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Igor Gouzenko
Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (January 13, 1919 - June 28, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defected on September 5, 1945—just three days after the end o...view moreIgor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (January 13, 1919 - June 28, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defected on September 5, 1945—just three days after the end of World War II—with 109 documents on Soviet espionage activities in the West. This forced Prime Minister Mackenzie King to call a Royal Commission to investigate espionage in Canada.
Gouzenko exposed Joseph Stalin’s efforts to steal nuclear secrets, and 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 “Gouzenko was the beginning of the Cold War for public opinion” and journalist Robert Fulford writing “I am absolutely certain the Cold War began in Ottawa”. The New York Times described Gouzenko’s actions as having “awakened the people of North America to the magnitude and the danger of Soviet espionage.”
Born to a Ukrainian family in the village of Rogachovo near Dmitrov, Moscow Governorate (now Moscow Oblast), Gouzenko joined the military at the start of World War II and trained as a cipher clerk. In 1943, he was stationed in Ottawa, where for two years he enciphered outgoing messages and deciphered incoming messages for the GRU. His position gave him knowledge of Soviet espionage activities in the West.
In September 1945, hearing that he and his family were to be sent home to the Soviet Union and dissatisfied with the quality of life and the politics of his homeland, he decided to defect. He walked out of the embassy door carrying with him a briefcase with Soviet code books and deciphering materials. The evidence provided by Gouzenko led to the arrest of 39 suspects and led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate espionage.
Gouzenko died of a heart attack in 1982 at Mississauga, Canada.view less