Joel Barr; U.S. Defector, Electronics Whiz Helped Propel Soviets Into Computer Age

Joel Barr, an enigmatic Brooklyn-born electronics expert who became a leading exponent of Communism during the Cold War, befriended convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and helped to develop the Soviet Union’s first radar-guided antiaircraft guns, died here Aug. 1.

Barr was 82 and died of complications from diabetes, said his longtime secretary, Svetlana Shmelyova. She was reached Sunday at his flat in St. Petersburg where he had lived for many years.

Shmelyova said there had been no official recognition of his passing in the adopted homeland, to whose cause he had devoted so much of his intellect.

When he defected to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, however, it had been another story. Barr and another electronics engineer who defected, Alfred Sarant, were treated like celebrities, set up in their own microelectronics institute and lavished with government cars and other perks far beyond the means of everyday Russians.

The two Americans, who had been roommates in Greenwich Village, proceeded to propel the Soviet Union into the computer age, helping to develop advanced Soviet weaponry that enabled the regime to compete in the Cold War, Russian and U.S. experts said.

There are conflicting accounts about Barr’s dedication to the Communist cause during his last years. In an interview with The Times in 1992, he professed that the ascension of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and disclosures of past Communist atrocities caused him to change his beliefs.

“I believe now that history will show that the Russian Revolution was a tremendous mistake,” he said. “It was a step backward for mankind. The real revolution that will go down for many, many years was the American Revolution.”

But his secretary described Barr as unrepentant.

“Mr. Berg was the last of the Mohicans, who still believed in Communism and the Communist idea,” she said, adding, however, that he died a completely forgotten, poor old man in the only clinic in Moscow that would take him in.

Barr’s life story reads like something out of a John le Carre novel. He was suspected of being part of the espionage ring of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Kremlin in a case that still has Rosenberg supporters proclaiming their innocence. Barr conceded a friendship with the Rosenbergs, whom he had met at the City College of New York, but always denied being a spy.

Indeed, Shmelyova said that Barr had recently contemplated suing the KGB to prove that he had not worked for the intelligence agency.

“I do not think that he was ever a spy,” said Shmelyova. “He was always first and foremost an engineer. Even on his deathbed he told me he had always been ‘clean’ and had never collaborated with the KGB and spied in his life.”

Barr was never indicted or arrested for any espionage role. But many law enforcement officials continued to assert his involvement. “I think he’s a spy and a traitor,” retired FBI Agent Robert Lamphere told The Times in a 1992 interview for a profile of Barr.

Barr’s denials were also disputed during a 1992 telecast of ABC’s “Nightline” by another retired FBI agent, Robert Royal, and in a recent book, “The Rosenberg File,” written by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton.

Barr was born and raised in Brooklyn to parents who had immigrated from Russia. Growing up in a poor family during the Depression, he eventually joined the Young Communist League. At the City College of New York he studied engineering, met Julius Rosenberg and joined the Communist Party.

“You have to understand, 1938 was a very special time. We were fighting against fascism. . . . We were all very idealistic. Joel fit into this mold,” Morton Sobell said in 1992. A college chum of Barr, Sobell stood trial for espionage with the Rosenbergs and spent 18 1/2 years in prison, although he still maintains his innocence.

During World War II, Barr worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and later had a high-paying job at Sperry Gyroscope, a defense contractor, where authorities suspected that he had the opportunity to steal secret documents. He was fired when it was learned that he was a member of the Communist Party.

Barr got a master’s degree at Columbia University, traveled to Paris to study music composition, then went on to Prague. When he heard of the Rosenbergs’ arrest, he decided to change his identity --calling himself Joseph Berg from South Africa--and ceased communication with his family and friends in America.

In Prague, he married a Czech woman, Vera Bergova, and was soon joined by Sarant, who adopted the name of Filipp G. Staros. The two brash engineers persuaded Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev that the Soviet Union was lagging badly in the arms buildup and they were invited to Russia in 1956, working on several high-level project. Sarant died in 1979.

Shmelyova said Barr’s remains were cremated and it has not been decided where those will be buried. Although he continued to live in Russia, he had traveled to the United States several times and considered San Diego his home here.

Divorced from Bergova, Barr is survived by his Russian companion, Elvira, and two daughters from that relationship, Lera and Julia; four children from his marriage to Bergova, Robert Berg and Vivian Berg, both of whom defected to the United States and now live in San Diego, and Alena Berg and Anton Berg, who live in the Czech Republic; two brothers, Arthur of New York and Bernard of San Diego; and a sister, Iris Gilboard, of Brighton, Mass.

Kuznetsov and Vanora Bennett reported from The Times’ Moscow bureau and Times staff writer Rivera reported from Los Angeles.