Ukrainian-born Walter Polovchak — the Cold War’s ‘littlest defector’ — lives happily in a Chicago suburb but is devastated by events in his homeland
A black-and-white photograph from August 1980 shows 12-year-old Walter Polovchak, small and skinny with hair falling onto his forehead, flanked by adults as he walked into a courthouse for a custody hearing.
He wore a button-down shirt tucked into slacks and a serious expression. By all accounts, Walter was a normal kid attending a court hearing that was far from an ordinary family dispute.
Born in Ukraine but taken to Chicago by his parents in 1980, Walter was mired in a geopolitical firestorm between two empires during the Cold War. His parents had decided to go back to Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, but Walter and his older sister, Nataly, refused.
He was dubbed the “the littlest defector” by the media during a yearslong court battle between his parents and the U.S. government that raised complex questions about personal freedoms, parental rights and government overreach. His parents eventually returned to their home country without their two oldest
