The Kasenkina case () was a 1948 Cold War-era political scandal associated with the name of Oksana Kasenkina (), a teacher of chemistry at the Soviet school in New York. Kasenkina disappeared and was believed by the American public to have been abducted by Soviet officials after wishing to seek asylum in the United States. The events were sensationalized by the media and became part of the Red Scare. In reality, the most likely explanation of events is that Kasenkina suffered from a series of unfortunate events where she became a political chess piece during an unstable and tense period of international relations, and being left with a poor set of available options, facing deception from multiple sides, decided upon what was familiar and chose to return to the Soviet Union. The full scope of events only became clear 50 years later when the top-secret documents from the State Department and FBI were declassified and released to the public.State Department Decimal File, 1945–1949, Box 3069 NACP
The events of the scandal took place in the context of McCarthyismPhilip Deery, Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York, Fordham University Press, 2013 and the Berlin Blockade, and received wide coverage in the mass media, and continues to receive attention today.Big Town, Big Time: A New York Epic: 1898–1998, Jay Maeder, chapter 105Cold War Captives. Imprisonment, Escape and Brainwashing, Susan Carruthers, University of California Press, 2009, Chapter 1Today in History – Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008, Red Bluff Daily News www.redbluff daily news.com>articleRobert A. Lovett and the development of American Air Power, David M. Jordan, McFarland & Co. Inc., 2019 Ellis M. Zacharias, a retired Rear Admiral and senior Intelligence Officer of the US Navy, wrote:Ellis M. Zacharias, Behind Closed Doors: the Secret History of the Cold War, G. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1950, Chapter 8, pp. 84–86
"Bigoted individuals should not be allowed dominant influence on the delicate conduct of our foreign relations – but soon it became evident that such persons had gained complete control of the case. By inspiring headlines and stimulating the news stories below them, they drove the State Department to a diplomatic action whose severity was out of proportion to the incident".
Kasenkina's disappearance
After WWII, profound economic and political differences led to a confrontation between the allies that had defeated Nazi Germany. In 1946 the United States, United Kingdom, and France unified their occupation zones in Germany. The Marshall Plan was introduced to support the economic recovery of Western Europe and stop the expansion of Communism. In retaliation, the Soviet Government began the Berlin Blockade (June 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949) by halting all surface traffic communications (road, railroad, and canal transport) to West Berlin, which was located 100 miles (160 km) inside Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany. Diplomatic negotiations on the terms of lifting the blockade were moving slowly. As tensions continued to mount, the Soviets began to reduce the number of experts they sent to the United States.
In June 1948, the Soviet school in New York was closed on orders from Moscow. All teachers and students were to return to the USSR by September. On July 31, when the steamer "Pobeda" was scheduled to sail, the former headmaster and math teacher Mikhail Samarin was reported missing along with his wife (an English teacher) and their 3 children. Also missing was the 52-year-old chemistry teacher Oksana Kasenkina. On August 9, Samarin arrived at an FBI office and requested asylum for himself and his family, which was granted.New York Times, August 9, 1948, pp. 1 & 4, Russian asks protection of U.S.New York World-Telegram, August 20, 1948
For 50 years and political reasons, the US State Department held the documents of the Kasenkina case as classified and top-secret. The documents declassified in 1998 and were made available to the public at the National Archives of the United States show that three days before her departure, at different times, two Russian-speaking men, chemist Dr. Alexander Korzhinsky and Leo Castello, independently started a conversation with Kasenkina on a park bench close to her place of residency. Korzhinsky invited her to his apartment for dinner; she refused to eat but complained that she did not want to return to the USSR.New York Daily Mirror, Aug.21, 1948, pp. 1, 6; Well, Where's the FBI? Asks Tutor 'Kidnaper' He advised her to seek help at the office of the anti-Soviet newspaper "The New Russian Word". On July 31, Vladimir Zenzinov, a journalist and former member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, took her to Reed farm in Valley Cottage belonging to the Tolstoy Foundation. The President of the Foundation, countess Alexandra Tolstaya, provided Kasenkina shelter and a job. The teacher worked in the kitchen and dining room serving farmworkers, many of whom previously served in the White Movement and the Russian Liberation Army and therefore distrusted the Soviet teacher.New York Daily Mirror, Aug. 25, 1948, p. 3; "Tolstoy Farm is land of promise for Anti-Reds", by Rodney Stahl and James Carter
Letter to the Soviet consul After five days at the farm, Kasenkina stopped a passing driver with a vegetable cart and secretly smuggled out a handwritten letter to the Consul-General of the USSR. On August 6, 1948, Consul Jacob M. Lomakin received the five-page muddled handwritten letter in which she complained of loneliness and a suicidal mood. Excerpts from the letter read: "the reaction of the already undermined organism has set in. You never considered it necessary to speak frankly with me... I was in despair, ready to commit suicide... . Finally, they began to persecute me, apparently being aware of my state of mind... . And then just before my departure, it seemed that they began to pay some attention to me, but I was already warned of my condition... ." Kasenkina used propaganda clichés about loyalty to the dictatorship of the working class, "devotion and love for the Fatherland and her "hatred for traitors."
The letter contained no information on how she came to the farm. The flow of the letter was disjointed, and concluded with a plea to the Consul: "I implore you, I implore you, don’t let me perish here. I have lost my will-power."Consulate-General of Russia in New York City The unsigned letter ended with the handwritten address of the farm.
Kasenkina departs with the consul On August 7, before starting to the farm, Lomakin called the Missing Persons Bureau, Police Dept of New York and asked for support. According to The New York Times,The New York Times, August 8, 1948, pp. 1, 48; Russian Factions here, War over "Kidnapping of Woman, by Alexander Feinberg Capt. John J. Cronin confirmed the call from the Consulate at 12:15 pm. "He said that the Russian Consul General was going to Reed Farm to get a woman who was in a highly nervous state and asked for help." Capt. Cronin informed the New City Barracks nearest to Reed farm. A trooper was dispatched to the farm, but did not arrive until after the car sent by the consulate for Kasenkina had already departed.
On August 12, 1948, Countess Alexandra Tolstaya testified under oath at the New York Supreme Court and described what transpired. A black Buick executive car with a driver carrying the Consul, the vice-consul Zot Chepurnykh and stenographer named Maria Kharlamova arrived, and Kasenkina took her suitcase and walked out to meet them. Countess Tolstaya ordered 12 men to surround the diplomat's car. She called Kasenkina into the house, locked the door and tried to convince the teacher not to leave with the Soviets. Kasenkina insisted on leaving, repeating – "I must go, I must go". Upon Kasenkina's insistence, Tolstaya told the men not to hold the car, since Kasenkina decided to leave with the Consul "of her own free will."Official Memorandum – US Government. National Archives Administration, Washington, DC, document FW 702.6111/8-948, State Department Decimal File, 1945–49, Box 3060, RG 59, NACP)
Press conference at the consulate Upon returning to the consulate, Lomakin invited a large group of journalists. In an emergency press conference Kasenkina described how she was drugged and kidnapped by "White Russian bandits". Lomakin showed the envelope and Kasenkina's handwritten letter. He read aloud extracts from the letter in English translation. The photostatic copy was given to the United States Department of State and Federal Bureau of Investigation. On August 8, all major US newspapers released photos from the press conference, and The New York TimesThe New York Times, August 8, 1948, pp. 1, 48; Russian Factions here, War over "Kidnapping of Woman, by Alexander Feinberg and New Herald TribuneNew York Herald Tribune, August 8, 1948, pp. 1, 29, Thiller: Red vs White; Soviet Consul, a Countess, F.B.I. in it, by Margaret Parton published detailed reports. Countess A. Tolstaya stated that she was against providing shelter to Kasenkina believing she was sent as a spy to determine the location of the Samarins.New York Post, Home News, August 9, 1948, Soviet Teacher in Hiding Another newspaper printed a statement by Congressman Karl Mundt, a member of the HUAC requiring that Kasenkina should be questioned as a witness of USSR espionage activities.New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 9, 1948, "Mundt Seeks Right to Quiz Red Teacher"
Headlines of other newspapers claimed that the teacher was kidnapped from her hiding place at the farm of anti-communists and the letter to the Consul was called a fake. The Consul gave the photocopy of the letter into the hands of the representatives of the U.S. State Department, hoping for a fair resolution of the conflict. Publication of the letter would demonstrate that Kasenkina came to the Consulate of "her own free will". The press and radio accused Lomakin of kidnapping, and of faking the letter. Journalists and anti-Soviet demonstrators surrounded the building continuously for days.
According to the memoirs of Kasenkina, ghost written by anticommunist writer Isaac Don Levine, she had a private room and moved freely within the consulate.Cold War Captives. Imprisonment, Escape and Brainwashing, Susan Carruthers, University of California Press, 2009, Chapter 1, 55Oksana Kasenkina, Leap to Freedom, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1949, p. 282 On August 12, former New York Democratic Congressman and New York State Supreme Justice Samuel Dickstein issued a habeas corpus writ ordering the Consul General to produce Kasenkina to the Supreme Court for questioning the next day. Lomakin refused, stating that the teacher was sick. Dickstein responded: "he would order the sheriff to seize Mrs. Kasenkina if necessary. Immunity given to Lomakin and his staff does not extend to the teacher".New York Herald Tribune, August 12, 1948, Writ Orders Mrs.Kosenkina be brought into Court Today, by Charles Grutzner In 1999, declassified Soviet files revealed that Dickstein, known as the "father of McCarthyism", for many years was a paid agent of the Soviet secret service agency NKVD. The file documents indicate that his handlers gave him a code name "crook" ("zhulik" in Russian) for his efforts to extract as much money as possible for his services.Weinstein, Allen; Vassiliev, Alexander, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – The Stalin Era. Modern Library, pp. 140–150. New York Times, May 22, 2013; "A Soviet spy in Congress still has his street", by Sam Rogers
Fall from consulate window