During the Soviet era, hundreds of intelligence and state security officers defected to a foreign power. Their motivations varied, from fear of arrest, to dissatisfaction with the tasks assigned to them, to a change of heart about the regime they served. [1]
Contents
While there were defections in the other direction too, the number from the Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc was significantly greater. This was particularly true of intelligence and state security personnel. [2]
To defect, a Soviet officer needed to make contact with a foreign power. A Soviet officer had three ways to do that. 1) A defector could approach a foreign power while already outside the Soviet Union on official business, like diplomatic cover. 2) A defector could cross a border to a country neighboring the Soviet Union and request asylum. 3) Unique to World War II, when a foreign power—German troops—occupied large portions of Soviet territory, a defector could approach a foreign power that came to him or her. [3] Intelligence and state security officer defectors used all three methods over the course of Soviet history.
Many Soviet intelligence and state security defectors are relatively obscure. Before World War II, Soviet officers often were discussed only in Europe-based Russian émigré newspapers. [4] In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the United States and United Kingdom, which were the primary recipients of Soviet intelligence and state security officer defectors, did not publicize defections as broadly. [5]
After Stalin’s death in 1953, intelligence and state security officer defectors became more prominent and were offered public forums, such as press conferences and publication venues to reveal their stories. [6] That resulted in prominent defectors like Nikolay Khokhlov, Petr Deryabin, and the Vladimir and Yevdokiya Petrov.
The rush of Soviet intelligence and state security officer defectors that followed Stalin’s death waned in the late 1950s, settling to a few per year until the Soviet regime was approaching its end in the 1980s. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw another wave of intelligence and state security officer defectors, as they became disgruntled with the tasks they were given to perform.
Although post-Soviet Russian laws changed, opening the opportunity to travel abroad freely, intelligence and state security officers still faced restrictions preventing them from traveling abroad. Thus, the defection of intelligence and state security officers has continued, even accelerating since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. [7]
The following is a list of Soviet intelligence and state security officers and agents who have defected.
| Name | Defection date | Country of defection | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petr Mikhailovich Karpov [8] | August 1924 |  Weimar Germany | Also known as Mikhail Georgiyevich Sumarokov |
| Mikhail Yakovlevich Hendler [9] | April 1926 |  Cuba | Immigrated to USA in about 1927 |
| I. I. Kravets [10] | August 1926 |  Iran | Moved directly to France |
| Stefens [11] [12] | August 1926 |  France | Also known as Ivan Vasilyevich Gavrilchenko |
| Yevgeniy Mikhailovich Kozhevnikov [13] | May 1927 |  China | Also known as Yevgeniy Pik, Hovans, Kluge |
| Ivan Nikitin [14] | October 1927 |  Latvia | OGPU Border Guard intelligence officer |
| Yevgeniy Vasilyevich Dumbadze [15] [16] | June 1928 | France | |
| Semen Aleksandrovich Bryantsev [17] | January 1929 | Weimar Germany | Defection questioned |
| Eduard Martinovich Miller [18] | March 1930 | Latvia | |
| Fedor Pavlovich Drugov [19] | March 1930 |  Finland | Immigrated to France. Redefected, February 1934 |
| Georgiy Sergeyevich Agabekov [20] [21] [22] | June 1930 | France | Real surname, Arutyunov. Disappeared around August 1937. Body never recovered. |
| Nikolay Ignatyevich Kiselev [23] [24] | June 1930 | Finland | Surname sometimes rendered Kiselev-Gromov |
| Ignace Reiss [25] | July 1937 | France | Real name, Ignatiy Stanislavovich Poretskiy. Gunned down in Switzerland by an NKVD hit squad on 4 September 1938 |
| Walter Germanovich Krivitskiy [20] [26] | October 1937 | France | Real name, Samuel Gershovich Ginzberg. Found dead in his hotel room on 10 February 1941 with a gunshot wound to the temple. Suspected foul play |
| Iosif Vulfovich Volodarsky [27] | April 1938 |  Canada | |
| Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov [28] | June 1938 |  Japan | Executed by Japan in 1945 to prevent his recapture by the Soviets |
| Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov [20] [29] | July 1938 |  United States | Real name, Leyba Lazerevich Feldbin |
| Lev Borisovich Helfand [20] [30] | July 1940 |  Italy United States | Immigrated to the United States |
| Aleksandr Yakovlevich Zhigunov [31] | August 1941 |  Germany | |
| Ivan Georgiyevich Bessonov [32] | August 1941 | Germany | Repatriated, executed in 1950 |
| Aleksandr Vladimirovich Anokhin [33] | September 1941 | Germany | Published the book "Школа Опричников" under the pen name Aleksandr Brazhnev |
| Ivan Matveyevich Grachev [34] | September 1941 | Germany | |
| Nikolay Fedorovich Lapin [35] | October 1941 | Germany | |
| Petr Vasilyevich Kashtanov [36] | February 1942 | Germany | |
| Lidiya Pavlovna Yesenina [37] | October 1942 | Germany | |
| Vyacheslav Pavlovich Artemyev [38] | September 1943 | Germany | |
| Boris Alekseyevich Morozov [39] | September 1943 | Germany | |
| Igor Grigoryevich Orlov [40] | October 1943 | Germany | Real surname, Kopatskiy. Re-recruited as Soviet agent in 1949 |
| Aleksandr Fedorovich Chikalov [41] | November 1943 | Germany | Kidnapped, forcibly taken to the Soviet Union in October 1949 |
| Gasan Artemovich Arabadzhev [42] | November 1943 | Germany | |
| Viktor Andreyevich Kravchenko [20] [43] | April 1944 | United States | Not an intelligence officer |
| Mikhail Dmitriyevich Mondich [44] | August 1945 |  Germany | |
| Konstantin Dmitriyevich Volkov [45] | September 1945 |  Turkey | Offered to defect, but was caught after Kim Philby informed the NKVD |
| Michael Pines [46] | December 1945 |  Austria | |
| Sergey Naumovich Perlin [47] | March 1946 | Germany | |
| Anatoliy Mikhailovich Granovskiy [48] [49] | September 1946 |  Sweden | Resettled in Brazil; later immigrated to the United States |
| Aleksandr Stepanovich Kravchenko [50] | June 1947 | United States | |
| Boris Ivanovich Baklanov [51] | July 1947 | Austria  United Kingdom | |
| Vasiliy Mikhailovich Sharandak [20] [52] | August 1947 | Austria | |
| (Aleksandr Nikolayevich?) Rebrov [53] | 1947 | Germany | |
| Simas Pečiulionis [54] | April 1948 | Germany | |
| Aleksandr Nikolayevich Mikheyev [55] | August 1948 | Germany | |
| Boris Kupriyanovich Gurzhiev [56] | November 1948 | Germany | |
| Georgiy Ivanovich Samusev [57] | December 1948 | Germany | |
| Olga Yakovlevna Bentsianovskaya [58] | February 1949 | Germany United Kingdom | |
| Rafail Illych Goldfarb [59] | July 1949 | Germany | |
| Nikolay Ivanovich Bondarev [60] | July 1949 | Germany | |
| Ivan Matveyevich Grigoryev [61] | October 1949 | Germany | |
| Georgiy Vasilyevich Salimanov [62] | May 1950 | Germany | |
| Viktor Aleksandrovich Dubkov [63] | November 1952 | Germany | Captured on the battlefield in 1943; withheld his intelligence affiliation until 1952 |
| Grigoriy Stepanovich Burlutskiy [64] | June 1953 |  Afghanistan | Immigrated to Germany |
| Grigoriy Fedorovich Pavlov [65] | August 1953 |  Norway | |
| Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Brik [66] | November 1953 |  Canada | |
| Yuriy Aleksandrovich Rastvorov [20] [67] | January 1954 |  Japan | Brought to the United States |
| Petr Sergeyevich Deryabin [20] [43] [68] | February 1954 | Austria | Brought to the United States |
| Nikolay Yevgenyevich Khokhlov [69] | February 1954 | West Germany | Immigrated to the United States. Victim of thallium poisoning in 1957. Survived [70] |
| Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov [20] [43] [71] | 3 April 1954 |  Australia | Real name, Afanasiy Mikhailovich Shorokhov. Led to the Petrov Affair in Australia [72] |
| Yevdokiya Alekseyevna Petrova [73] | 19 April 1954 | Australia | Real name, Yevdokia Alexeyevna Kartseva. Led to the Petrov Affair in Australia [72] |
| Lars Edvin Lindström [74] | August 1954 | Sweden | |
| Reino Häyhänen | March 1957 | France | Died in a York, PA hospital. [75] Rumors of his death in a suspicious auto accident are erroneous. |
| Anatoliy Mikhailovich Golitsyn [43] | 15 December 1961 | Finland | |
| Bohdan Mykolayovych Stashynsky | August 1961 | West Berlin | |
| Yuri Vasilevich Krotkov | September 1963 | United Kingdom | KGB agent, not an officer |
| Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko [76] | February 1964 |  Switzerland | Authenticity of defection disputed [43] |
| Yuriy Aleksandrovich Bezmenov [77] | February 1970 | Canada | KGB co-optee, not an officer |
| Sergey Nikolayevich Kourdakov | 4 September 1971 | Canada | Intelligence agent, not an officer |
| Oleg Adolfovich Lyalin [43] | September 1971 | United Kingdom | |
| Imants Lešinskis [78] | September 1978 [79] | United States | |
| Aleksei Alekseyevich Myagkov [43] [80] | February 1974 | West Berlin | |
| Stanislav Aleksandrovich Levchenko [43] [81] | October 1979 | Japan | |
| Ilya Grigoryevich Dzhirkvelov [43] [82] | May 1980 | Switzerland | |
| Viktor Ivanovich Sheymov [83] | May 1980 | United States | |
| Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuzichkin [84] | June 1982 | Iran | |
| Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky [85] | 19 July 1985 | United Kingdom | Suspected poisoning in 2007. Survived [86] |
| Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko | August 1985 | Italy | Disputed (later returned to USSR) [43] |
| Oleg Agraniants [87] | May 1986 |  Tunisia | |
| Igor Nikolayevich Cherpinskiy [88] | April 1990 |  Belgium | |
| Sergey Sergeyevich Illarionov [89] | February 1991 | Italy | |
| Viktor Alekseyevich Oshchenko [90] | July 1992 | United Kingdom | |
| Vasiliy Nikitich Mitrokhin | September 1992 | Latvia | |
| Aleksandr Nikolayevich Poteyev | 26 June 2010 | United States | KGB colonel, later SVR officer. Multiple assassination attempts [91] [92] [93] |