20 Facts About Walter Krivitsky

Walter Krivitsky adopted the name "Krivitsky," which was based on the Slavic root for "crooked, twisted".

Walter Krivitsky is credited with having organised industrial sabotage, stealing plans for submarines and planes, intercepting correspondence between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and recruiting many agents, including Magda Lupescu and Noel Field.

In May 1937, Walter Krivitsky was sent to The Hague, Netherlands, to operate as the rezident, operating under the cover of an antiquarian.

In Paris, Walter Krivitsky began to write articles and made contact with Lev Sedov, Trotsky's son, and the Trotskyists.

Walter Krivitsky gave a vague description of two other Soviet spies, Donald Maclean and John Cairncross but without enough detail to enable their arrest.

Walter Krivitsky did not stop with defection; he went on to become a vocal member of the anti-Stalinist Left.

That decision caused him much mental anguish, as he impressed on his former agent and fellow defector Whittaker Chambers, but to whom Walter Krivitsky ultimately stated, "In our time, informing is a duty".

Always in trouble with the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, Walter Krivitsky was not able to return there until November 1940.

Walter Krivitsky retained Louis Waldman to represent him on legal matters.

People with close ties to Walter Krivitsky later recounted opposite interpretations of his death:.

Walter Krivitsky did find friends, good friends, but among them he realized how frightfully alone he was.

Walter Krivitsky lived in relative security and even affluence from the sale of his articles.

Walter Krivitsky's family was safe and well cared for, he had friends, it seemed he could start a new life.

Walter Krivitsky had broken with his old life and had not built a new one.

Walter Krivitsky went to a hotel in Washington, wrote a letter to his wife and one to his friends, and put a bullet through his head.

Walter Krivitsky was holding a yellow tear-off that had just come over the teletype.

Walter Krivitsky had a room permanently reserved at a large downtown hotel where he had always stayed when he was in Washington.

Walter Krivitsky had never stayed at the small hotel before.

For example, in 2017, Anthony Percy's book Misdefending the Realm argued that Walter Krivitsky was the UK's most important source on Soviet plans, did not receive action from MI5 on the intelligence that he supplied, and was assassinated by Soviet intelligence after Guy Burgess informed Soviet superiors about him.

Walter Krivitsky took them by train to Florida, where they stayed with Chambers's family, which had already fled New Smyrna.