On November 29, 1960, Dr. Robert Soblen, 60, a psychiatrist at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York State, was arrested on espionage charges. He was arraigned before US Judge William B. Herlands and granted bail of $75,000. The spy’s arrest caused a press sensation, particularly as he was the brother of convicted Soviet agent, Jack Soblen.
Named in the grand jury indictments were six co-conspirators including the late Lavrenti P. Beria, head of the Stalinist GPU; Vasily Zubilin, chief of GPU espionage operations in the United States; and 11 other persons, four of them Americans. Although they were indicted as co-conspirators, they were not defendants in the trial. Among them was Floyd Cleveland Miller. On July 5, 1961, he was called as a government witness to testify against Soblen. After he was sworn in and the formalities of court procedure explained to him, Miller gave an account of his career as a Stalinist spy. This is the first time Miller’s story has been told in full.
Miller was a writer, both fiction and nonfiction. Until the year of the trial his most successful works were The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower and The Orderly Disorderly House. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, went to school in Michigan, and traveled to New York in 1934. They must have been rough years for a struggling writer: he made a living writing “soap operas” and mystery stories for the radio network WMCA.
In the summer of 1936, he joined the American Communist Party, where he was assigned to the radio unit. In evidence he explained the nature of his work:
Miller: Since I was writing soap operas at the time, I joined the unit that included the arts in radio, and the activity consisted of writing agit prop, what we call agit prop, which is propaganda for the party.
Judge Herlands: I didn’t catch that phrase.
Miller: Agit prop.
Judge Herlands: How do you spell that—a-g-i-t?
Miller: Agitational propaganda.
Judge Herlands: Is that one word?
Miller: It is abbreviated, agitational propaganda.
Judge Herlands: Agit prop?
Miller: Yes.
Once the court got over some of these terminological hurdles, Miller got down to explaining the hard stuff.
Q: Now, did there come a time when you received an assignment to do particular work for the Communist Party?
Miller: For the International, I assume, sir, you mean?
Q: Describe what you did.
Miller: I was recruited out of the American Party to do what was called—what I was told was opposition work for the CI, the Communist International.
Q: And could you tell us what you did, just briefly?
Miller: I was assigned to what was called opposition work. This meant opposition to the Stalinists in the left, the Left Opposition, and my career was primarily concerned with the Trotskyites.
Q: Who supervised your work in this connection?
Miller: The first supervisor I had was a man known to me as Joe.
Q: Do you know his true name?
Miller: I have subsequently learned that it is Gregory Rabinowitz, I believe.
He was the head of the Russian Red Cross in the US. Gregory Rabinowitz is not new to us. He was introduced to Louis Budenz, editor of the Stalinist Daily Worker, as “Mr. Roberts” and in turn Budenz introduced him to Ruby Weil as “John Rich.” It was Rabinowitz who persuaded Miss Weil to accompany Sylvia Ageloff on a visit to Europe in 1938 during which the fateful meeting between Miss Ageloff and Trotsky’s assassin, Ramon Mercader, was arranged.
“Joe” became Miller’s controller in “the late fall of ’36,” which is only a few months after he joined the CP.
Q: Can you describe briefly some of the assignments that you carried out?
Miller: The first assignment was to cover a wiretap on the home telephone of the head of the Trotskyite party, a man by the name of Cannon.
It was installed by a Stalinist agent named Joseph Katz, whom Miller knew as “Gordon.”
Judge Herlands: And you sat on the tap?
Miller: That is right. It was installed in an apartment I occupied.
Under cross examination, Miller told more about the bug on Cannon’s telephone.
Q: And in the furtherance of your activities ... you also indulged in wiretapping, did you not, sir?
Miller: I did.
Q: And I think you and an associate of yours tapped the wire of James Cannon, did you not, who then was head of the Socialist workers in New York?
Miller: Correct.
Q: How long was that tap on in his apartment?
Miller: Approximately one year.
Q: And in connection with that tap, as a matter of fact, you enlisted the aid of your wife to take down recordings of telephone conversations of Mr. Cannon with others, isn’t that right?
Miller: I did.
Q: Did you have any other assignments?
Miller: At the end of that I was instructed to join the Trotskyite party itself and to collect information from inside.
Q: Incidentally, what was the Trotskyite party known as in those days?
Miller: Socialist Workers Party.
Q: Socialist Workers Party?
Miller: That is right.
Q: And it was active in politics in the New York area?
Miller: Correct.
Q: After joining the Trotskyite party—incidentally, this was in an undercover capacity?
Miller: I joined the Trotskyite party openly as far as the Trotskyite party was concerned. I was a Stalinist agent with the Trotskyites.
Q: What were your assignments so far as the Trotskyite party was concerned?
Miller: At the beginning it was to get information about their plans, their political activities, and to work myself as high in the hierarchy of the party as it was possible to do.
Q: Did you transmit information concerning the party?
Miller: I did.
Q: Will you tell us the method you used in transmitting this information and particularly who, if anyone, gave you instructions in that regard?
Miller: Whoever I was contacting at the time would give me the instructions. The transmission was generally the same: A typed report in a sealed envelope concealed in a newspaper or a magazine, and upon meeting your contact they would also have a magazine or a newspaper and you would exchange magazines or newspapers during the conversation.
Q: And the report would be inside the newspaper or magazine?
Miller: Inside.
Q: Did you receive any compensation for these activities?
Miller: I did.
Q: Approximately how much?
Miller: It would fluctuate depending upon my expenses at the time. It was never less than $25 and never more than $150, approximately.
Judge Herlands: A what?
Miller: For expenses.
Judge Herlands: Was it per week or per month?
Miller: Per month.
Miller’s career inside the SWP was quite spectacular. By the time of the outbreak of World War Two he was writing regular articles on military affairs for the SWP’s magazine Fourth International under the name Michael Cort. But his most sinister work for the GPU was in an American seaman’s union. Miller told the jury how it came about.
Miller: There came a time when I was assigned to the waterfront. The Trotskyites were attempting to infiltrate a waterfront union, the Seafarer’s International union. One of their men had the position of editor of the union paper. He was to receive another assignment.
Judge Herlands: What was his name, if you recall?
Miller: I believe his last name was Gordon. It may have been a party name. He was a Trotskyite.
Judge Herlands: This brings us to what period of time approximately?
Miller: This is approximately 1941.
Judge Herlands: Go ahead.
Q: And what did you do in that capacity?
Miller: I became the editor of the Seafarers’ International union newspaper.
Q: And you continued to make reports?
Miller: I did.
Q: Specifically, what was contained in those reports?
Miller: The job that the Stalinists were concerned about at that time—this was during the war—they were concerned—they were upset about the fact that Trotskyite seamen would be sailing into Russian harbors with American supplies, particularly Murmansk. My job as a Stalinist was to keep track of the sailing of all Trotskyite seamen so a Stalinist agent would be at the port and have a surveillance on whatever Trotskyites entered the Soviet Union.
Q: And to whom did you transmit these reports?
Miller: At that time it would be alternatively “Gordon” (Joseph Katz) and the young lady, whoever I was meeting.
Q: Did there come a time when you learned the identity of the young lady you mentioned?
Miller: I have been told that it was Sylvia Getzoff.
When the defense counsel cross-examined Miller, he tried to pin down what the Stalinists would use this information for. But the US attorney interrupted a number of times and the full story never came out. The strong implication of the questions, however, was that something had happened to the Trotskyist seamen fingered by Miller. One section of the cross-examination reads:
Q: Will you tell us what you did?
Miller: I reported the Trotskyite seamen sailing on ships that were going to the Soviet Union ports. I reported these to the Communists.
Q: And I believe you also testified on direct as to what happened when these seamen would arrive in these Russian ports?
Miller: I didn’t testify to that, no, sir.
Q: Do you know?
Miller: I do.
Objection!
The Stalinists continued to be gripped by a fear of the Fourth International. Miller told the court of a visit that he was instructed to make to Mexico, where Trotsky had been hounded and ultimately killed.
Miller: The Stalinists were concerned about a colony of Spanish anarchists who had gone to Mexico, led by a man by the name of Victor Serge, and they were fearful that the Spanish anarchists and the Trotskyites were making a common front against the Stalinists. My assignment was to go to Mexico and to determine if this was true.
Q: And if you received any information in Mexico City, were you to make a report there?
Miller: I was.
Q: Would you tell us what that was, what arrangements were made?
Miller: If I was able to contact Victor Serge and to determine that it was true that there was a rapprochement between the anarchists and Trotskyites, I was to call a certain number at the Soviet Embassy and there was a set speech.
Q: The Soviet Embassy in Mexico City?
Miller: In Mexico City. And there was a set speech I was to give to identify myself, which I don’t recall, and then I would meet someone in front of a theatre and pass over the information.
Q: Incidentally, what name were you using at this time?
Miller: In which activity, in the Trotskyites or in the Stalinists?
Q: Give us the various names by which you were known.
Miller: In the Trotskyites I was known as Michael Cort. The Stalinists of course knew my name, but the name that I was using was Hal, H-a-l.
The witness recalled that before going to Mexico in the spring of 1944 his woman contact said that “her immediate superior” wanted to meet him. They went to a midtown restaurant in New York where he was introduced to a man named “Sam.”
Q: Did you later learn who Sam was?
Miller: I did.
Q: Who is Sam?
Miller: Jack Soble.
Q: Go ahead.
Miller: He gave me the instructions directly that the young lady had given me previously; that is, about the necessity of determining the relationship between the anarchists and the Trotskyites.
Q: Was there any conversation concerning a book or publication?
Miller: There was.
Q: What was that?
Miller: Trotsky had written a biography of Stalin, and it had been in the province of the American section of the Trotskyite party to get it published. There had been great delays about it, and Natalia Trotsky—Trotsky at this time had been murdered—and Natalia Trotsky was very upset about the fact that they had not had this book published. To assuage her I was to take down a microfilm of the page proof of this biography of Stalin and give it to Natalia and discuss with her the problems of publication.
Q: Whose assignment was that?
Miller: That was from the Trotskyites.
Q: Did you have any conversation with your contacts?
Miller: I did.
Q: Concerning this assignment?
Miller: It was.
Q: And you then took it to Mexico?
Miller: I gave the microphone—
Judge Herlands: You mean the microfilm?
Miller:—the microfilm to Sam prior to taking it to Mexico.
Q: Was it returned to you?
Miller: Correct.
Q: What, in brief, did you do in Mexico?
Miller: In Mexico I lived in Trotsky’s house and met with various left-wing groups, the anarchists and the Trotskyites, and discovered that in truth there was not, at that time, contact between the anarchists and the Trotskyites.
Q: How long did you stay down there?
Miller: Six weeks, approximately.
Q: How did you finance this trip?
Miller: I financed it half myself, and half from Sam (Soble).
Q: Now, when you returned to New York did you make a report?
Miller: I did.
Q: And to whom did you give this report?
Miller: I gave it to the young lady.
Q: Thereafter did you see Sam again?
Miller: I did.
Q: How often?
Miller: He became my regular contact, frequently, once a week.
Q: Did you transmit information to him?
Miller: I did.
Q: What sort of information is that?
Miller: Trotskyite information, waterfront information.
On his return to New York, Miller was introduced to a second woman agent, by the name of Lucy Booker. She, like Miller, was indicted as a co-conspirator in the Soblen spy ring, but did not appear as a co-defendant. She acted as a courier for messages to and from “Sam” from the winter of 1945, a year after Miller got back from Mexico. In the spring of 1945, “Sam” announced to Miller that he was being replaced. His cousin would be Miller’s new controller.
Q: Who was that contact?
Miller: He was introduced to me as Sam’s cousin.
Q: Do you see the individual that was known to you as Sam’s cousin in the courtroom?
Miller: I do.
Q: Would you point him out to the jury?
Miller: Sitting there at the defense table (indicating).
Judge Herlands: Well, would you step down and indicate whoever it is you are identifying? Just indicate to the jury who the person is.
(Witness leaves stand and approaches defense table.)
Miller: This gentleman (indicating).
Q: May the record show that the witness has identified the defendant Robert Soblen.
Floyd Miller’s testimony shows that he made a 25-page statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his espionage activities on May 20, 1954. As this was a high point of the McCarthyite period, it remains inexplicable why he wasn’t charged and tried. Miller’s testimony is that he ceased working for the GPU in the late fall of 1945.
Q: And did you ever resign from the International Communist Party?
Miller: I tried to disappear.
Q: Did you continue being a member?
Miller: No, sir.
Q: Did you rejoin the American Communist Party?
Miller: No, sir.
Not only did he make a full statement to the FBI in 1954, but Miller was also used to identify members of the Soble-Soblen spy ring. He was taken to FBI headquarters during the course of confrontation sessions—when witnesses are brought into a room to identify people in police custody. At these sessions, Miller identified both Soble and Soblen as his GPU controllers.
In the course of his testimony Miller emphasized that he joined the Stalinists because he had “communist” leanings, though he added: “I had not at any time done any activity against the United States government but only against the Trotskyites.”