VOLUNTARY DEFECTION FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02646R000600190001-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 78
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 1, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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COMMUNISM
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VOLUNTARY DEFECTION
FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY
Case Histories)
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February 1954
MOF
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No.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1
V. WHY THEY LEAVE--THE GRADUAL PROCESS OF.
DEFECTION .... ................... 28
VI. THE DEFECTION OF TITO ....................... 69
73
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This is the first of a series of studies on voluntary defections. It con-
sists of an analysis oi. the writings of fifteen individuals, all but one of Whom
is an intellectual,
Thirteen of the individuals were Comrr.unist Party members, while two
others felt an extremely close attachment to the movement. Each voluntarily
severed his Party affiliation or lost his affection for the Soviet experiment.
For purposes of clarity and understanding, the narratives of each have
been divided into the ollowing categc).ries:
Why They Join
Why They Stay
Why They De:ect
Knowledge of those forces to which men respond in joining, remaining in,
and departing from the Party may lay the basis for a defection program
which aims at utilizing those indivi-iiia.ls in whom the spirit of voluntary
defection is developing,
In presenting this material, each de..ecto:r has been permitted to speak
for himself in order that the. reader might capture and understand the spirit
in which he acted at each stage. This is done in the thought that others
inclining toward self'-defection in the future will follow a similar pattern.
The emotional responses, anxieties and. moods which are so much a part
of these defection processes would be lost if a brief summarization were
attempted. That would make the study cold and statistical. A voluntary
defection is an intend, ly personal matter in which men's feelings are apt to
be more vulnerable and manageable than their reasons., The tragedies and
shocks, and the emotional '~.ffects of these tragedies and shocks, are
fissures in the ideological armor which can be-exploited i, fully understood,
Only by letting these people tell their own stories in their own way can we
fully appreciate the human factor involved.
Other case histories will be published in this series when available,
The "defection" of Tito and Cucchi-Magnani'Case have been added in
order to present more recent material, and also in order to illustrate the
all-pervading theme o_ th clash and conflict between the non-Russian
Communist and the Sovi.;t system..
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II, BIOGRAPHY
There follows a brief biographical sketch of each person whose
experiences have been related.
Arthur KOESTLER
KOESTLER was born in Hungary, He is an intellectual who joined
the German Communist Party on December 319 1931, and left it in the.
spring of 1938. He was imprisoned by the Franco forces in Spain during
the Civil War. He is an author of note.
DARKE is an Englishman and was a member of the British CP for
eighteen years until his resignation in May 1951. He was not a rank-and-
file Communist but a "Cadre Leader who got his orders in confidential
form from Harry POLLITT., " He had been a member of the Party's
National Industrial Committee for ten years. He was elected the Com-
munist Party delegate to his Borough Council.
3. Douglas HYDE
HYDE is also an Englishman, and, until his resignation, was News
Editor of the London' Daily Worker, organ of the British Communist
Party
4. Freda UT.LEY
Miss UTLEY is an Englishwoman who was reared in a socialist
atmosphere in her home, She married a Russian national. She joined
the British CP in September 1927. She lived in Japan for one year
while her husband Se,.'ved the Soviet government there, For many years
she resided in Russia with her husband, and took leave of both Russia
and Communism in.1936, after her husband had been imprisoned and all
hope of regaining his liberty was lost,
Mrs, HALDANE is an Englishwoman who was "strongly inclined to.
radicalism," as she expressed sit. She married the famous Professor
J. B. S. HALDA.NE, with whom she journeyed to Russia in 1928, She
joined the British CP in 1937, worked as a voluntary underground worker
in Paris for the Comintern, and went to China as a Comintern agent.
She. is now divorced from Professor HALDANE, She defected voluntar-
ily from the British CP in 1941, after returning to England from a trip
to. the Soviet.Union as a war correspondent.
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Mir-
6, Elizabeth BENTLEY
Miss BENTLEY is an .American woman, who .became identified with
the American CP during the 1930's via the American League Against
War and Fascism, She was employed by the Italian Library of Informa-
tion, which was legitimate employment, but, through which, she was
able to pick up information which could be used by the Party She
reported the fact to the Party and was put in touch with Jacob GOLOS a
leading member of the Soviet apparatus in the United States She fell
in love with GOLOS and lived with him, She served as a courier between
GOLOS and the Washington, D. C. , members of the apparatus. She also
served as a spotter and recruiter for the Soviet apparatus. With the
death of GOLOS, difficulties developed for her with Earl BROWDER and
with the Soviet underground which eventually took her out of the movement.
7 Stuart BROWNE
BROWNE is a pseudonym for an American university professor who
joined the American CP in the 1930's and remained a member for two
years
8. Louis BUDENZ
BUDENZ is an American intellectual who joined the American CP in 11 the 1930's and defected voluntarily in 1945. During his Party career he
was Editor of the Mid-We'st Daily Record, an organ of the Party, as
well as Editor of the Daily Worker of New York City, the official organ
of the Party He also worked with 'the Soviet Intelligence apparatus in
the preliminaries which led to the murder.'of Leon TROTSKY,
9 Richard WRIGHT
WRIGHT is an American Negro and an intellectual He was a member
,of the American CP fora period of about two years during the mid-1930's
He resigned from the Party after having had considerable trouble within
its ranks because of his independence of tho.ught and action. He is an
author of note,
10. Louis FISCHER
FISCHER an Amer an and a professional journalist and writer.
He has never been a member of any political party. For many years he
was a correspondent in Russia where he became a scholar and an
authority on Soviet affairs.. Though never! identified with the Communist
Party of any country;, he was admittedly most favorably inclined toward
the Soviets until his disillusionment. He is the author of several well-
known books on world affairs.
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t CI? W as a F'renchman,, a. scholar and a writer of prominence, He
} ependently wealthy; and was never compelled to earn a living
q u h never actually a mexx,ber of the Communist Party, he was much
%-ie,rested in the ,' i-?,unist. experiment in Russia, and thought that
lyatian ,czf harms i y? lay in the Communism which he presumed to exist
the , ov t,, on brJun.eni .,. 1936,,, on the invitation of the Soviet Society
a `
;,uto.r.,s he visited Russia, His disillusionment was spontaneous and
,
,upt,o
$ is an Italian, in 1921 he took part in the founding of the
~i.CP4 He, edited, the weekly A:varguardia of Rome and the Lavora-
oTe` a, daily of Trieste, He was a member of the Italian Communist
F44erground, and has been on intimate terms with the leaders of Soviet
pean Communism. He voluntarily defected from the Com
d u, 11
ni8t Par,tyin 1930. In 1940 he became identified with the Italian
ialit arty, He has authored several books.
~ NI? is ,an Englishman, an intellectual and a poet. He is a man
t' it1 ex dent means,_ i-je was stimulated by- the political movements of
floe 1 3.0?s, and wrote "Forward From Liberalism, " This work attracted
a$t xxtion z f I1ar.'ry POLLITT of the British CP, who invited SPENDER
o.`v xt';h na ,POLL T cgxnme tei to SPENDER- -"I was interested in
ur book What str;ck me about it was the difference between your
roa'eh to Comrnunism and mine, Yours is purely intellectual " As a
. 'su t of this meeting; SPENDER became a member of the British CP
and regained a member for a few weeks during the winter of 1936-1937.
dMAS Q
rFw.#`. br k,
4,u
rs~ A.SSIG. was, born in Vienna, There she met and married
h't EX.R who had assisted in the founding of the Austrian CP at
e ase o World War I, and who later became a prop- ient figure in
1
eeXnn CP, then in the AmericanCP, and then back into the StD
:Easy ermany, Through her Communist contacts in Europe, she int
tis hard OR.GE who introduced her to xA
cq
~
a RES1he ler a one ofe d $n ers of the !'oviet espionage
ce
~
~a
4aratus in Western turope for many years., Bede MASSING served
,5$x} his espionage. work, and later served the Soviet apparatus in
nted ates, $he obtained her American citizenship through her
e to her second husband .who was an American citizen: In-her
to her defection, she was urged to return to the
afttr prior
xet Onion for rehabilitation, This she did; but with her return to the
tilted States she voluntarily defected.,
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15, Whittaker CHAMBERS
CHAMBERS is an American who joined the American CP in 1925
He worked on the staff of the Daily Worker, official organ of the Party
In 1929 he voluntarily left the Party for two years. In that period he
did some writing which appeared in The New Masses, and which so
attracted the attention of Moscow, because of its revolutionary approach,
that he was invited back into the movement and was made editor of The
New Masses. With the preparation of the third, issue under his editor-
ship, he was drawn into the Soviet espionage apparatus where he worked
for the ensuing six years, During that six years, he became acquainted
with many of the members of the Soviet -underground in Washington and
New York,. He acted, in part, as a courier, picking up documents which
the Washington nets were able to obtain and making the contents available
to his Russian superiors One of his principal contacts in Washington
was Alger HISS, CHAMBERS rose to notoriety in his testimony before
the House Committee on Un-American Activities; and in. two trials
against HISS,
In 1938 , CHAMBERS voluntarily defected from the movement Zn
1939, he took employment with Time Inc.. and in the next several years
rose to occupy the position of Senior Editor. He forfeited this position
when his testimony against HISS developed a storm of controversy.
He is the author of "Witness," an autobiography disclosing his career
in the Communist movement.
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?he,ollowing is a summation of the reasons given by the persons
vho ire the subject of this analysis for having joined the Party, or
lava g embraced the Soviet experiment,
the brotherhood of man' fulfillment of
aspirations, the full emancipation of
man, liberty, unity of racial groups.
Arthur, KQESTLER
P?_ Eco;no,mc criss-- poverty, misery, unemployment, human
War,
'degradation, insecurity,
o,cial environment- -religious or other restraints; family
discipline or attitude; drifting with no
purpose or sense of direction; a sense
ofo,infcriority; class differences; a sense
of ,social guilt; frustrations,
An improved society freedom, social justice, equality,
in December, 1931, at the age of 26, .1 joined the
nunst party of Germany
,e in, Its roots reach back into childhood.
4isijitegrating society thirsting for faith, But the'day when I
vas'givieni r ty Party card was merely the clirrax of a development
vhic, bard st. rte.d long before I. , heard the names of Marx and
111 became converted- because I was ripe for it and lived in a
was ripe to be converted, as a result of my personal case -
iistory; thousands of other members of the intelligentsia and the
ale classes of my generation were ripe for it, by virtue of
tll personal case-histories; but, however much these differed
o f 5 to case, they had a common denominator; the rapid
dis,i,itegration of moral values, of the pre -1914 pattern of life in
postwar Europe, and the simultaneous lure of the new revelation
whip). had come from the East. I joined the Party (which to this
ay' remains' 'the' Party, for all of us who once belonged to it) in
13l';
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KOESTLER points out. that factors were at work in the shaping
of his thinking. In 1914, and as a result of the war, his father was
ruined financially and never regained his feet: KOESTLER
'developed a "strong dislike for the obviously rich." He states--
"Thus I projected a personal predicament onto the structure of
society;" though this type of thinking "did not, for a number of
years, crystallize into a political creed, " He speaks of a guilt
complex which he developed, stating that as a youngster, he felt
guilty when his folks bought him the books and toys which he knew
they could not afford "Every contact with people poorer than my-
self was unbearable: " He disliked the rich, not because they could
afford to buy things, but because they were able to do so without a
guilty conscience, He states that--"A considerable proportion of
the middle classes in central Europe was, like ourselves, ruined
by the inflation of the 'twenties It was the beginning of Europe's
decline, This disintegration of the middle strata of society started
the fatal process of polarization which continues to this day. The
pauperized bourgeois became rebels of the Right or Left.
In generalizing on conversion to a revolutionary faith.. KOESTLER
states--"It is true that the case -histories of most revolutionaries
and reformers reveal a neurotic conflict with family or society;" and
that "All true faith involves a revolt against the believer's social
environment,"
Bob DA.RKE
"But I was hot for the cause. I and my family had felt the
rough edge of capitalism,.. I hated it for its exploitation, its bitter
cruelty and its relentless persecution of the unfortunate: In the
face of this hatred I did not stop to ask myself whether this little
society of cafe-revolutionaries had either the wit or ability to
change the face of the earth."
"Until I joined the Party I was drifting: My father had taught
me to trust in trade unionism. My brother John had taught me that
a man was not a man until he fought for what he believed was right,
Between the two of them they helped me to make up my mind "'
"By 1933 I had seen enough in the East End to convince me that
something violent, something drastic was needed., There was mass
unemployment Fascist street corner meetings were held every
night; there were broken heads, Jew-baiting, all the ugly; dirty,
mean business of worker fighting worker."
"The simple question. 'Why do people join the Party?' is
,perhaps as impossible to answer in general terms as another ques-
tion: 'Why do people leave the Party?' In my own case I think that
the same answer can be given to each question. . I joined the Party
because I could ho longer tolerate a system which I believed to be
bad, Party propaganda had told me that that system was doomed
anyway and n.-y efforts would hasten its end, I wanted to work for
the improvement of society for freedom, justice, progress, and
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that Communism will not bring them, "
the. full expression of Man's talent and ability, I still want to work
for these thgs, but 1 know that 1 cannot do so inside the Party,
dtwas indignation at the consequences of economic crisis,
a t'evu`lsion a the :??.;,,-e language, "the last s .ra.w"
?