Igor Gouzenko's Memoir

On September 5, 1945, three days after the end of WWII, 26 year-old Igor Gouzenko fled the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa with an array of confidential documents containing proof that the Soviets were recruiting Canadians as spies in order to obtain their nuclear information. His name ignited a fiery controversy during the Cold War, and the authenticity of his claims are still questioned today. Both Canadians and Soviets alike insist that selfishness and money or lack thereof were his arterial motives when defecting. Although Gouzenko was secured a life in Canada and there were some compensations in that regard, Gouzenko exposed the Soviet spy ring for Canada’s benefit – not his own, which is evident in his character, the hardships he faced and the

Having trained at the Soviet Military Intelligence as cipher clerk, Gouzenko was trusted with encoding communications to and from Moscow from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. It was then that he independently discovered the secret network of spies in Canada who were attaining atomic classifieds for the Soviets. Appallingly enough for Gouzenko, the espionage was chiefly run by Colonel Zabotin, a communist who he worked under the command of. However, Gouzenko himself was not a communist, and did not support socialism. He had faced the overwhelming totalitarian lifestyle and knew how lucky he and his family were when they moved to Canada, for what they offered in the matter of freedoms was far more gratifying then that of the Soviet Union. This was Gouzenko’s reasoning when he defected; his motivation was to protect this way of life. His wife later stated that he knew of the hardships that would follow after betraying the Soviet Union, yet he upheld his decision because this was the one and only time chance he had to fight for his freedom. Therefore his motives can be respected as heroic. When the time came, Gouzenko would not return to his homeland where communism reigned while knowing that this scandal had to be brought to light. This dangerous course of action is the greatest testament of his loyalty to Canada, his adoptive country in which he chose to

The night Gouzenko defected, he risked his life when he and his family hid in the neighboring apartment across the hall from their own. Not only was this the night he escaped his capture, but possible murder as well. Here, it is apparent that Gouzenko’s claims in no means were taken lightly after his defection. Thus began the moment Gouzenko’s life was constantly in danger. After this incident, Gouzenko and his family were granted political asylum, a human right that is not just given to any refugee. For the Canadian government, declaring political asylum upon the Gouzenko’s indicated that they were facing serious persecution in their homeland, which they were. During his time at Camp X, Igor Gouzenko was interrogated by several internal security services but was not paid a single cent, contrary to the belief of those who doubted him. Truthfully, life at the camp was not one of luxury. As his wife recalls, “We were just fed and sheltered.” There is no exaggeration in this statement, and that was as far as the Gouzenko’s were accommodated, seeing as they were forced to bath themselves in the lake located in the camp for the entire time that they were there. The hardships did not end there. Additionally, though the Government of Canada did grant Gouzenko political asylum along with a new identity, they did not provide a shred of identification papers for him and his family.