Talk:George Koval

George Koval is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on November 14, 2011.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
August 12, 2009	Featured article candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on December 25, 2022.

Biography: Military

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Military history: Biography / Intelligence / North America / Russian & Soviet / United States / World War II

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Soviet Union: Military Low‑importance

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Espionage Top‑importance

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Sources

Most of the material in this article has no cited source. From the editing history, most contributions have been made by single purpose accounts or anonymous ips, apparently Russians, who have used information from Russian sources. It would be helpful if they could identify those sources. Fred Bauder 15:15, 12 November 2007 (UTC) Age: In one place it says he was 94, in another 92 years old. I calculate 93 years old at time of death from the DOB. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.225.136.60 (talk) 13:21, 13 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Arthur Adams

Nothing on the web collaborates the information about Arthur Adams, code name, Achilles. Fred Bauder 15:15, 12 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Champion tractor driver?

Why does it mention that his brother was a champion tractor driver in the early life section? The information is uncited and seemingly irrelevant to Koval's early life. --~T P W 13:22, 14 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

So is irrelevant to Koval's life the restatement that he did not find himself in Gulag when he was more old. - 91.122.13.129 (talk) 21:20, 25 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you can explain more clearly how it is irrelevant? Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 22:14, 25 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The first is a fact about his brother, not himself. The second... say, for example, when you are an encyclopaedic person and you happen to work as a builder, the statement that you are a builder is surely relevant for describing your life. But if you do not work as a builder, then the statement, that you are not one, would not be relevant in an encyclopaedic article that describes you. The same for Gulags. Both are literary details rather than relevant pieces of fact. - 91.122.5.138 (talk) 13:34, 26 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your comparison doesn't exactly work. The point of the line is that Koval described himself as lucky, despite never really being recognized for his work; many other former spies were disposed of, rather than allowed to retire or move on to other professions. It's directly relevant. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 17:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

featured article?

I'm not an expert, but does this article really deserve to be featured? I understand that there might not be many reliable sources on him Jonathansuh (talk) 20:46, 30 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I find the idea of topics "deserving" featured status odd, since whether they are featured or not is entirely a function of editor effort. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs^(talk) 21:20, 30 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's not what I meant. I was talking about the relative short length of the article and few sources... Jonathansuh (talk) 21:37, 30 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Length is not one of the WP:WIAFA criteria. Marking "Satisfactory" at WP:URFA/2020. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:44, 30 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

January 2022 additions

I've reverted the recent additions as I think they create undue weight issues. The facts that the Russian government claimed Koval did xyz are not in dispute; the question of what he actually did is definitely less clear, and hence why the article currently mentions two views that contrast with the official government position (if not disputing it wholesale, than offering up additional shading.) I reverted the additions because they felt like they were excessively privileging a "dissent" view beyond that supported by the sourcing and the length of the article overall. In addition, the use of a 1994 book raises concerns about potential out-of-date scholarship or original research. As the article itself says, Delmar's role was only significantly covered in the years after that book, so using it in a section downplaying Delmar's efforts seems like it's ignoring more recent scholarship that has the benefit of larger context. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 19:06, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

All the arguments from the 1994 article are as relevant now as they were then, although I will try to look up a newer source. No one below Kurchatov (who was a manager rather than a scientist or a designer) was cleared to know about the intelligence information, if you have a more recent source stating otherwise, please provide it. BTW, quoting anonymous "Russian military officials" as a reliable source is a total lunacy, IMHO. No amount of Putin's political spinning of this intelligence success seven decades years ago can change the well-established fact that Soviet nuclear bomb was indigenous. Ain92 (talk) 11:28, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- We deal with verifiability, not truth, hence why I'm asking for additional sources that demonstrate that in this article about Koval, more of it needs to be spent offering up alternative theories than presented. If you feel strongly about it we can look at starting an RfC. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 22:17, 20 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]