From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of
Soviet secret police officers and agents who have defected.
Name
|
Defection date
|
Country of defection
|
Comment
|
Georgiy Sergeyevich Agabekov
[1]
|
1930
|
France
|
Disappeared around August, 1937. Body never recovered.
|
Ignace Reiss
|
1937, July
|
Switzerland
|
On September 4, 1938, Reiss was gunned down by an
NKVD hit squad.
|
Walter Germanovich Krivitskiy
[1]
|
1937, October
|
France
|
Found dead in his hotel room on Feb. 10, 1941 with a gunshot wound to the temple. Suspected
foul play.
|
Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov
|
1938
|
Japan
|
Executed by Japan in 1945, to avoid his recapture by the Soviet Union.
|
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov
[1]
|
1938
|
Canada
|
Authenticity of defection disputed
[2]
|
Lev Borisovich Helfand
[1]
|
1940
|
Italy
|
|
Igor Grigoryevich Orlov
|
1943
|
Germany
|
Re-recruited as Soviet agent in 1949
|
Viktor Andreyevich Kravchenko
[1]
[2]
|
1944
|
United States
|
Not an intelligence officer
|
Anatoliy Mikhailovich Granovskiy
|
1946
|
Sweden
|
|
Petr Sergeyevich Deryabin
[1]
[2]
|
1953
|
Austria
|
|
Nikolay Yevgenyevich Khokhlov
|
1954
|
West Germany
|
Victim of
thallium poisoning in 1957. Survived.
[3]
|
Yuriy Aleksandrovich Rastvorov
[1]
|
1954
|
Japan
|
|
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov
[1]
[2]
|
1954, April 3
|
Australia
|
Led to the
Petrov Affair in Australia.
[4]
|
Yevdokiya Alekseyevna Petrova
|
1954, April 19
|
Australia
|
Led to the
Petrov Affair in Australia.
[4]
|
Reino Häyhänen
|
1957
|
France
|
Died in an automobile accident in 1961. Accident considered suspicious.
[5]
|
Anatoliy Mikhailovich Golitsyn
[2]
|
1961, December 15
|
Finland
|
|
Bohdan Mykolayovych Stashynsky
|
1961
|
West Berlin
|
|
Yuri Vasilevich Krotkov
|
1963
|
United Kingdom
|
KGB agent, not officer
|
Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko
[6]
|
1964, January
|
Switzerland
|
Authenticity of defection disputed
[2]
|
Yuriy Aleksandrovich Bezmenov
[7]
|
1970
|
Canada
|
Intelligence agent, not officer
|
Sergey Nikolayevich Kourdakov
|
1971, September 4
|
Canada
|
Intelligence agent, not officer
|
Oleg Adolfovich Lyalin
[2]
|
1971
|
United Kingdom
|
|
Imants Lešinskis
[8]
|
1978
[9]
|
United States
|
|
Aleksei Alekseyevich Myagkov
[2]
|
1974
|
West Berlin
|
|
Stanislav Aleksandrovich Levchenko
[2]
|
1979, October
|
Japan
|
|
Oleg Agraniants
[10]
|
1986
|
Tunisia
|
|
Ilya Grigoryevich Dzhirkvelov
[2]
|
1980
|
Switzerland
|
|
Viktor Ivanovich Sheymov
[11]
|
1980
|
United States
|
|
Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuzichkin
|
1982
|
Iran
|
|
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky
|
1985, July 19
|
United Kingdom
|
Suspected poisoning in 2007. Survived.
[12]
|
Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko
|
1985
|
Italy
|
Disputed (later returned to USSR).
[2]
|
Igor Nikolayevich Cherpinskiy
[13]
|
1990
|
Belgium
|
|
Sergey Sergeyevich Illarionov
[14]
|
1992
|
Italy
|
|
Vasiliy Nikitich Mitrokhin
|
1992
|
Latvia
|
|
Viktor Alekseyevich Oshchenko
[15]
|
1992, July
|
United Kingdom
|
|
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev
|
2010, June 26
|
United States
|
KGB colonel, later
SVR officer. Multiple assassination attempts.
[16]
[17]
[18]
|
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h FBI,
Soviet Defectors: A Study of Past Defections from Official Soviet Establishments Outside the USSR, January 1955.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k Knight, Amy (2004)
"Defectors, Soviet Era" in Encyclopedia of Russian History
-
^
"Meeting with past (Russian)". Archived from
the original on 27 July 2006. Retrieved 19 November 2006.
- ^
a
b
"Petrov Affair". Defining Moments.
National Museum of Australia. 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
-
^ New York Times
[1]
-
^ Rosenbaum, Ron (2007-02-12)
The Spy Who Came in From Geneva: Nosenko, the K.G.B. Defector. observer.com
-
^ Bezmenov, Yuri; Griffin, G. Edward. (1984). Soviet Subversion of the Free Press: A Conversation with Yuri Bezmenov [Videotape]. Westlake Village, CA: American Media. OCLC [45810551] –
Soviet subversion of the free press: a conversation with Yuri Bezmenov
-
^
Shifting interpretations of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Andrew Ezergailis, retrieved 1-January-2015.
-
^
Richey, Warren. "KGB defector talks about former job in 'ethnic espionage'", The Christian Science Monitor. 1984, June 14.
-
^ Associated Press (June 20, 1986)
Key Soviet Spy in N. Africa Defects to U.S.
-
^ Sheymov, Victor (1993)
Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
-
^ Gray, Sadie (6 April 2010).
"Double agent Gordievsky claims he was poisoned by the Kremlin".
The Independent. London. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
-
^ Richelson, Jeffrey (January 1999).
The U.S. Intelligence Community. Westview Press. pp.
337–.
ISBN
978-0-8133-6893-1.
-
^ Prokhorov, Dmitriy Petrovich (2005)
Сколько стоит продать Родину? (What is the Cost of Betraying One's Homeland?) Moscow, OLMA-Press, pp. 463-466.
-
^ Savill, Annika (1992-08-13)
'Missing' Russian spy defects to Britain. independent.co.uk.
-
^
"More of Kremlin's Opponents Are Ending Up Dead".
The New York Times. September 13, 2018.
-
^
"The attempted assassination of a Russian spy defector".
Newsnight. October 2, 2018 – via YouTube.
-
^
"Russia Sought to Kill Defector in Florida".
New York Times. June 19, 2023.
- Richelson, Jeffrey. (1999). The U.S. Intelligence Community: Fourth Edition [Book]. WestView Press,
ISBN
978-0-8133-6893-1