Material from a variety of reliable sources now conclusively shows
that the Rosenbergs were the center of a ring of agents that provided
the Soviet Union with technical and military information, including
some information on the nuclear program. They were not, however,
as important to the Soviet covert intelligence attack on the nuclear
weapons program as either Klaus Fuchsor Ted Hall.
The Rosenbergs were Stalinists who believed they were serving an
international movement while betraying the interests of their own
country. Other members of the ring, as well as Morris andLona Co-
hen, who supported their espionage, fled to the Soviet Union. It was
the fate of the Rosenbergs to wait too long before fleeing the United
States, and they were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
in June 1950. Their trial became an international cause celebre, as
many liberals and leftists believed the trials were politically moti-
vated. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of David
Greenglass, while refusing to use evidence from top secret intercepts
of Soviet intelligence messages in open court. This decision subse-
quently raised questions about the trial and the subsequent verdict.
The jury’s verdict of guilt and the judge’s death sentence created an
international movement for clemency, which the Soviet intelligence
services exploited to discredit the United States. The Rosenbergs
were executed in 1953.
The Rosenberg case revolves around three distinct issues: Were
they Soviet spies? Did they receive a fair trial? Was the death sen-
tence justified? Almost all the documentary evidence indicates they
were committed spies. Information on the trial and sentencing proce-
dure suggests there were considerable irregularities, in part the result
of an overzealous prosecution, in part due to an incompetent defense.
The sentence reflected both the tenor of the times and the desire of
the judge and the prosecution team to use the trial to send a political
message. See also ENORMOZ; FEKLISOV, ALEKSANDR.ROZENBLIUM, ANNA ANATOLIEVNA (c. 1900–?).An NKVD
doctor at Lefortovo prison, Rozenblium nursed tortured prisoners back
to health and shielded many from torture sessions. She documented for
the NKVD that 49 prisoners had been tortured to death in the prison in
the short time she labored there. In January 1939 she was arrested on226 •ROZENBLIUM, ANNA ANATOLIEVNA (c. 1900–?)06-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 226