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Igor Gouzenko
Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (Russian: Игорь Сергеевич Гузенко; Ukrainian: Ігор Сергійович Гузенко; January 26, 1919 – June 25, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and a lieutenant of the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). He defected on September 5, 1945, three days after the end of World War II, with 109 documents on the USSR's espionage activities in the West. In response, Canada's Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, called a royal commission to investigate espionage in Canada.
Gouzenko exposed Soviet intelligence's efforts to steal nuclear secrets as well as the technique of planting sleeper agents. The "Gouzenko Affair" is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War, with historian Jack Granatstein stating it was "the beginning of the Cold War for public opinion" and journalist Robert Fulford writing he was "absolutely certain the Cold War began in Ottawa". Granville Hicks described Gouzenko's actions as having "awakened the people of North America to the magnitude and the danger of Soviet espionage".
Gouzenko was born on January 26, 1919, in the village of Rogachev near Dmitrov, Moscow Governorate (now Moscow Oblast), 100 kilometres north-west of Moscow. He was of Ukrainian heritage, the youngest of four children.
His older brother (also Igor, Gouzenko is named in memory of him), born in 1917, died at age 1 from malnutrition. His father fought in the Russian Civil War on the side of the Bolsheviks, dying early of typhoid. His mother was a school mathematics teacher. Faced with the prospect of her second child dying of starvation, Gouzenko's mother decided to place him in the care of her mother, Ekaterina A. Filkova, in the village of Semion, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, where he lived for seven years. Later his mother took Igor to her relatives in Rostov-on-Don, and she got a job in the village of Verkhne-Spasskoe, after which she moved to Moscow, and after some time, she took all the children. Igor Gouzenko entered the fifth grade in the school named after Maxim Gorky near the Automotive Factory No. 2 Zavod Imeni Stalina.
Gouzenko spent a lot of time in the Lenin Library, where he prepared for admission to the university and then entered the Moscow Architectural Institute. While at the institute he met his future wife Svetlana (Anna) Gouseva in the Lenin Library; the couple married soon after meeting.
Due to his high academic performance, he was sent to the Military Engineering Academy named after V.V. Kuybyshev, where he was trained for a year as a cipher clerk, graduating with the rank of lieutenant. At the start of World War II he was drafted into the Red Army. He served in the central apparatus of the GRU (April, 1942 — summer of 1943). His position gave him knowledge of Soviet espionage activities in the West. Gouzenko worked under the leadership of Colonel Nikolai Zabotin.
In June 1943 Gouzenko arrived in Ottawa, Canada, to work at the Soviet Embassy, his first overseas mission. In October, his pregnant wife joined him.
Gouzenko's family was given the uncommon opportunity to live outside the embassy compound where most of the staff's families lived. Gouzenko was allowed to live in an apartment in the city with Canadian families. In September 1944, Gouzenko learned that he and his family were being recalled to the Soviet Union. His supervisor, Zabotin, asked for a reprieve. Unwilling to return to the Soviet Union, due to being dissatisfied with the quality of life and the policies of the Soviet Union, he decided to defect. As an example of the freedoms Gouzenko recalls in his testimony, he mentions the elections in Canada in 1945, whereas in the USSR, according to him, there were no free elections and one had to choose from a single candidate. On September 5, 1945, three days after the end of World War II, the 26-year-old Gouzenko walked out of the embassy carrying a briefcase with Soviet code books and decryption materials, a total of 109 documents.
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Igor Gouzenko
Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (Russian: Игорь Сергеевич Гузенко; Ukrainian: Ігор Сергійович Гузенко; January 26, 1919 – June 25, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and a lieutenant of the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). He defected on September 5, 1945, three days after the end of World War II, with 109 documents on the USSR's espionage activities in the West. In response, Canada's Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, called a royal commission to investigate espionage in Canada.
Gouzenko exposed Soviet intelligence's efforts to steal nuclear secrets as well as the technique of planting sleeper agents. The "Gouzenko Affair" is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War, with historian Jack Granatstein stating it was "the beginning of the Cold War for public opinion" and journalist Robert Fulford writing he was "absolutely certain the Cold War began in Ottawa". Granville Hicks described Gouzenko's actions as having "awakened the people of North America to the magnitude and the danger of Soviet espionage".
Gouzenko was born on January 26, 1919, in the village of Rogachev near Dmitrov, Moscow Governorate (now Moscow Oblast), 100 kilometres north-west of Moscow. He was of Ukrainian heritage, the youngest of four children.
His older brother (also Igor, Gouzenko is named in memory of him), born in 1917, died at age 1 from malnutrition. His father fought in the Russian Civil War on the side of the Bolsheviks, dying early of typhoid. His mother was a school mathematics teacher. Faced with the prospect of her second child dying of starvation, Gouzenko's mother decided to place him in the care of her mother, Ekaterina A. Filkova, in the village of Semion, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, where he lived for seven years. Later his mother took Igor to her relatives in Rostov-on-Don, and she got a job in the village of Verkhne-Spasskoe, after which she moved to Moscow, and after some time, she took all the children. Igor Gouzenko entered the fifth grade in the school named after Maxim Gorky near the Automotive Factory No. 2 Zavod Imeni Stalina.
Gouzenko spent a lot of time in the Lenin Library, where he prepared for admission to the university and then entered the Moscow Architectural Institute. While at the institute he met his future wife Svetlana (Anna) Gouseva in the Lenin Library; the couple married soon after meeting.
Due to his high academic performance, he was sent to the Military Engineering Academy named after V.V. Kuybyshev, where he was trained for a year as a cipher clerk, graduating with the rank of lieutenant. At the start of World War II he was drafted into the Red Army. He served in the central apparatus of the GRU (April, 1942 — summer of 1943). His position gave him knowledge of Soviet espionage activities in the West. Gouzenko worked under the leadership of Colonel Nikolai Zabotin.
In June 1943 Gouzenko arrived in Ottawa, Canada, to work at the Soviet Embassy, his first overseas mission. In October, his pregnant wife joined him.
Gouzenko's family was given the uncommon opportunity to live outside the embassy compound where most of the staff's families lived. Gouzenko was allowed to live in an apartment in the city with Canadian families. In September 1944, Gouzenko learned that he and his family were being recalled to the Soviet Union. His supervisor, Zabotin, asked for a reprieve. Unwilling to return to the Soviet Union, due to being dissatisfied with the quality of life and the policies of the Soviet Union, he decided to defect. As an example of the freedoms Gouzenko recalls in his testimony, he mentions the elections in Canada in 1945, whereas in the USSR, according to him, there were no free elections and one had to choose from a single candidate. On September 5, 1945, three days after the end of World War II, the 26-year-old Gouzenko walked out of the embassy carrying a briefcase with Soviet code books and decryption materials, a total of 109 documents.
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