861.111/750
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to report the unusual circumstances of the departure of certain American citizens from the Soviet Union as an example of the treatment accorded foreign residents of this country who have not acquired Soviet citizenship.
Mr. Alexander Bogrow, a naturalized citizen of Polish origin, the bearer of Departmental passport No. 160486 issued January 4, 1935, was issued an exit visa valid until December 8, 1937, when he recently applied for an extension of his vid na zhitelstvo (Soviet residence permit as issued to foreigners). Mr. Bogrow stated that he immediately protested to the appropriate authorities against his forced departure from the Soviet Union but was unable to obtain any information regarding the reason for the issuance of the exit visa in his case.
It appears that Mr. Alexander Bogrow came to the Soviet Union on July 27, 1936, and soon found employment as a chemical engineer in the Central Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Fuels and Lubricants at Moscow. He later married a Soviet girl who is a physician in the reserve list of the Red Army. Mr. Bogrow did not apply for Soviet citizenship, but he planned to continue his residence in this country. His employers advised him that they knew of no reason why he should have been given an exit visa. He wrote to Mikhail I. Kalinin, President of the All-Union Central Executive Committee, requesting to be permitted to remain in the Soviet Union [Page 507] until preparations might be made to take his wife to the United States, but his petition was denied.
Mrs. Martha Louise Schwartz, née Heintz, was also issued an exit visa, on November 24, 1937, by the militsiya at Gorki, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, when she applied for an extension of her vid na zhitelstvo.
Mrs. Schwartz was born at Buffalo, New York, June 14, 1908, and came to the Soviet Union in May 1932 as a commercial artist. On April 4, 1933, she married Boris E. Schwartz, a Soviet citizen employed as engineer at the automobile plant at Gorki, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but she retained her American nationality and was currently in possession of a valid American passport. Her husband, who had been trained in the United States under the auspices of the Soviet Government, was arrested by the Soviet authorities on October 15, 1937, during a purge of the Gorki automobile plant. The Soviet authorities searched her apartment on November 16, 1937, at 4:30 a.m., and confiscated several American magazines and some American phonograph records, without stating the object of the search. She was transferred to a smaller apartment in the outskirts of the city, and given to understand that her husband would not return soon. Mrs. Schwartz desired to remain in the Soviet Union in order to determine the welfare of her husband who, she believed was possibly accused of some of the usual offenses, such as sabotage, espionage, et cetera, but she was forced to leave the country without any definite information concerning the outcome of his detention.
These cases are only examples of the treatment manifested toward many similar American citizens who have entered into the life of this country but who have at the same time preserved their American citizenship, and are indicative of the policy being adopted by the Soviet Government to eliminate foreign residents who have not proved to be useful in the economic or social structure of this country. There has been a marked tendency on the part of the Soviet officials during the past few months to cause foreign residents in the Soviet Union who are not needed by the Soviet Government as technical experts to depart from the Soviet Union. Many American citizens and other nationals whose contracts have expired during recent months have found that they are unable to obtain a new contract or an extension of their vid na zhitelstvo. Residence permits are now being renewed by the Soviet authorities for from one to three months instead of for periods of six months to one year as was the custom previously.
Respectfully yours,