Canada and the Cold War

 

Igor Gouzenko: Soviet Spy and Defector in Canada

Gouzenko was notable in that he was one of the first important Soviet spies to defect just after World War II. Many historians liken either his defection as the real beginning of the Cold War, or its beginning was signaled by his startling revelations. Gouzenko was born in a small town outside of Moscow. His father gave his loyalty to the Czarist forces then known as the White Russians and vanished during Russia's civil war.

In 1937-1938, he studied art and architecture in Moscow and was recruited by the NKVD (later the KGB) in 1939 as a cipher and code clerk. Following the invasion of Russia by the Nazis in 1941, he saw service in the front lines as an intelligence officer. In 1943, he was sent to Ottawa, Canada as a cipher clerk working in the Russian Embassy. In reality, Gouzenko was a lieutenant in Soviet Military Intelligence who had been ordered to spy on Canadian officials, as well as send secret messages back to Moscow.

Canada was the first free country Gouzenko ever visited. He was astounded at the amount of liberties granted civilians, so much so that he envied the Canadians and, at the same time, grew to despise the dictatorial Communist regime. By September 5, 1945, Igor Gouzenko had had enough and left the Soviet Embassy, his briefcase stuffed with files and documents, all of which would prove the existence of a large Soviet spy ring operating throughout Canada.

The first place Gouzenko went to was the offices of an Ottawa newspaper. Editors listened to his story, looked at some of his documents, and then showed him the door. They could not believe the tale. This was still an era in which Russia was perceived by the West to be a staunch ally that had helped win World War II.

Gouzenko returned home to his wife and small son. He realized that it would only be hours before the files were found missing. Soviet operatives would be looking for him and his family. Frantically, he made the rounds of government departments the next day, but he was dismissed as either a crank or a lunatic. He went back to the newspaper and he was again rebuffed.

That night Gouzenko, his wife and child remained locked inside their small apartment, the lights off. A knock was heard at the door. The occupants did not answer. A man on the other side of the door called out Gouzenko's name. The defector recognized the voice as the chauffeur from the Embassy. He did not answer and, finally, the caller went away.

Desperate, Gouzenko went outside on his balcony, which faced that of the adjoining apartment. He signaled to his neighbor, Sergeant Main of the Royal Canadian Air Force, that he needed to talk to him. Main listened as Gouzenko told him that he was frightened for his wife and boy. He explained what he had done and begged for help. Main gave it to him, insisting that the Gouzenkos stay in his apartment that night. The next day, Main arranged for the Gouzenkos to move to another apartment while he contacted police.

Two officers interviewed Gouzenko and told him that they would keep the apartment complex under Surveillance in case the Soviets showed up. They did. Close to midnight, Main heard the sound of banging in the hall. He stepped outside to see four men breaking down the door to the Gouzenko apartment. Main ran to a window and gave a signal to a policeman waiting below. Officers rushed upstairs to find the four men wildly ransacking the Gouzenko apartment.

Police detained the men, asking for their papers. They handed over passports that identified them as employees of the Soviet Embassy. They said they had the permission of a fellow Russian to enter the apartment to retrieve some important papers. The officers called in an inspector who looked over the suspects and then ordered them to remain on the premises while he contacted his superiors. When the inspector left, the four men brushed aside the dumbfounded policemen and departed.

The next day, September 8, the Soviet Embassy contacted the Canadian Department for External Affairs to complain about how their employees had been treated, how the Ottawa police had ignored their diplomatic immunity. Soviet officials then demanded that Gouzenko, whom they described as a "capital criminal" had stolen funds from the Embassy and that they wanted him arrested and turned over to them so he could be taken to Moscow for trial.

The Royal Mounted Police then entered the picture. Gouzenko, a day earlier, had contacted the Mounties and had left several documents with them. These papers were examined and inspectors soon realized that Gouzenko was not a crank but a genuine defecting Soviet agent. The papers were described as detailing "the largest and most dangerous spy-plot known in the Dominion in peace or war."

Gouzenko and his family were given sanctuary in Canada and put under protective custody. His documents included a great deal of index cards listing scores of Soviet agents, with anecdotal information on all of them, notes that read "is afraid," and "takes money." The defector had also taken a goodly number of pages from the casebook of the Soviet spymaster in Ottawa, Colonel Nicolai Zabotin. Canadian officials were stunned. The Prime Minister immediately notified President Harry Truman in the U.S. and Prime Minister Clement Atlee in England.

Sweeping arrests were made in Canada, especially of those who were in the Canadian Communist Party and were serving as outright spies. Other agents were Communist sympathizers such as Fred Rose, who was a member of the Canadian Parliament, and Sam Carr. Gouzenko's information exposed the British nuclear scientist Dr. Alan Nunn May, who was arrested as a Communist spy. The domino theory became reality. May's arrest led to that of Klaus Fuch's arrest and confession. That exposure led to an unraveling of a vast number of American Communists who had help steal the atomic bomb secrets for the Soviets-Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

What shocked the innocent West at the time was that Gouzenko's information proved that Soviet Russia controlled the Communist parties throughout the Western World and used them as espionage agencies. The Soviets presented a stony silence to it all. They immediately ordered all espionage links to Communist parties and memberships to be severed.

Igor Gouzenko went into deep cover, still afraid of eventual retaliation by the KGB. He remained securely protected by the very force that first recognized his genuine defection and, fortunately for the world, the authenticity of his documents, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. [1]

 

1.        Who was Igor Gouzenko?

2.       Why was it so difficult to believe that Gouzenko had important information for the West?

3.       Why is Gouzenko’s defection seen as the start of the Cold War?

4.       Why did Gouzenko and his family go into hiding for the rest of their lives?

5.       Research what happened with Gouzenko and his family in 2002.

[2]