Aleksandr Feklisov

Aleksandr Semyonovich Feklisov was the KGB Case Officer who recruited Julius Rosenberg and Klaus Fuchs, among others. Feklisov worked as a KGB case officer in the Russian consulate office in New York from 1940-1946. His supervisor was Senior Case Officer Anatoli Yatskov (alias Yakovlev). Part of Feklisov's duties included recruitment of agent prospects from among sympathetic Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and its auxiliary secret apparatus to engage in espionage. Rosenberg was among these recruits. In the period from 1943 to 1946, Feklisov reports at least 50 meetings with Julius Rosenberg.

Feklisov stated Ethel Rosenberg, as a "probationer", did not meet directly with Soviet Agent handlers though she assisted Julius's activities and the product of other members of the group. In August 1946 Feklisov returned to the USSR. By the late 1940s, Feklisov was transferred to the London Rezidentura. Eventually Feklisov was transferred back to the United States and became the Washington, D.C. Rezident, or KGB Station Chief from 1960 –1964. His cover name at that time was Aleksandr Fomin. As KGB Rezident, Feklisov (Fomin) proposed what became the basis for resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the removal of missiles from Cuba in exchange for a promise that the United States not invade the island nation.

References

• Feklisov, Alexandre, The Man Behind the Rosenbergs: Memoirs of the KGB Spymaster Who Also Controlled Klaus Fuchs and Helped Resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis, New York: Enigma, 2001.