Ilya Wolston

Ilya Wolston was an American citizen who enlisted the U.S. Army in World War II and served as a Russian interpreter.

After the war, Wolston became a language teacher and professor. He was libeled in the book "KGB", where it was stated that he was convicted of espionage; he sued. His case went to the U.S. Supreme Court (Wolston v. Readers Digest) and they declared that Wolston was not a public figure and therefore his assertion of libel would stand. He died before the case could be retried in lower courts. While Wolston was also maligned in a book by Boris Morros, Morros' credibility was seriously in doubt and he never provided any proof for many of his assertions.

There have been other allegations against him that are factually untrue. While related to Russians who were, in fact, spies against the United States, there is no evidence that Wolston was ever complicit in any actions against the U.S., and he remained a loyal citizen until his death. Careful scrutiny of FBI records will show that there was never any malfeasance uncovered regarding Wolston and that the only charge that was ever brought against him was Contempt of Court for not appearing at the trial of later convicted Soviet spy, Jack Soble. Wolston did not appear due to illness.

References

• Boris Morros, My Ten Years as a Counter-Spy, London: Werner Laurie (1959).
• John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, New Haven: Yale University Press (1999), pgs. 275–276. ISBN 0-300-07771-8