Early Cold War Defectors, 1947–1951

Abstract

The fourth group includes the first Soviet intelligence and state security officers that the Western Allies accepted, albeit cautiously, after the wartime policy of alliance with the Soviet Union began to change. These defectors revealed that Soviet intelligence and state security services’ priorities were focused on Nazi hunting and counterintelligence, which in the Soviet services’ definition included preventing Soviet citizens returning from POW and refugee camps from becoming conduits for foreign infiltration. This group includes twenty-two officers, of which the names are unknown for ten and details are scanty for most. The lack of publicly available information reflects the tentative Western handling of Soviet defectors in the early post-war period. Germany and Austria, where the Western Allies’ occupation zones bordered directly on Soviet occupation zones, were the most prominent locations for defections. Most were handled quietly, and some were settled in out of the way places like South America and told to restart their life there.