council in the 28th Ward.

Dozenberg was listed on the masthead of The Worker, the party's surviving weekly as its business manager in 1924, but in 1940 Congressional testimony he had no recollection of having held this position. He was similarly listed as business manager of The Liberator, the Workers Party's literary and artistic-related monthly magazine from New York, in the same period but likewise retained no recollection of having held that post. He did, however, freely acknowledge having been head of the Literature Department of the Workers (Communist) Party from 1924 until the move of party headquarters back to New York City in 1927. His listings on the masthead of these publications may have been pro forma.

At the time of the move of headquarters back to New York City, Dozenberg handled the liquidation of the Party's assets in Chicago and arranged the transfer of the party's publications office.

Espionage activity Towards the end of in 1927, the head of Soviet military intelligence (GRU) in the United States, Alfred Tilton, recruited Dozenberg into the Soviet military intelligence apparatus at a salary of $35 per week.

Tilton first made contact with Dozenberg when he was still in Chicago in 1927, liquidating the print shop. Tilton wrote Dozenberg a letter in Latvian signed simply "Alfred," asking Dozenberg to meet him in New York as soon as he relocated there.

Dozenberg dropped out of the Communist Party on instructions and began meeting frequently with Tilton, obtaining a first passport under the pseudonym of "Nicholas Dallant" in March 1928 and a second one underhis own name in November of that same year. At the end of the year he was called to Moscow to be assessed by Yan Karlovich Berzin, the head of Soviet Military Intelligence. Not only would the firm provide a plausible business cover for agents coming and going, but a company purportedly making movies would have a relatively easy time surreptitiously filming ports and military fortifications, it was believed. Dozenberg also established a business cover for Soviet military intelligence operations in France. Dr. William Burtan, an adherent of Jay Lovestone's Communist Party of the USA (Opposition) group, was also involved in this operation. Burtan was arrested, leading to the failure of the scheme.

Early in 1933, Dozenberg was called to Moscow, where he reportedly spent most of that year. Others whom Dozenberg recruited included Albert Feierabend and Robert Zelms (alias Elmston), Latvian communists from Boston.

Dozenberg was "outted" by Benjamin Gitlow on September 9, 1939. He fled Washington, D.C., and was located three months later in Bend, Oregon, where he was working in a grocery store. On December 9, 1939, Dozenberg was arrested and charged with passport violations.

Congressional testimony In January 1940, Dozenberg pleaded guilty to passport fraud and was sentenced to prison. While in jail, he was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to give testimony on secret Soviet intelligence operations in America. Dozenberg gave public testimony on May 20, 1940, and testimony with the committee moving behind closed doors and continuing in executive session on the next day, with the closed-door testimony was made later published in book form by the U.S. Government Printing Office the following year.

In his 1940 testimony before HUAC, Dozenberg detailed the story of his life and his recruitment into the GRU by Alfred Tilton.

In light of his forthright cooperation with Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dozenberg was never charged for his espionage activities. He served a sentence of one year plus one day on his passport fraud conviction.

Later years Following his release from prison in 1941, Dozenberg moved to Florida and adopted the name "Dallant." He lived his remaining years out of the public eye, breaking his silence only in the fall of 1949 when he issued a signed affidavit recounting his life to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in response to a reopening of the investigation of his activities by Congress in that year.

Death and legacy Nicholas Dozenberg died in Florida of Parkinson's disease in 1954.