from 1937 to early 1940 by the NKVD (), the Soviet spy agency, which hoped to get secret Congressional information on anti-Communist and pro-fascist forces as well as supporters of Leon Trotsky. According to Weinstein, whether Dickstein provided useful intelligence is not certain; when he left the Committee the Soviets dropped him from the payroll. Dickstein also unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky, while the Dies Committee kept him in the country. Duffy stated: Dickstein denounced the Dies Committee at NKVD request ("a Red-baiting excursion") and gave speeches in Congress on Moscow-dictated themes. He handed over "materials on the war budget for 1940, records of conferences of the budget subcommission, reports of the war minister, chief of staff, etc." according to an NKVD report. The Boston Globe stated: "Dickstein ran a lucrative trade in illegal visas for Soviet operatives before brashly offering to spy for the NKVD, the KGB's precursor, in return for cash." Sam Roberts, in The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case, wrote that "Not even Julius Rosenberg knew that Samuel Dickstein had been on the KGB's payroll." Kurt Stone wrote that Dickstein "was, for many years, a 'devoted and reliable' Soviet agent whom his handlers nicknamed Crook." Joe Persico wrote, "The files document Soviet spying by Representative Samuel Dickstein of New York, so greedy that his handlers gave him the code name Crook." New York Supreme Court justice Following his time in Congress, Dickstein served as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court until his death in 1954. Death Dickstein died age 69 on April 22, 1954, in New York City. He was buried at the Union Field Cemetery, Queens NY. Legacy A one-block section of Pitt Street, between Grand Street and East Broadway in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is named Samuel Dickstein Plaza. There has been a push to rename the street, but it has been unsuccessful. See also List of Jewish members of the United States Congress References External links Library of Congress Photo of Dickstein with Paul Whiteman, Caroline O'Day, and James H. Gildea (March 15, 1927) "Samuel Dickstein", Spartacus Educational. 1885 births 1954 deaths People from Vilnius County People from Vilna Governorate American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives New York Supreme Court Justices American spies