Ruth Leah Greenglass (née Printz; April 30, 1924 – April 7, 2008) was an American citizen who acted as a spy for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

along with her husband,

David Greenglass David Greenglass (March 2, 1922 – July 1, 2014) was an atomic spy for the Soviet Union who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was briefly stationed at the Clinton Engineer Works uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then ...

Early life

Ruth Leah Printz was born to a Jewish family on April 30, 1924, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Max Printz and Tillie Leiter. She grew up in the same neighborhood, the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, as her future husband, David Greenglass. She graduated with honors from

Seward Park High School __NOTOC__ The Seward Park Campus is a "vertical campus" of the New York City Department of Education located at 350 Grand Street at the corner of Essex Street, in the Lower East Side/Cooperative Village neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City. ...

at 16. Although quite young, she and Greenglass wanted to marry before he was drafted to serve in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. They married in late November 1942 when he was 20 and she was 18. They shared an interest in politics and joined the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of YC ...

Espionage

Julius Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

became a Soviet agent, working under Alexander Feklissov. In September 1944, Rosenberg suggested to Feklissov that he should consider recruiting his brother-in-law, David, and his wife. Feklissov met the couple and on September 21, he reported to Moscow: "They are young, intelligent, capable, and politically developed people, strongly believing in the cause of communism and wishing to do their best to help our country as much as possible. They are undoubtedly devoted to us (the Soviet Union)."Feklissov, Alexander (September 21, 1944
report on David and Ruth Greenglass
/ref> David wrote to his wife, "My darling, I most certainly will be glad to be part of the community project (espionage) that Julius and his friends (the Russians) have in mind." After her husband was drafted and inducted into the Army in 1943, Ruth continued to visit him. In November 1944, she visited him in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, where he was working as a machinist on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

at Los Alamos. During that visit, she asked him to forward any information on the project to his brother-in-law, Julius.

Rosenberg trial

When the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

questioned him about suspected espionage activities, David agreed to confess to his own activities and to testify against

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

in exchange for immunity for his wife so that she could remain at home with their two children. At the trial, Ruth implicated Ethel in the espionage ring by testifying that Ethel had typed up the notes that David had provided. Ruth testified that both Rosenbergs had urged her to persuade her husband to become involved in espionage. Ruth's testimony was crucial in securing Ethel's conviction.

Later life

She rejoined her husband after his release from prison in 1960, and they lived in

under assumed names with their children. She died on April 7, 2008, at the age of 83, a fact that became widely known only when the government, numbering her among the deceased witnesses, released her grand jury testimony a few weeks later. David Greenglass died in 2014, aged 92.

Reliability

The truth of Ruth Printz Greenglass's testimony at the Rosenberg trial has been questioned. In September 2008, her grand jury transcripts were released and showed that when testifying before the grand jury in August 1950, she was asked, "Didn't you write the information down on a piece of paper?" She replied, "Yes, I wrote the information down on a piece of paper and Julius Rosenberg took it with him." At the trial she testified that Ethel had typed up the notes about the atomic bomb.

References

External links

An Interactive Rosenberg Espionage Ring Timeline and Archive
* * Douglas Linder, ''A Trial Account'' (2001)
Annotated bibliography for Ruth Greenglass from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenglass, Ruth 1924 births 2008 deaths Cold War spies Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg 20th-century American Jews World War II spies for the Soviet Union American spies for the Soviet Union People from the Lower East Side Seward Park High School alumni 21st-century American Jews