Vladimir Pozner Sr.

Vladimir Pozner Sr.
Born(1908-10-24)24 October 1908
Died31 July 1975(1975-07-31) (aged 66)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Alma materUniversity of Paris
OccupationsAudio engineer, spy
Children2, including Vladimir
RelativesVladimir Pozner (writer) (cousin)
Victoria Mercanton (younger sister)

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Pozner (Russian: Владимир Александрович Познер; 24 October 1908 – 31 July 1975) was a Russian-Jewish émigré to the United States. During World War II, he spied for Soviet intelligence while he was employed by the US government.[1]

Pozner was born in St. Petersburg. His family fled Soviet Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, and Vladimir Pozner became a Communist sympathizer while living in Europe.[2] Vladimir Pozner and his family moved to East Berlin and later to Moscow in the early 1950s. There he worked as a senior audio engineer for the Soviet film industry.

His sister, Victoria Mercanton, was an in-demand film editor based in France. He retired in 1968, and in 1969 suffered a heart attack. Pozner died on 31 July 1975 during a flight from Paris to Moscow.[1]

Vladimir Pozner's cover name as identified in the Venona project by NSA/FBI analysts was "Platon" or Plato in Russian. Pozner's son, Vladimir Pozner Jr., born in 1934, worked as a journalist and interpreter in the United States, Soviet Union and later in Russia.

References

  1. 1 2 Pavel Pozner (12 October 2014) Владимир Познер-старший Archived 2018-08-08 at the Wayback Machine. Medved magazine
  2. ↑ Taubman, Philip (30 December 1985). "Soviet Spokesman on American TV". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2019.

Venona

Pozner is referenced in the following Venona project decrypts:

  • 1131–1133 KGB New York to Moscow, 13 July 1943
  • 1930 KGB New York to Moscow, 21 November 1943