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Talk:Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

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Template:Vital article

Age at death / limitations of sidebar

The right-hand information block suggested that, having died the same day, they died at the same age in spite of having different birth years. Reviewing the code, it appears this was an auto-calculated field which does not allow the flexibility of reporting two death ages at a unique time for non-unique birthdates. To clarify for other readers, I changed the code from 

| date_of_death  = June 19, 1953(1953-06-19) (aged 35) (both)

to 

| date_of_death  = June 19, 1953(1953-06-19) (aged 35) (Julius), and aged 37 (Ethel)

which I believe removes the ambiguity. There is still some minor formatting inconsistency as the sidebar places the initial age in parenthesis, but this was the best I could do with the automated process. At least now they are not reported dead at the same age.


"Grassroots campaign" for clemency?

Not according to this 2012 paper by Ronald Radosh, which describes it as orchestrated by the Communist party (astroturfing would be more accurate). National Guardian is described as a "fellow-traveling weekly" one of whose editors was a KGB agent (pp. 82–83). Radosh also notes that:

The small group put together by the Almans struggled on its own with little support, until suddenly, in November and December of 1952 - almost overnight, it seemed - their committee was flooded with eager vol- unteers. Donations began pouring in. It became clear that suddenly the American Communist Party had reversed course and ordered its cadre to join the campaign and put all its efforts into the work. (83)

It was on December 3, 1952 - the same day that the French Rosenberg Defense Committee was founded - that Rudolf Slansky and his co-defendants were executed in Prague. Clearly, the Stalinist apparatus in Moscow desperately needed something to deflect the world's attention from the sordid execution of the innocent in Prague. The Rosenberg case fit the bill perfectly. (84)

Not until this past year, when the former KGB librarian Alexander Vassiliev released his "Notebooks" (verbatim renditions of documents he meticulously copied from the KGB archives, and eventually smuggled into London, where he now lives), was there corroboration that the American and Western European campaigns to gain clemency for the Rosenbergs had been created directly in Moscow from the very start. (85)

And then goes on to discuss the evidence... buidhe 01:39, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

I've removed "grassroots". There is no doubt the worldwide Communist movement pushed the campaign. Equally, there is no doubt that many non-Communists like the Pope supported clemency. By the way, I think the section should be rewritten because it puts forward a biased false distinction between non-Communists and Communists and leftists.--Jack Upland (talk) 08:42, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Lead summarizes important material from body

I am therefore moving some information out of the lead into the body. Apparently it also may need better sourcing. HouseOfChange (talk) 15:06, 15 November 2020 (UTC)


Change "Later developments" section to use chronological order

I think it will benefit our readers if we untangle this section. New sources of information emerged at specific dates, which we can use:

  • 1995 publication of Venona decryptions (material that was available to the FBI but not made public during the trial)
  • 2001 David Greenglass later statements
  • 2008 release of grand jury testimony
  • 2008 Morton Sobell later statements
  • 2009 Vassiliev notebooks published online

The Rosenberg children and their campaign for the exoneration of Ethel Rosenberg belong in a different section. I am going to try to sort this out. HouseOfChange (talk) 18:52, 15 November 2020 (UTC) 1995 Venona descriptions: "...For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's brother David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband..." But Mr. David Greenglass wasn’t the brother of Mrs. Ruth Greenglass. He was her spouse! This phrase must be written so:

For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's spouse David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband. --Анатолий Глезер (talk) 07:21, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

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