Victor Perlo
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Victor Perlo (May 15, 1912December 1, 1999) was an American
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
.


Biography


Early years

Victor Perlo was born May 15, 1912 in
East Elmhurst East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Ditmars ...
,
Queens, New York City Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...
, N.Y. Perlo was the son of ethnic
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
parents who had both emigrated in their youth to America from 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. ...
.Autobiography prepared by Perlo and relayed in summary form to Moscow in December 1944 by KGB Washington Station Chief Anatoly Gorsky, KGB file 45100, v. 1, pp. 44-45; transcribed in Vassiliev White Notebook #3, pp. 72-73 and published in John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009; pp. 271-272. His father, Samuel Perlo, was a
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
and his mother, Rachel Perlo, was a teacher. Perlo received his
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City in 1931 and
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in mathematics from the same school in 1933. Late in 1932 or early in 1933, while still a student at Columbia, Perlo joined the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
, an organization with which he was affiliated throughout his life. Perlo married his first wife, Katherine, in 1933 and divorced in 1943. Subsequently, he married his second wife, Ellen (whose uncle was Robert Menaker), with whom he remained for the rest of his life. The couple had three children, a girl and two boys.Joseph B. Treaster
"Victor Perlo, 87, Economist For Communist Party in US,"
''New York Times,'' December 10, 1999.
Perlo had varied interests, which included tennis, mountain climbing, and chess. He was also a talented pianist.


Governmental career

After his graduation from Columbia in 1933, Perlo went to work as a statistical analyst and assistant to a division chief at the
National Recovery Administration The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was a prime agency established by U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in 1933. The goal of the administration was to eliminate "cut throat competition" by bringing industry, labor, and governmen ...
(NRA), remaining at that post until June 1935. Perlo then moved to the
Federal Home Loan Bank Board The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) was a board created in 1932 that governed the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB or FHLBanks) also created by the act, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and nationally-chartered savings ...
where he was an analyst for the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, establishing statistical analyses for properties mortgaged to the corporation and projecting long term financial accounts.Perlo, August 9, 1948 HUAC testimony, pg. 679. Perlo worked in that capacity until October 1937. In October 1937, Perlo left government service to work in the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
, a liberal
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
established in 1916, where he stayed as a researcher for more than two years. In November 1939, Perlo went to work in the
US Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for b ...
, where he worked as a senior economic analyst in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Perlo moved to the
Office of Price Administration The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price contr ...
(OPA) in November 1940, where he was head of the economic statistics division. There Perlo engaged in the study of inflationary pressures in the American economy, particularly with the advent of
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 ...
, which helped provide documentation enabling the institution of
price controls Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of good ...
. Perlo remained in that capacity until leaving to become head of the aviation section of the Bureau of Programs and Statistics at the
War Production Board The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Sup ...
(WPB). Perlo's work at the WPB involved analysis of the various economic problems of aircraft production.Perlo, August 9, 1948 HUAC testimony, pg. 680. In September 1944 he was made a special assistant to the director of the Bureau of Programs and Statistics of the WPB. During his time in the federal
bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
, Perlo was a contributor to the Communist Party's press, submitting articles on economic matters under a variety of pseudonyms. He also secretly assisted
I.F. Stone Isidor Feinstein "I. F." Stone (December 24, 1907 – June 18, 1989) was an American investigative journalist, writer, and author. Known for his politically progressive views, Stone is best remembered for ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' (1953–1971), ...
in gathering materials for various journalistic exposés. About December 1945, Perlo went to the
U.S. Treasury Department The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
, where he worked in the Monetary Research department.Perlo, August 9, 1948 HUAC testimony, pg. 681. There he was an alternate member of the Committee for Reciprocity Information, which took care of technical work relating to trade agreements under the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act and doing preparatory work for the
International Trade Organization The International Trade Organization (ITO) was the proposed name for an international institution for the regulation of trade. Led by the United States in collaboration with allies, the effort to form the organization from 1945 to 1948, with the ...
. Perlo left government service in 1947, when his loyalty was called into question during an investigation by the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Perlo denied allegations that he had spied for the Soviet Union.


Alleged Espionage Career

A dedicated Communist, Victor Perlo allegedly headed the
Perlo group Headed by Victor Perlo, the Perlo group is the name given to a group of Americans who provided information which was given to Soviet intelligence agencies; it was active during the World War II period, until the entire group was exposed to the FBI ...
of Soviet espionage agents in the United States. Before World War II, Perlo had been a member of the Ware spy ring. The Perlo ring included several important U.S. officials, including a Senate staff director, and the ring supplied the Soviet Union with economic, political, and military intelligence, including United States aircraft production figures. Perlo infiltrated through the United States Department of Commerce in 1938 to gather economic intelligence, and passed on intelligence concerning basic economic decisions he presented to Harry Hopkins, Secretary of Commerce. He transferred to the Division of Monetary Research, and served under
Harry Dexter White Harry Dexter White (October 29, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was a senior U.S. Treasury department official. Working closely with the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financial policy toward the Allies of World W ...
, followed by Frank Coe and
Harold Glasser Harold Glasser (November 24, 1905 – November 16, 1992) was an economist in the United States Department of the Treasury and spokesman on the affairs of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) 'throughout its whole ...
, all of whom were later alleged to be Soviet agents.


Career after government

In 1948, Perlo obtained a position as an economist for the
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
, assisting the Presidential campaign of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
Henry Wallace. Following the publication of his book ''Economics of Racism'', Victor Perlo received the Myers Center award for his exceptional work on intolerance in North America. In 1968, he signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of ...
" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 ''New York Post''


Death and legacy

He died on December 1, 1999 at his home in
Croton-on-Hudson, New York Croton-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt as part of New York City's northern subu ...
. He was 87 years old at the time of his death. Victor Perlo's papers are housed in the special collections department of Lewis J. Ort Library at
Frostburg State University Frostburg State University (FSU) is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlan ...
in
Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and is at the head of the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located west of Cumberland, the town is one of the first cities ...
.


Works


Books and pamphlets

: Note: Many of Perlo's works were translated into other languages, such as German, Russian, Polish, Czech, Japanese, Spanish, etc. * ''Our Foreign Policy Costs One Million Jobs.'' Chicago: National Labor Conference for Peace, n.d. . 1949 * ''American Imperialism.'' New York: International Publishers, 1951. * ''Trends in the Economic Status of the Negro People.'' New York: Science and Society, n.d.
952 Year 952 ( CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – At the Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I), joined by German nob ...
* ''Israel and Dollar Diplomacy.'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1953. * ''The Negro in Southern Agriculture.'' New York: International Publishers, 1953. * ''The Income 'Revolution. New York: International Publishers, 1954. * ''The Empire of High Finance.'' New York: International Publishers, 1957. * ''USA and USSR: The Economic Race.'' New York: International Publishers, 1960. * ''Dollars and Sense of Disarmament: Carl Marzani. Victor Perlo.'' With
Carl Marzani Carl Aldo Marzani (4 March 1912 – 11 December 1994) was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intellige ...
. New York: Marzani and Munsell, 1960. *
How the Soviet Economy Works: An Interview with A. I. Mikoyan, First Deputy Prime Minister of the U.S.S.R
'' With
Anastas Mikoyan Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; russian: Анаста́с Ива́нович Микоя́н; hy, Անաստաս Հովհաննեսի Միկոյան; 25 November 1895 – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Communist revolutionary, Old Bolshevik an ...
. New York: International Publishers, 1961. * ''Militarism and Industry: Arms Profiteering in the Missile Age.'' New York: International Publishers, 1963. * ''Bitter End in Southeast Asia.'' With Kumar Goshal. New York: Marzani and Munsell, 1964. * ''Marines in Santo Domingo!'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1965. * ''The Vietnam Profiteers.'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1966. * ''American Labor Today: How Has It Changed? Is It a Revolutionary Class? Are Marx's Views Still Valid?'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1968. * ''The Dollar Crisis: What It Means to You.'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1969. * ''Robbing the Poor to Fatten the Rich: Inflation, Wages, Prices and Profits.'' With Barry Cohen. New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1972. *
The Unstable Economy: Booms and Recessions in the United States Since 1945
'' New York: International Publishers, 1973. * ''High Prices and High Profits: How They Affect Your Wages and Living Costs.'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1973. * ''End Fascist Terror and US Imperialism in Chile!'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1974. * ''The Economics of Oil Production.'' New York, American Institute for Marxist Studies, 1974. * ''Economics of Racism USA: Roots of Black Inequality.'' New York: International Publishers, 1975. *
Dynamic Stability: The Soviet Economy Today
'' With Ellen Perlo. New York: International Publishers, 1980. * ''History's Biggest Rip-Off: The Arms Budget Threat to Your Livelihood and Life.'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1980. * ''Super Profits and Crises: Modern US Capitalism.'' New York: International Publishers, 1988. * ''Belt-Tightening Time: But for Whom?'' New York: New Outlook Publishers, 1989. * ''Economics of Racism II: The Roots of Inequality, USA.'' New York: International Publishers, 1996. * ''People vs. Profits: Columns of Victor Perlo: Volume 1, The Home Front, 1961-1999.'' Edited by Ellen Perlo. New York: International Publishers, 2003. * ''People vs. Profits: Columns of Victor Perlo: Volume 2, The USA and the World.'' Edited by Ellen Perlo. New York: International Publishers, 2006.


Articles

* "On the Distribution of Student's Ratio for Samples of Three Drawn from a Rectangular Distribution," ''Biometrika,'' vol. 25, no. 1/2 (May 1933), pp. 203–204. * "The Investment-Factor Method of Forecasting Business Activity," With Richard V. Gilbert. ''Econometrica, Journal of the Econometric Society,'' vol. 10, no. 3/4 (July–October 1942), pp. 311–316. * "New York as the Financial Center," ''Science & Society,'' vol. 19, no. 4 (Fall 1955), pp. 289–302. * "'People's Capitalism' and Stock-Ownership," ''American Economic Review,'' vol. 48, no. 3 (June 1958), pp. 333–347. * "The Revised Index of Industrial Production," ''American Economic Review,'' vol. 52, no. 3 (June 1962), pp. 496–512. * "Notes on Marxian Economics in the United States: Comment," ''American Economic Review,'' vol. 56, no. 1/2 (March 1966), pp. 187–188. * "Criminalization of African Americans," ''Political Affairs'' ew York vol. 75, no. 2, (February 1996), pg. 18.


Congressional testimony


''Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government (Alger Hiss Case), Part 1.''
Committee on Un-American Activities, US House of Representatives. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1948; pp. 677–686; 693-701. —Testimony of August 9, 1948. * ''Hearings, Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments — Part 7.'' Judiciary Committee Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, US Senate. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1950; pp. 383–459. —Testimony of May 12, 1953.


See also

*
Perlo group Headed by Victor Perlo, the Perlo group is the name given to a group of Americans who provided information which was given to Soviet intelligence agencies; it was active during the World War II period, until the entire group was exposed to the FBI ...
*
Soviet spies The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
*
List of American spies This is a list of spies who engaged in direct espionage. It includes Americans spying against their own country and people spying on behalf of the United States. American Revolution era spies Spied for the Patriots * Hercules Mulligan * Abra ...
*
John Abt John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network "Ware Gro ...
*
Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...
*
Noel Field Noel Haviland Field (January 23, 1904 – September 12, 1970) was an American communist activist, diplomat and spy for the NKVD, whose activities before and after World War II allowed the Eastern Bloc to use his name as a prosecuting rationale du ...
*
Harold Glasser Harold Glasser (November 24, 1905 – November 16, 1992) was an economist in the United States Department of the Treasury and spokesman on the affairs of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) 'throughout its whole ...
*
John Herrmann John Theodore Herrmann (November 9, 1900 – April 9, 1959) was a writer in the 1920s and 1930s and is alleged to have introduced Whittaker Chambers to Alger Hiss. Biography Herrmann was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1900. He lived in Paris i ...
*
Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...
* Donald Hiss * J. Peters *
Ward Pigman William Ward Pigman (March 5, 1910 – September 30, 1977) was a chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at New York Medical College, and a suspected Soviet Union spy as part of the "Karl group" for Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU). Biograp ...
*
Lee Pressman Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following hi ...
*
Vincent Reno Franklin Vincent Reno was a mathematician and civilian employee at the United States Army Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in the 1930s. Reno was a member of the "Karl group" of Soviet spies which was being handled by Whittaker Chambers until 19 ...
* Julian Wadleigh *
Harold Ware Harold or "Hal" Ware (August 19, 1889 – August 14, 1935) was an American Marxist, regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture. He was employed by a federal New Deal agency in the 1930s. He is alleged to have been a S ...
*
Nathaniel Weyl Nathaniel Weyl (July 20, 1910 – April 13, 2005) was an American economist and author who wrote on a variety of social issues. A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939, after leaving the party he became a co ...
*
Harry Dexter White Harry Dexter White (October 29, 1892 – August 16, 1948) was a senior U.S. Treasury department official. Working closely with the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financial policy toward the Allies of World W ...
* Nathan Witt


Footnotes


Further reading

* John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. * John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.


External links


Finding Aid for the Victor Perlo Papers
Ort Library, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD. Retrieved August 10, 2010. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlo, Victor 1912 births 1999 deaths People from Elmhurst, Queens American communists Economists from New York (state) American Marxists American people in the Venona papers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American tax resisters American socialists American spies for the Soviet Union Cold War spies Espionage in the United States Jewish socialists Members of the Communist Party USA Columbia College (New York) alumni People from Croton-on-Hudson, New York 20th-century American economists Activists from New York (state)