Jacob Spolansky was a Ukrainian-born American who rotated between government and private (corporate) investigative agencies as "part of a class of professional spies fostered by the growth of anticommmunism during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and first

Red Scare A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which ar ...

, perhaps best known as "chief of the '

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

squad'", a "professional enemy of communism," and a key player in the government raid on the

1922 Bridgman Convention The 1922 Bridgman Convention was a secret conclave of the underground Communist Party of America (CPA) held in August 1922 near the small town of Bridgman, Michigan, about outside of the city of Chicago on the banks of Lake Michigan. The conventi ...

Background

Jacob Spolansky was born circa 1890 near

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, Ukraine (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

). He studied two years at university in Kiev and another year at the University of Zurich. In 1910 (or 1909 or 1912), he arrived in the United States. He studied two years at a law school in Chicago.

Career

Initially a lumberjack and elevator operator, from 1911 to 1915, Spolansky sold newspapers in Chicago and then "operated a newspaper" in Chicago, the first-ever Russian-language newspaper there. In April 1918, Spolansky joined US Army's Military Intelligence Division for a year. On July 19, 1919, he joined the Bureau of Investigation or BI (the future

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

or FBI), the latter as a special agent for six years specializing in "subversive activities." He also worked for the

Dies Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

. Over the next three decades, whether for governmental or corporate agencies, he "spied on and infiltrated radical and labor organizations." Further, Spolansky worked with government committees, business associations, and media to gather support for legislation against political and industrial radicals. In 1918 during the

First Red Scare The First Red Scare was a period during History of the United States (1918–1945), the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Far-left politics, far-left movements, including Bolshevik, Bolshevism and ...

, he ran an informant in Chicago among the

International Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

(IWW or "Wobblies") who posed as a radical agitator at steel factory in Gary, Indiana. In September 1922 during the

Great Railroad Strike of 1922 The Great Railroad Strike of 1922, commonly known as the Railway Shopmen's Strike, was a nationwide strike of railroad workers in the United States. Launched on July 1, 1922, by seven of the sixteen railroad labor organizations in existence a ...

(AKA the Railway Shopmen's Strike), Spolansky led a group of BI and

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

staff who protected

US Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Harry M. Daugherty Harry Micajah Daugherty (; January 26, 1860 – October 12, 1941) was an American politician. A key Ohio Republican political insider, he is best remembered for his service as Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Warren G. Hardin ...

. In December 1922, he located and led the raid on the Bridgman Convention of the still-nascent US communist party and personally arrested

William Z. Foster William Zebulon Foster (February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a Political radicalism, radical American labor organizer and Communism, Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party US ...

. (Spolansky, "a Department of Justice stool pidgeon," had infiltrated the event by posing as a member of "the Socialist and other radical parties.") On January 23, 1924, Spolansky submitted his letter of resignation to BI director

William J. Burns William John Burns (October 19, 1861 – April 14, 1932) was an American private investigator and law enforcement official. He was known as "America's Sherlock Holmes" and earned fame for having conducted private investigations into a number of ...

; soon after, articles appeared in the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

'' under his name with information believed to have come from the BI. In mid-October 1924, the CPUSA's ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

'' newspaper complained of ''Chicago Daily News'' articles as lies by that "discharged federal fink." The paper ridiculed him: "Spolansky Exposes Own Plots." In late October 1924, the newspaper reported that "Jake" had joined the Burns Detective Agency in Chicago, run by his former BOI boss Burns, "King of Dicks." In February 1926, the a Philadelphia businessman informed the FBI that Spolansky was working for the National Clay Products Industries Association in Chicago. In August 1926, the

Federated Press ''This is not to be confused with the independent, research-based organization of Toronto, Canada, also called that targets executives, lawyers, professionals.'' The Federated Press was a left wing news service, established in 1920, that provided ...

's '' Labor's News'' outed Spolansky as a "faded stool" and "expert" on Reds (with allegedly 20 years experience from

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

, "U.S. militant and navy intelligence," and the BI), working for the Botany Worsted Mills during the 1926 Passaic textile strike, following the failure of predecessors in a frame-up of strike leader

Albert Weisbord Albert Weisbord (1900–1977) was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered, along his wife Vera Buch, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a sma ...

. Spolansky also helped track Comintern agent

Mikhail Borodin Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg, known by the alias Borodin, zh, 鮑羅廷 (9 July 1884 – 29 May 1951), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Communist International (Comintern) agent. He was an advisor to Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) in ...

in the USA. In 1931, he helped write Michigan's 1931 "Spolansky Act." During the 1920s and 1930s, he donated further time to assist Army and Navy intelligence. In 1933, he became a Michigan state trooper and later that year a detective for

Wayne County, Michigan Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States Census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the 19th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Detroit. The coun ...

. In 1935, he served as a detective for the

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

. In February 1935, FBI director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

refused to back Spolansky's "reputation and reliability" when the ''Detroit Times'' asked for a reference for him as a source. and Later, he served as investigator for the

National Association of Manufacturers The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C., with additional offices across the United States. It is the nation's largest manufacturing industrial trade association, representing 14,000 s ...

. At some point in time, he worked for the Detroit Sheriff's Office and the Detroit Employers Association. From February to August 1939, Spolansky worked for

Gerald L.K. Smith Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. A leader of the populist Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depres ...

. In 1940, he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Wayne County. In late 1940 and into 1942, Spolansky worked for George Mintzer of the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...

. In the Fall of 1941, Spolansky unsuccessfully tried to launch a Nonsectarian League for Americanism. In November 1941, he had a letter from the Dies Committee that claimed he was an investigator for it in the Detroit area regarding Nazis and the National Workers League.

Testimony

In 1930, Spolansky testified before the Fish Committee. At the time, he was considered "the country's leading red-hunter specializing in the labor movement." On October 12, 1938, while serving as a Wayne County detective, Spolansky testified in Detroit, Michigan, before the

. He related his involvement in the arrest and deportation of Joseph Kowalski, an alleged communist,

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

, and

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

member, sentenced by Judge

Julian Mack Julian William Mack (July 19, 1866 – September 5, 1943) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Commerce Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit, ...

, and deported to Russia. He provided lists of: Slavic-named foreign workers, CPUSA publications, labor publications, CPUSA resolutions, Detroit Workers School materials, a list of communist organizations from the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

(AFL), copies of

International Press Correspondence ''Inprecor'' is a multilingual monthly Marxist magazine published by the reunified Fourth International. Its name is a contraction of International Press Correspondence and indicates that the magazine translates articles and letters from revolu ...

, and other materials he considered incriminating. He boasted of his years in "combating communism... and... combating communistic activities."

Personal life and death

Spolansky married Maria and had two daughters. According to his application to join the US Department of Justice, dated November 8, 1923, Spolansky spoke: Russian, Ukrainian, Bohemian (Czech), Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, French, Yiddish, and Lithuanian (Lithuanian). Jacob Spolansky died age 76 in August 1966.

Legacy

In 1957, a photo of Spolansky dated 1923 appeared in

Theodore Draper Theodore H. Draper (September 11, 1912 – February 21, 2006) was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the Ame ...

's book ''The Roots of American Communism''. In the 2006 article "The Founders of American Anti-communism," academic Nick Fischer described the "multi-lingual" Spolansky as "a leading anticommunist agent" who "abhorred radicalism" and helped arrest more than 650 foreigners, of whom 400 faced deportation. In his 2016 book ''Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism'', Fischer devotes an entire chapter to Spolansky.

Works

In his 1951 ''The Communist Trail in America'', Spolansky describes his leadership in finding raw recruits who knew "comparatively little about the radical movements and their methods" and indoctrinating them into "the craft of trailing and investigating the enemies of the United States." Reviewing the book for the ''New York Times'',

Orville Prescott Orville Prescott (September 8, 1906, Cleveland, Ohio – April 28, 1996, New Canaan, Connecticut) was the main book reviewer for ''The New York Times'' for 24 years. Born in Cleveland, Prescott graduated from Williams College in 1930. He began his ...

noted that the book contained stories of Spolansky's exploits as well as biographical sketches of communist leaders or fellow travelers but ultimately found it "superficial, disorderly, and tiresome." In a second review, Frank S. Adams ridicules Spolansky for asserting that

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Duri ...

was trying to create a new Communist International with

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...

and wrote that "his book is most interesting when he confines himself to his personal observations and experiences." ;Bureau of Investigation reports * ''The Conference of Russian Branches of the American Socialist Party in Chicago: Organization, Representation, and Activities'' (August 9, 1919) * ''Communist Party Convention: Day 2 — Sept. 2, 1919'' (September 4, 1919) * ''Communist Party of America Convention Day 3 — Sept. 3, 1919'' (September 4, 1919) * ''In Re: Communist Meeting at West Side Auditorium, Chicago, Sept. 21, 1919'' (September 26, 1919) * ''“The Red Evening”: Bureau of Investigation Report on the Mass Meeting Held at West Side Auditorium, Chicago, Nov. 1, 1919'' (November 3, 1919) * ''The Martens Controversy in the Russian Federation of the CPA: Undercover Report of a Meeting in Chicago'' (December 1, 1919) * ''Military Intelligence Department Undercover Surveillance Reportof the Communist Labor Party'' (January 12, 1920) ;Articles * "Hunt $250,00.00 Smuggled Jews Here," ''Chicago Daily News'' (February 7, 1924) * "Foster at Bridgman" (unsigned), ''St. Joseph Herald-Press'' (March 16, 1923) * "Chicago Plots of the Reds Exposed by a United States Secret Service Agent,"''Chicago Daily News'' (date?) * "'Red' Plotters in America," ''Chicago Daily News'' (October 14, 1924) ;Books * ''The Red Trail in America'' (1924) * ''The Communist Trail in America'' (1951)

References

External sources

Ernie Lazar FOIA
FBI Employees: Spolansky, Joseph 1-2-3
Library of Congress - photo Joseph Spolansky (1938)
* {{cite book , author = Nick Fischer , chapter = Jacob Spolansky: The Rise of the Career Anticommunist Spook , title = Spider Web: The Birth of American Anticommunism , publisher = University of Illinois Press , url = https://doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252040023.003.0007 , pages = 128–143 , date = May 2016 , volume = 1 , doi = 10.5406/illinois/9780252040023.003.0007 , access-date = 19 November 2022 Detectives Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Private investigators American anti-communists