Katty Harris Soviet intelligence officer. Date of Birth: 24.05.1899 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Katty Harris

Katty Harris was a Soviet intelligence operative, born in London to a family of shoemaker immigrants from Bialystok. In 1908, her family moved to Canada where she completed four years of schooling in Winnipeg. At the age of 12, she started working at a cigar factory and later became a seamstress, eventually becoming a member of the seamstresses' union. She joined the Communist Party of Canada and in 1923, she moved to the United States with her family.

In Chicago, Harris worked as a secretary for the local branch of the seamstresses' union and became a member of the Communist Party of the United States. She led the literature distribution department of the Chicago organization. She also attended shorthand courses and in 1925, she married E. Brauder. Together, they traveled to Shanghai through Moscow in October 1927 and worked at the illegal representation of the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern) until 1929. They returned to New York via Moscow and Harris started working for the American Negro Labor Congress and as a secretary for AmTorg.

In 1931, Harris became an employee of the Soviet foreign intelligence (INO) after being recruited by A.O. Eingorn, also known as "Taras". In April 1932, she resigned from AmTorg and effectively separated from Brauder. She then went to Berlin where she worked under the pseudonym "Gilsy" in the illegal residency of the INO, together with E. Takke, Y. Sosnovskaya, and K. Gursky. Using the name E. Davis, she studied German at the Foreign Language Faculty in Berlin University and worked as a courier, traveling to Prague, Paris, and New York.

In May-August 1933, due to the threat of exposure, Harris stayed in Moscow. After returning to Berlin, she worked as a valuable agent operator in the field of scientific and technical intelligence, under the code name "Nasledstvo", and as an engineer for the "Bamag" company. As a courier, she traveled to France (in contact with the special group "Ambrosius"), Denmark, and Sweden (in contact with E. Volweber). From October 1935, she attended intelligence courses in Moscow, studying radio-photography and cryptography under the guidance of V.G. Fischer.

From April 1936, Harris worked as a radio operator in the illegal residency of T. Malli in Paris, and later worked in the London illegal residency. In January 1937, she was recalled to Moscow for retraining in new techniques. In May of the same year, she arrived in London via France, where she worked in the illegal residency as a safehouse keeper and liaison agent with the codenames "Norma" and "Ada". Under the guidance of legal resident G.B. Graflein, she maintained contact with D. McLean. When McLean was transferred to Paris, Harris accompanied him and took French language courses.

After the occupation of France, Harris arrived in Moscow via Berlin with the assistance of L.P. Vasilevsky in July 1940. She was enrolled in the reserve of the 1st Directorate of the NKGB. In October 1941, she sailed from Vladivostok to the United States and arrived in December of the same year. In Los Angeles, she worked as a liaison officer in the residency of G.M. Heifitz, known as "Hiton", and took part in gathering information on the atomic problem. From 1942 to 1946, she worked as an agent-liaison in the 1st Directorate of the NKVD-NKGB in Mexico City under the name E. Dravs.

In July 1946, Harris returned to Moscow and in February 1947, she was expelled to Riga as a foreigner. In May of the same year, she was granted Soviet citizenship for the second time, as her documents confirming her acceptance of Soviet citizenship in December 1937 had been lost. On October 29, 1951, she was arrested by the Latvian SSR MGB as a socially dangerous element. In February 1952, she was sent to the Gorky Psychiatric Prison Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR for compulsory treatment. Following a report by the Minister of Internal Affairs S.N. Kruglov to G.M. Malenkov and N.S. Khrushchev in January 1954, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR decided to terminate the case and release K. Harris on February 17 of the same year. She lived in Gorky as a pensioner until her death.