Steve Nelson (activist)
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Stjepan Mesaros, best known as Steve Nelson (1903– December 11, 1993), was a
Background
Stjepan Mesaros (sometimes known as "Stephen Mesarosh") was born in
Mesaros emigrated to the United States of America in 1919 with his mother and three sisters.[1] He became a shipyard worker in Philadelphia.[2]
Career
Communist Party
Upon arrival in the States, Nelson started working in a
In 1923, by now using the Americanized name "Steve Nelson," he joined the youth section of the American Communist Party, the Young Workers League. He went on to join the adult Workers (Communist) Party in 1925. That year, he moved (with his new wife) to Detroit, where he worked in the auto industry as an assembly line worker and union organizer. In 1928, they moved to New York City, where Nelson studied Marxism at the New York Workers School. With the onset of the Great Depression, husband and wife worked for the Communist Party full-time.[1]
In 1930, Nelson organized the International Unemployment Day demonstration on March 6, 1930, at which he, Joe Dallet and Oliver Law were beaten up and arrested. Two weeks he was among the 75,000 demonstrators to demand unemployment insurance.
In 1931, Nelson and his wife were sent to Moscow for two years at the
Spanish Civil War
In 1937, Nelson immediately tried to join the
In the 1940s, Nelson rose to the top ranks of the communist party. After years on the West Coast, the Nelsons returned east, when he was elected to the National Board of the party. He settled in Pittsburgh as District Secretary of Western Pennsylvania.
Steve Nelson moved to California and in 1942 he became chairman of the San Francisco branch of the Communist Party of the United States.
Espionage
In 1942, Nelson also became involved in espionage activities, particularly the Manhattan Project:
One part of Nelson's task was to gather information on the atomic bomb project. He was seen and overheard meeting with Communist scientists working at the radiation laboratory at Berkeley. Information gleaned from FBI bugging and wiretaps indicated that several had discussed the atomic bomb project with him. Nelson made notes of what the scientists told him regarding their work, and he was subsequently observed passing materials, which the FBI assumed were his notes, to a Soviet intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover at the USSR's San Francisco consulate."[4]
One of the scientists identified was Joseph Weinberg, who worked at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California.[5] FBI officials bugged Nelson's residence and discovered that Weinberg had delivered "highly secret information regarding experiments being conducted at the Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, pertaining to the atomic bomb." Investigators reported that Nelson had "delivered this classified information to Soviet consular officer Ivan Ivanov for transmittal to the Soviet Union."[6]
In April 1943, Nelson met with
Overall, the FBI deemed a failure this particular, early effort by the Soviet to obtain atomic information about the Manhattan Project.[9]
(Prior to this trial,
In August 1950, after a raid on the Pittsburgh Party Headquarters, Nelson and two local party leaders were arrested and charged under the 1919 Pennsylvania Sedition Act for attempting to overthrow the state and federal government.
Nelson initially received a 20-year prison sentence, $10,000 in fines and $13,000 in prosecution costs. He was jailed in Pittsburgh for seven months and then released on bail pending his appeal. In 1953 he and five others were indicted under the Federal Smith Act. This carried a sentence of 5 years of imprisonment and $10,000 in fines. All six were granted bail. In 1956 in Pennsylvania v. Nelson, the
Later years
In 1963 he became the National Commander of the
Personal life and death
In 1925, Nelson met Margaret Yaeger, a typist in the Pittsburgh office of the Party.
Nelson died age 90 on December 11, 1993.[13]
Works
- The Volunteers: A Personal Narrative of the Fight Against Fascism in Spain (New York: Masses and Mainstream, 1953)
- The 13th Juror: The Inside Story of My Trial (New York: Masses and Mainstream, 1955)
See also
- Americans Battling Communism
- Foley Square trial
- William Albertson
- Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board
References
- ^ a b c d e f Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2007; pp. 141–142.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-141-01161-5.
- ^ Thomas (2012) p.704
- ^ Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (2000) pages 230-231
- ^ no title given
- ^ Athan Theoharis, Chasing Spies (2002) pages 49-50
- ^ Christopher Andrew, The Mitrokhin Archive (1999) pages 161-162
- ^ Athan Theoharis, Chasing Spies (2002) page 50
- ^ John Earl Haynes's Interview. Atomic Heritage Foundation. 6 February 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government - Part Two. US GPO. 11 January 1949. pp. 1467–1474. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ^ Pennsylvania -v- Nelson, 350 U.S. 497 (1956)
- ^ Eby, Comrades and Commissars, pg. 435.
- ^ "Guide to the Steve Nelson Papers ALBA.008". dlib.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
External links
- Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2007.
- Steve Nelson, James R. Barrett, and Rob Ruck, Steve Nelson, American Radical. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981.
- Historical/Biographical Note, Steve Nelson Papers, Tamiment Library
- Pennsylvania -v- Nelson, 350 U.S. 497 (1956)
- Mesarosh -v- United States, 352 U.S. 808 (1956)
- Tamiment Library - Oral Histories - Steve Nelson