Espionage
A 2009 book by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, outs Podolsky as a spy. During the war, Podolsky sought out Soviet intelligence and recommended the USSR work on processing Uranium 235. As suggested by KGB files and decrypted Venona cables, Podolsky, code named QUANTUM, passed to the Soviets information he had probably gleaned from his contacts in the scientific community: complex chemical equations on the process of gaseous diffusion in order to separate bomb grade U-235 from unwanted U-238. Unlike most other Soviet spies operating in the US who passed information only for ideological reasons, Podolsky apparently passed this information for a price ($300), according to Soviet sources recently analyzed by historians.
It should be noted that Podolsky's son, Robert, adamantly denies these charges of espionage - citing the fact that Podolsky fled Russia before the Soviet revolution, was avidly pro-America, joined the US army during WWI, and turned down at least one invitation to defect to the USSR in later years.
Read more about this topic: Boris Podolsky
Famous quotes containing the word espionage:
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