Gouzenko, Igor

(1919–1982)

   A GRU communication clerk, Gouzenko was the first important Soviet defector of the Cold War. After having served at the front and in Moscow as a code clerk, Gouzenko was sent to Ottawa to the GRU rezidentura in 1943. In September 1945 he took more than 100 classified documents out of the Soviet embassy and requested political asylum for himself and his family. Gouzenko’s action flummoxed the Canadian government, but Prime Minister McKenzie King ordered that Gouzenko be protected and granted him political asylum. Canada was poorly prepared to deal with Soviet espionage: at the time of Gouzenko’s defection, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had a grand total of two counterintelligence specialists.

   Gouzenko’s debriefing by the Canadian and British governments produced leads to 20 Canadians working with Russian intelligence, including Fred Rose, a member of Parliament. This led to 12 convictions, including Kay Willsher, the secretary to the British high commissioner in Canada, and officials involved in nuclear weapons development. Gouzenko’s information illustrated the reach of Soviet networks: another important Soviet spy uncovered by the British from his information was Allan Nunn May, who was tried and convicted in London.

   Gouzenko was a difficult defector to manage. Despite writing two best-sellers, he was constantly in debt. He sued a number of magazines that dared to refer to him as a defector. Nevertheless, Gouzenko’s defection marks the public beginning of the intelligence cold war between the West and the Soviet Union.