"I have lived two lives.
"From my birth on January 15, 1922 until 1946, I lived in the U.S.S.R., a Soviet Jew.
Since 1949, I have lived in the United States of America. I have been an American citizen
since 1955.
"From 1942, I served as bodyguard for Russian Premier Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.
I joined the group of 18 other young men, Stalin's "Back Room Boys". In this capacity, I
learned a great deal about personalities, behavior, attitudes, and the effect upon the course of history. Due to my contacts, I was able to provide for my parents, brothers, and sisters; on two occasions, I was able to use my influence to intervene when my family tried to flee to Palestine, and were being held by the Soviet authorities.
"Sadly, I was unable to do anything to help members of my family when the Nazis
invaded Kovel, in the Ukraine. My father was killed while trying to retrieve the body of a
fellow rabbi. With the exception of two brothers, the rest of my family was executed by the Gestapo.
"During my years in the KGB, I was privy to information about the inner workings of the
government, and quickly became disillusioned. Although I could have obtained the
recommendations necessary to join the Communist Party, I chose not to become a member.
"I have never belonged to the Komsomol, the youth organization of the Communist Party. No one, Stalin included, ever questioned my status as a party member.
"As time passed and I became knowledgeable about the behind-the-scenes deceit, my
desire to defect to the United States became as strong as my father's wish to go to Palestine.
"Prior to 1946, when I defected at the American Embassy in Munich, history was being
written in my presence -- at Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam. First as a propaganda expert for the Railroad Communists, then in the company of Stalin, I traveled the vast Soviet empire from Eastern Europe to the Far East.
"At Stalin's "request," I wore a Gentile cross; with my knowledge of the Jewish religion
and propensity for languages, I was able to serve a need for Stalin, and at the same time,
be in a position to help those who were close to me. In this capacity, I was able to do
whatever possible to assist my people -- the Soviet Jews. With the inside information that
I supplied, my father was able to assist many Jews in their desire to practice their religion, and in some cases, help them flee the country. In many instances, I was able to defuse volatile situations, that left unchecked, would have resulted in many deaths.
"My regret is that I was unable to help my own family go "home" to Palestine.
"It has taken me many years to be able to write of my "first" life. Initially, family
members still in the Soviet Union had to be protected; later, many of the memories were
simply too painful to resurrect. The emotional pain could not be denied; one does not
speak easily of grave inhumanity, of sadism and cruelty.
"As time has passed, the need to speak out has transcended the emotional difficulty.
History records the final results of actions, not the behind-the-scenes truth, not the "back
room" personalities that are the basis of all action.
"My story of two lives is a chronicle of politics and personality, of cruelty and compassion. It is a story of history in the making, from the human viewpoint. It is the story of the importance of human rights, years ago. It is the story of human rights today, when oppression is as much a part of Soviet life as it was half a century ago.
"It is the story of a Jewish boy -- the son of an orthodox rabbi -- who, by strength of
burning desire, left the country of his birth, and came to America in search of the one
important element of life.
"Freedom."
/S/ ALEXANDER CONTRACT
"For the two years from 1939 to 1941, I worked for the Soviet railroad, and for the
NKVD, known today as the KGB. I also functioned as an undercover man, reporting
directly to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. From June 22, 1941, the beginning of the war,
I was a member of the Russian Army.
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