Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Hiss glad Russian disputes his guilt Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 15:33:28 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD Hiss glad Russian disputes his guilt \BY Carleton R. Bryant \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Alger Hiss, the former State Department official accused of spying in 1948, said yesterday he is filled with "great happiness, elation and joy" over a Russian historian's conclusion that he was not a Soviet agent. But authorities on Soviet intelligence said they doubt that Russian Army Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov's assertion is the final word on the subject. In a videotaped statement to American historian and filmmaker John Lowenthal, Gen. Volkogonov, chairman of Russia's military intelligence archives, said the spying accusations against Mr. Hiss are "completely groundless," the New York Times reported yesterday. Gen. Volkogonov, an adviser to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, reportedly has been examining the secret files of the former Soviet Union for several months. Gen. Volkogonov's statement was replayed at a news conference yesterday in New York City's Algonquin Hotel, where Mr. Hiss, 87, said he had begun to fear he would not be exonerated in his lifetime but believed "the truth would eventually come out." However, Herbert Romerstein, a former U.S. Information Agency official, said proof of Mr. Hiss' innocence "would come as a great shock" to him. "The evidence was quite conclusive that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent and indicated he was working for Soviet intelligence," said Mr. Romerstein, who has written a book on KGB operations in the United States. Mr. Romerstein said he does not believe any direct references to Mr. Hiss would exist in the Soviet archives because the KGB identified its agents only by their code names in internal documents. Adda Bozeman, an expert on Soviet affairs and international studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, said Gen. Volkogonov is respected as a historian, but she doubts the Russian archivist has examined each of the millions of Soviet files, many of which may have been removed or destroyed. "There are archives within archives within archives. To say there is no evidence in any of the archives is not very responsible on his part," Richard Pipes, a Soviet scholar at Harvard University, was quoted as saying. Moreover, Mr. Romerstein noted that Gen. Volkogonov has complained privately about not being given access to some of the former Soviet Union's top-secret records. But Mr. Lowenthal, who has been researching the Hiss case, said the general "is a professional historian who has spent decades in the archives. He would not lightly render an official opinion without being sure of his research." Mr. Hiss said he bore no ill will toward the late Whittaker Chambers, the Time magazine editor who accused him of spying for the Soviets in 1948. Mr. Chambers died in 1961. A member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, Mr. Chambers described Mr. Hiss as his closest friend in the party. He testified that Mr. Hiss had given him secret documents to pass on to the Soviets, which Mr. Chambers produced from a hollowed-out pumpkin on his Maryland farm. Mr. Hiss was never charged with spying because the statute of limitations for that crime had elapsed. Instead, he was convicted of lying to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1950 for denying under oath that he had given the "pumpkin papers" to Mr. Chambers. Mr. Hiss served 44 months of a five-year sentence in federal prison. The Hiss case brought Richard Nixon to national prominence. A California congressman, Mr. Nixon sided with Mr. Chambers against Mr. Hiss. He was elected vice president in 1952. Gen. Volkogonov said his examination of Soviet records has produced nothing linking Mr. Hiss to Soviet intelligence operations. "It may very well be that there is nothing there about Hiss," Mrs. Bozeman said, "but that's not enough to say he's innocent." Former KGB Maj. Oleg Gordievsky, in his 1990 book "KGB: The Inside Story," identified Mr. Hiss' World War II handler as Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov, a powerful KGB instructor. * Bill Gertz contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM