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Igor Sergeievich Gouzenko, born January 13^th 1919 at Rogachov, Russia, became a member of Komsomol (Youth Communist League) at the age of sixteen.  He attended the Moscow Engineering Academy and the Moscow Architectural Institute.  In 1941 he was sent to the Red Army military intelligence school in Moscow after which he was posted to the Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie (GRU).  The GRU, the intelligence arm of the Red Army, was primarily responsible for the collection of foreign military and scientific intelligence.  Gouzenko soon entered the war where he fought against the Nazis, earning a commission in the Red Army.  Upon his return from the war, he received specialized training in coding and cypher work, and in June 1943 he was posted to Ottawa as part of the Soviet legation.  Gouzenko’s wife Svetlana,  pregnant with their first child, arrived soon afterwards by ship.

The Gouzenkos rented a small apartment located at 511 Somerset Street, Ottawa.  Every day Gouzenko would make his way to the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) located at 285 Charlotte Street, Ottawa.  Gouzenko, whose GRU code name was Klark, worked in one of eight small offices (room 12) located on the second floor of the Embassy.  The wing containing his office was separated from the rest of the Embassy by double steel doors and bars on all the windows.  These rooms housed the cypher clerks for various branches of the Soviet Embassy including the GRU and the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Narodnyy Komisariat Vnutrennikh Del or NKVD).

The GRU mission was run by Colonel Nikolai Zabotin and operated out of 14 Range Road, Ottawa.  Zabotin’s Range Road office was fully equipped with state-of-the-art photographic equipment installed for the purpose of copying sensitive documents for forwarding directly to Moscow.  Zabotin had an establishment of 14 GRU officers involved in espionage operations under his command.

The Gouzenkos came to enjoy their life in the West.  However, in September 1944, a telegram was received by Colonel Zabotin ordering the Gouzenkos back to Moscow.  GRU Cypher Clerks are generally recalled after one year and in this case the Gouzenkos were already breaking with protocol.  Fortunately, Zabotin was able to intervene on Gouzenko’s behalf, arguing that Gouzenko should remain at his post, at least for the interim, as his skills were essential for processing the tremendous increase in cypher traffic.  But in August 1945 a second telegram arrived from Moscow, this time instructing Gouzenko and his family to return to Russia immediately.

Gouzenko struggled with the notion of remaining in the West rather than returning to Russia.  He was surprised by the individual freedoms which Canadians enjoyed, freedoms which according to Soviet propaganda did not exist.  Gouzenko was particularly saddened by what was happening behind the scenes.  Canadians who had risked their lives helping the Soviet people during the war were now targets of the Soviet intelligence apparatus aimed at undermining the Canadian government, its institutions and freedoms.

It was under the influence of such considerations that Gouzenko decided to leave his homeland and take with him a large number of documents which would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the GRU and perhaps other Russian intelligence services had been operating a sophisticated spy network in Canada.

On September 5^th 1945 at approximately 8:00 pm, Gouzenko, armed with 109 highly sensitive documents, left the Soviet Embassy for the last time.  Immediately following his departure, he approached a local Ottawa newspaper and attempted to convince the newspaper to publish his story.  The newspaper refused and Gouzenko returned to his apartment.  The following day, September 6^th, Gouzenko, with his wife and child in tow,  left their apartment early in the morning and camped out at the Federal Justice Building with the hope of meeting with the Minister of Justice.  After waiting all morning they were told that the Minister could not see them.  Distraught over being rejected, the Gouzenkos tried again to contact somebody in the media but again with no success.  Thinking that their days were numbered and that they would eventually be handed over to the Soviets, the Gouzenkos  returned to their small apartment at 7:00 pm the same evening.   Apprehensive about his personal safety and that of his wife and child, Gouzenko paid a visit to his neighbour in apartment 5, an RCAF serviceman named Corporal Harold Main.  Gouzenko asked Cpl. Main if he and his wife Mildred would take their small son into their house as he believed that Russians from the Soviet Embassy were going to try and kill them.  Upon observing several suspicious men in front of the apartment and another in the alley however, Gouzenko changed his request and asked if the Mains would take him and his wife into their apartment as well.   As the commotion could be heard throughout the apartment, the wife of another tenant residing in apartment 6 (Mrs. Elliot) came out and offered to take the Gouzenkos into her apartment for the night or until the police could be summoned.  Cpl. Main immediately left the apartment on his bicycle to alert the police.  Later two Ottawa City police officers arrived on the scene.  The officers interviewed Gouzenko, who at the time was hiding in apartment 6.  He explained to the officers who he was and that he feared for his life.  The police said that they would keep a watch over the apartment during the night.

At approximately midnight four men came to Gouzenko’s apartment and knocked on the door.  When no one answered they broke into the apartment and proceeded to ransack the premises.  Upon hearing the noise, Cpl. Main (in apartment 5) called the police, who immediately responded and confronted the Russians.  The police asked the Russian officials what they were doing in the apartment then asked them for identification.  The Russians identified themselves and informed the officers that they were looking for papers which belonged to the Soviet Embassy.  The Russians ordered the police out of the apartment but the police refused to go.  Eventually the Russians left the apartment.  The Gouzenkos spent the remainder the night in apartment 6 under police protection.  At approximately 4:00 am another visitor arrived at the apartment but left without incident.  The following morning, September 7^th,  the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived at the apartment.  Gouzenko handed over his documents to the RCMP and he, his wife and son were placed in protective custody.

In the interim, Norman Robertson , Under Secretary of the State for External Affairs, had been briefed about the Gouzenkos but did not share the same sentiment as some of his colleagues.  While attending a function at the Royal Ottawa Golf and Country Club, Robertson mentioned the episode to William Stephenson, Head of British Security Coordination (BSC), who was in Ottawa on other business.  Upon learning from Robertson of Gouzenko’s plight, Stephenson persuaded Robertson to stay the course and not hand Gouzenko over to the Soviets.

On September 8^th the Department of External Affairs received a note from the Soviet Embassy accusing Igor Gouzenko of having stolen some money from the Embassy and they demanded that  Gouzenko be arrested and returned to the Embassy for deportation back to the USSR.

In the following months, despite numerous protestations from the Soviet Embassy, Gouzenko and his family continued to be held in protective custody by the RCMP.  Gouzenko (aka the Corby case) was debriefed extensively by Inspector Leopold and other members of the RCMP’s Special Branch and members of the BSC.  The 109 documents brought out by Gouzenko were examined in considerable detail by Canadian authorities and were determined to be of exceptional intelligence value revealing an extensive Soviet spy ring operating in Canada, Britain and the USA.

On February 5^th 1946 the Canadian Government appointed Justices Robert Taschereau and R. L. Kellock to head a Commission of enquiry into the Gouzenko Affair.  The Commission, pursuant to Order in Council (P.C. 411), was ordered to investigate the facts relating to and the circumstances surrounding the communications by public officials and other persons in positions of trust of secret and confidential information to agents of a foreign power.

A number of individuals occupying positions of trust (both Canadian and British) were named by the Commission as having participated in a spy ring.  Gouzenko was also able to provide the code names of several other agents believed to be occupying high level positions within government circles.  While some of these individuals were exposed, subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison, others managed to elude detection till many years later.

During the Commission of Enquiry, George McClellan and Herb Spanton of the RCMP were tasked to relocate Gouzenko somewhere secure outside Ottawa for the duration of the hearings.  During discussions about various locations, the old farm house adjacent to Camp X (aka Oshawa Wireless) was raised as a possible venue.  The site was considered suitable as it was isolated yet had good road access and protection by the Armed Forces detachment located at the entrance to the Camp.

Soon after Gouzenko, his wife (pregnant with their second child) and their young son were unceremoniously moved to the old farm house adjacent to the Camp, where they were held in protective custody until other more permanent arrangements could be made.  The house had not been lived in for a while and had to be cleaned up before the Gouzenkos could be moved in with their RCMP body guards

Gouzenko would continue to be debriefed by members of the RCMP, FBI and BSC for the duration of his stay at the old farm house.  In their spare time the Gouzenkos would write, paint and care for their child.  Not long after there arrival at the farm Mrs. Gouzenko, accompanied by a Russian speaking RCMP officer using an assumed name, attended at Oshawa General Hospital where she gave birth to their second child (Evy).

Eventually the Gouzenkos were issued with new identification and resettled in Southern Ontario under the watchful eye of the RCMP Security Service. 

Highly intelligent and creative individuals, the Gouzenkos,  inspired by their newly found freedom, became accomplished writers and artists.  Igor Gouzenkos’ memoirs, This Was My Choice were published  in 1948 and in 1954 he wrote Fall of a Titan which earned him the Governor General’s award.  Svetlana Gouzenko was an avid gardener and like her husband also loved to paint landscapes.   

The Gouzenkos went on to raise eight children.  In later years, Igor Gouzenko suffered from serious diabetes and died June 25^th 1982.  His wife and stalwart supporter passed away September 4^th 2001.  They were laid to rest in unmarked graves.  On September 5^th 2002, the Gouzenko family, accompanied by a small gathering of government officials and friends, assembled at their parents’ final resting place in Mississauga where a memorial service was conducted to pay tribute to the Gouzenkos in recognition of their courageous flight to the West.  A headstone engraved with their real names was unveiled marking the end of an era shrouded for decades in secrecy - a very special day for the Gouzenko family and an important moment in intelligence history.  

Igor Gouzenko’s flight to freedom, shocked Canada out of its post war complacency into the harsh realities of the cold war.  Gouzenko, up to this time, was undoubtedly the most important Soviet intelligence officer to seek political asylum in the West.  His revelations not only exposed the magnitude of Soviet spying in Western countries, a fact not immediately comprehended by the Government, but his message also exposed serious deficiencies in security policies and procedures, which was clearly illustrated during the report of the Royal Commission.      

References:

• Bothwell, Robert. AGouzenko@ in The Canadian Encyclopedia, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart c1999)

• Brown, Anthony Cave. Treason in the Blood. Boston: Houghton Mifflin c1994.

• Canada. Royal Commission to Investigate the Facts Relating to and the Circumstances Surrounding the Communication, by Public Officials and Other Persons in Positions of Trust of Secret and Confidential Information to Agents of a Foreign Power.  The Report of the Royal Commission, appointed under Order in Council P. C. 411 of February 5, 1946 (Gouzenko Report). Ottawa: E Cloutier, 1946.

• Gouzenko family.  Personal interviews 2002 / 2003.

• Polmar, Norman, and Thomas B. Allen. Spy Book: The Encyclopaedia of Espionage. New York: Random House,1998.

• Romerstein, Herbert, and Eric Breindel. The Venona Secrets. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2000.

• Sawatsky, John. Gouzenko: The Untold Story. Toronto: Macmillan 1984.