Elizabeth Bentley American spy Date of Birth: 01.01.1908 Country: USA

Biography of Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Bentley, an American spy, began her espionage career in a fascist organization but soon found herself in a communist camp. She later left it, swearing allegiance to the FBI. Her example vividly illustrates the classic behavior pattern of female spies, directly or indirectly dependent on their relationships with male handlers, husbands, or lovers.

Elizabeth Bentley was born in 1908 in New Milford, Connecticut. After earning a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, she went to Italy in 1933. It is rumored that she had connections with fascists during her time there. Upon returning to America, Bentley joined the New York branch of the Communist Party of the United States, where she quickly met her future life companion, Jacob Golos. Jacob Golos was an illegal resident of the Foreign Intelligence Directorate of the NKVD. She became Golos's secretary and later, without registering their marriage, they began living together.

In 1941, Golos suffered a heart attack and lost his mobility, so Elizabeth took on all his responsibilities. By then, they were already living in Washington, where Elizabeth started establishing contacts through Golos. According to Bentley herself, during that time she provided secret information to about thirty high-ranking individuals in the USSR, using a network of approximately twenty spies.

In November 1945, Bentley, better known as "The Red Spy Queen" and "Myra," became disillusioned with communist ideals and managed to secure a high-level meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Her husband had already passed away by that time, so nothing ideologically held Bentley back from making the step that seemed right to her from a civil perspective. After revealing her collaboration with the NKVD and exposing some of her colleagues, she agreed to work as a double agent.

In July 1948, Elizabeth Bentley appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee. During the proceedings, Bentley named numerous individuals involved in spying for the USSR, including American Communist Party leader Earl Browder, government officials John Abt, Laughlin Currie, Harry Dexter White, Victor Perlo, and many others. She named around thirty people in total. However, despite providing detailed testimonies, none of her claims were substantiated. The evidence of her murky activities was never collected successfully as many of her statements were too fragmented. Failing to link her testimonies to the case, the Committee did the only thing possible with them - they made them public.

Nevertheless, her testimonies marked the beginning of the "Red Scare" in the United States.