Abstract

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the KGB and its successor SVR began a campaign to claim a large share of credit for the USSR’s development of an atomic bomb. Memoirs by KGB officers celebrated their service’s success in penetrating the American “Manhattan” project. As part of this campaign, in 1991, Vladimir Chikov, a serving KGB (later SVR) officer, published an article in Russian and English, followed by a full-length book in French (1996), German (1996), and Russian (1997) on the exploits of an atomic superspy code named “Perseus,” said to still be alive and unknown to American security. “Perseus” was described as a senior physicist who was part of the Manhattan project from its origins, working first at the Chicago “Med” lab with Enrico Fermi and later at Los Alamos with Robert Oppenheimer. Veteran KGB officer Anatoly Yatskov, who had supervised several spies in the Manhattan project, added his endorsement of the “Perseus” story. For years, amateur and professional researchers used the clues in Chikov’s writings to search for the identity of “Perseus,” but no strong candidate emerged. With the opening of the Venona decryptions in 1995, most professional historians became convinced that “Perseus” was a KGB/SVR fiction, but “Perseus” lingers still with the wider public as a yet unidentified Soviet atomic spy. This article points to the internal contradictions and impossible assertions in Chikov’s “Perseus” story, as well as how Venona shows that Chikov took elements of the story of a real Soviet spy, Theodor Hall, to construct the “Perseus” myth. Hall was a junior scientist without an advanced degree who worked at Los Alamos in 1944 and 1945 (never at Chicago), but Chikov moved Hall’s story back to 1942 and elevated him from a junior figure to a senior scientist and associate of Fermi and Oppenheimer who, in Chikov’s words, gave Stalin “the Manhattan project on a serving plate.” Further, Chikov gave “Perseus” numerous attributes that precluded the still living Hall from ever being a candidate for the atomic spy “Perseus.”

摘要

在 1980 年代末和 1990 年代初，克格勃及其继任者 SVR 开始了一场运动，为苏联研制原子弹争取很大一部分功劳。克格勃官员的回忆录庆祝了他们的服务在渗透美国“曼哈顿”项目方面取得的成功。作为这场运动的一部分，1991 年，现役克格勃（后来的 SVR）官员弗拉基米尔·奇科夫（Vladimir Chikov）发表了一篇俄文和英文文章，随后又出版了一本法文（1996 年）、德文（1996 年）和俄文（ 1997）关于名为“珀尔修斯”的原子超级间谍代码的利用，据说它仍然活着，美国安全部门不知道。“珀尔修斯”被描述为一名高级物理学家，他从一开始就是曼哈顿项目的一部分，首先在芝加哥“医学”实验室与恩里科·费米一起工作，后来在洛斯阿拉莫斯与罗伯特·奥本海默一起工作。克格勃资深官员阿纳托利·亚茨科夫，曾在曼哈顿计划中监督过几名间谍的人补充说他对“珀尔修斯”故事的认可。多年来，业余和专业研究人员利用奇科夫著作中的线索寻找“珀尔修斯”的身份，但没有出现强有力的候选人。随着 1995 年 Venona 解密的公开，大多数专业历史学家开始相信“珀尔修斯”是 KGB/SVR 的小说，但“珀尔修斯”仍然作为一个身份不明的苏联原子间谍在广大公众中徘徊。这篇文章指出了奇科夫的“珀尔修斯”故事中的内在矛盾和不可能的断言，以及维诺纳如何表明奇科夫是如何利用真实的苏联间谍西奥多·霍尔的故事元素来构建“珀尔修斯”神话的。霍尔是一名没有高级学位的初级科学家，曾于 1944 年和 1945 年在洛斯阿拉莫斯工作（从未在芝加哥），但奇科夫将霍尔的故事追溯到 1942 年，并将他从一个初级人物提升为高级科学家和费米和奥本海默的同事，用奇科夫的话来说，他给了斯大林“盘子上的曼哈顿计划”。此外，奇科夫赋予“珀尔修斯”许多属性，使仍然活着的霍尔永远无法成为原子间谍“珀尔修斯”的候选人。