Kasenkina's case

The government of the USSR from June 24, 1948 completely blocked transit to West Berlin through the Soviet zone in Germany . The blockade of Berlin sharply aggravated the political situation. Difficult diplomatic negotiations were held on the conditions for lifting the blockade. Due to the aggravation of relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR began to reduce the number of Soviet specialists seconded to the United States .

In June 1948, an order came from Moscow : to close the Soviet school in New York . Before the start of the new school year, all teachers and students were supposed to return to the USSR. On the day of the departure of the ship “Victory”, July 31, the former school principal, Mikhail Samarin, with his family and chemistry teacher, fifty-two-year-old Oksana Kassenkina, disappear independently of each other ^[10] . Samarin immediately turns to the FBI and asks for the family political asylum that he is granted.

Kasenkina’s behavior was inadequate, which became the reason for a major international scandal. The US State Department for 50 years kept the documents in the case of Kasenkina under the stamp of strict secrecy ^[11] .

From the documents declassified in 1998, it follows that three days before departure, in Central Park in New York , two supposedly random passers-by, Castello and Korzhinsky, at different times speak Russian with Kassenkina. The chemist, Alexander Korzhinsky, invites her to his home, where he finds out that she does not want to return to the USSR. He advises her to contact the editorial office of the anti-Soviet newspaper New Russian Word . On the day the Pobeda steamboat sailed, an LDC employee, a former Social Revolutionary, Vladimir Zenzinov , brought her to the Tolstoy Foundation farm, where she was given refuge. On a white emigrant farm, she works in the kitchen and dining room, serving farm workers.

After five days on the farm, she secretly sent a letter to the Consul General of the USSR.

On August 6, Yakov Mironovich Lomakin received a long chaotic letter from Kasenkina complaining of loneliness and suicidal mood. In a letter, Kassenkina used propaganda cliches about fidelity to the cause of the dictatorship of the proletariat, about love for the motherland and hatred of traitors, not a word about America, except for a neglect of the "capitalist system". Disordered thoughts jumped from the past to the present ... Further: "I am infinitely admired by you as a person worthy of our Motherland ..." The unequivocal meaning of the letter is a request to pick it up from the farm. Literally, the last sentence of the letter: “I beg you, I beg you again, do not let me die here. I am deprived ” ^[12] . There was not a word in the letter about how she got to the farm.

On August 7, Yakov Lomakin, vice consul Zot Chepurnykh and an employee of the consulate who knew Kassenkina well, went to the address indicated in the letter. Previously, by telephone, John Cronin, head of the New York Police Department Bureau of the Search for Missing People, is informed of the reason for the trip to the farm and asked for escort. Captain Cronin promises to notify the police department closest to the farm about the Consul's visit.

Executive car arrives at the farm. From an interview with the President of the Tolstoy Foundation, Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstoy, it is known that Kassenkina packed up and went out to meet Lomakin. By order of Tolstoy, 12 men surround the car. Countess Tolstaya calls Kassenkina into the house, locks the door and in vain tries to convince the teacher not to leave with Soviet diplomats. Kassenkina does not listen to arguments, repeats “be what will be” and wants to leave. Only after making sure of her inflexibility, Alexandra Lvovna ordered the workers not to detain the car, since Kassenkina decided to leave with the Consul “of her own free will”. A policeman notified by Kronin arrives 20 minutes late. Alexandra Tolstaya claims to the local police that the woman who was looking for repatriation in the USSR from the Shelter Fund was taken away by consular car ^[13] .

Lomakin brings Kassenkin to the Consulate and after 3 hours he receives a large group of journalists. In this urgently convened press conference , Kassenkina is participating. Lomakin shows an envelope and a letter written on 5 pages by hand. He reads excerpts from it in an English translation and transmits a photostatic copy of the letter for analysis by FBI forensics.

The next morning, August 8, all major American newspapers publish photos of this press conference, and correspondents for The New York Times (Alexander Fainberg) and the Herald Tribune (Margaret Parton) publish detailed reports ^[14] . Separate articles print a statement by Congressman Carl Mundt , a member of the Commission on the Investigation of Anti-American Activities . He demands that Kassenkina be questioned as a witness to the Soviet espionage activities. For his reasons, she was a confidant, only trusted teachers could teach Russian children ^[15] .

The headlines of many newspapers say that the teacher was abducted “with the use of force” from her hiding place on a farm of anti-communists . The letter is considered as fake .

Professor of History, Susan Carruthers, in the book “Prisoners of the Cold War: Imprisonment, Escape and Brainwashing” ^[16] , believes that Lomakin gave a photocopy of the letter to the US Department of State, counting on a fair resolution to the conflict . The publication of the letter would clearly testify that there was no kidnapping - “kidnapping” -. ^[17]

Despite the correctness of Lomakin's actions, the press and radio accuse him of kidnapping Kassenkina, deny the existence of the letter, or call the letter a fake. The consulate day and night is besieged by journalists and the anti-Soviet crowd warmed up by publications. At this time, according to Kasenkina’s memoirs ^[18] , she freely moves around the consulate building, she is provided with a radio and newspapers are brought. Susan Carruthers writes that teacher’s memoirs, like the “memoirs” of other defectors, were stenciled using popagandist cliches by one author, Isaac Don Levin </ref>.

Five days later, on August 12, Kassenkina falls from the high third floor onto the concrete of the courtyard at the Consulate. Police take her to the hospital. Susan Carruthers, on the basis of previously classified documents, writes that in the first 6 hours in the hospital, Kassenkina explained her act by saying that she wanted to end everything, “be what happens”. There were no applications for political asylum. Consulate officers were not allowed into the hospital. On August 28, BBC documentaries filmed an interview with Kasenkina - “Mrs. Kasenkina Tells Her Story " ^[19] . The teacher lying on a hospital bed, in response to a question about the reason for her fall, repeats the phrase from her letter: - "I have repeatedly contacted you, tell me frankly ...". Her words are interrupted by the voice of the translator, and then the commentator, who broadcast about her "jump to freedom."

For decades, journalists have made money on the “Kassenkina case” without explaining the reasons for the inadequacy of her behavior. In a short time of 11 days, she radically changed her life three times. Later, Kassenkina confirms that she wrote a letter to the Consul General, but is trying to distort its meaning and abandon individual paragraphs .

For 50 years, the State Department has kept classified the text of the letter and other documents. FBI graphologists confirm that the letter was written entirely by Kasenkina ^[20] . The letter and other documents on the “Case” since 1998 are available in the US National Archives and, in part, on the Internet ^[21] . Kassenkin, despite the demands of the Ambassador of the USSR A.S. Panyushkin, remained in the United States. She was brought to participate in anti-Soviet rallies, but she could not speak, in an interview she answered in a monosyllabic way. In 1951, she received a residence permit, and in 1956 - American citizenship; died of heart failure on July 24, 1960 in Miami ^[10] .

On August 19, President Truman approves the decision of the State Department to abolish the exequaturism of Consul General Lomakin. He is declared a persona non grata on the grounds that he abducted a woman and kept her in custody. The abolition of the exequaturity of a high-ranking diplomat is a rare decision and is always perceived as a blow to the country's prestige . In response, the USSR Government ceases negotiations on Berlin and closes consulates in New York and San Francisco , which, according to the protocol, means the immediate closure of US consulates in Leningrad and Vladivostok . Consular relations between the USSR and the USA were restored only after 24 years in 1972 . The retired rear admiral , Ellis M. Zaharias, wrote in his book ^[4] : “Lomakin’s announcement as a non-grata person was a poorly thought out and untimely action by the US State Department.” In addition to closing consulates, according to Zakharias, the Kremlin’s political and military plans have changed dramatically and for a long time. Stalin ends the negotiations "on Berlin", and this diplomatic demarche cost the United States the many millions of dollars spent on creating the " air bridge " necessary to supply food to the 2.5 million people of West Berlin.

• The Cold War, The Case of Kassenkina, 1948 and 50 years later
• "The Bloody Red Streak", Trefor David, The Britons Pub. Soc., London, 1951 (unavailable link)
• Radio "Liberty" 1957. History of Oksana Kassenkina.
• Radio Liberty 2008. The Case of the United States Defector Oksana Kassenkina.
• Top Secret Magazine.
• Documents - Jacob Lomakin - Sites -Google.