List_of_Eastern_Bloc_defectors

List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors

List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors

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Soon after the formation of the Soviet Union, emigration restrictions were put in place to keep citizens from leaving the various countries of the Soviet Socialist Republics,[1] though some defections still occurred. During and after World War II, similar restrictions were put in place in non-Soviet countries of the Eastern Bloc,[2] which consisted of the Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe (except for non-aligned Yugoslavia).[3][4]

Until 1952, however, the Inner German border between East Germany and West Germany could be easily crossed in most places.[5] Accordingly, before 1961, most of that east–west flow took place between East and West Germany, with over 3.5 million East Germans emigrating to West Germany before 1961.[6][7] On August 13, 1961, a barbed-wire barrier, which would become the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin, was erected by East Germany.[8]

Although international movement was, for the most part, strictly controlled, there was a steady loss through escapees who were able to use ingenious methods to evade frontier security.[9] Numerous notable Eastern Bloc citizens defected to non-Eastern Bloc countries.[10]

The following list of Eastern Bloc defectors contains notable defectors from East Germany, the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Albania before those countries' conversions from Communist states in the early 1990s.

List of defections

More information Defector, Profession/ Prominence ...

See also

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Dowty 1989, p. 69
  2. [2]
    Dowty 1989, p. 114
  3. [3]
    Eastern bloc, The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
  4. [4]
    Hirsch, Donald, Joseph F. Kett, James S. Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, ISBN 0-618-22647-8, page 230
  5. [5]
    Dowty 1989, p. 121
  6. [6]
    Mynz 1995, p. 2.2.1
  7. [7]
    Senate Chancellery, Governing Mayor of Berlin, The construction of the Berlin Wall Archived 2014-04-02 at the Wayback Machine states "Between 1945 and 1961, around 3.6 million people left the Soviet zone and East Berlin"
  8. [8]
    Pearson 1998, p. 75
  9. [9]
    Turnock 1997, p. 19
  10. [10]
    Krasnov 1985, p. 2
  11. [11]
    ALASKA magazine June 1971, and July 1972, articles by Frank J. Daugherty
  12. [12]
    "Professor Grigori Tokaty". The Independent. 2003-11-25. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  13. [13]
    G.S. Trice, Specialist/4, Dossier Number H8047134, U.S. Army Investigative Records Repository, 7 March 1974: contains such CIC records of Nesti Josifi Kopali as IDENTIFICATION F-2542 (11 Jan 1952), D-296877 (1 Nov 1951), File II-5092 (14 June 1951 – 18 Sept 1951). While these documents are the only known paperwork available to the public, various government officials active during the early 1950s acknowledged knowing about Kopali and some of his zany behavior.
  14. [14]
    TEAM SUZUKI by Ray Battersby (2008) Parker House Publishing ISBN 0-9796891-5-5
  15. [15]
    "Sovietologist Leopold Labedz, who met her in 1968, first noticed it in 1981: "She was getting soft on papochka." Once she had acknowledged Stalin's personal responsibility for the death of millions; now she called him a prisoner of Communist ideology. Her new book contained hardly any criticism of her father. She probably felt she had betrayed him. "My father would have shot me for what I have done", she often said during her final year in Britain." Patricia Blake, Time, 28 January 1985
  16. [16]
    Natalia Makarova Dances Again With the Kirov. The New York Times, August 8, 1988
  17. [17]
    Raymond Keene. Viktor Korchnoi: Fearless Competitor of World chess. Archived 2007-10-29 at the Wayback Machine chessville.com
  18. [18]
    Turmoil on the Tarmac. Time magazine, September 3, 1979
  19. [19]
    KGB Kidnapping. Time magazine, October 22, 1979
  20. [20]
    Russians Call Defection Of Shostakovich 'Personal'. The New York Times, April 28, 1981
  21. [21]
    "Rurarz (Zdzislaw) papers". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
  22. [22]
    "Two transplants and the wild hockey life of Miroslav Fryčer". Toronto Sun. 27 October 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  23. [23]
    Dirk Schlegel and Falko Götz: The East Berlin footballers who fled from the Stasi, BBC Sport, 5 November 2019
  24. [24]
    "A Soviet Defector Is Granted Permission to Stay in Britain". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 26, 1983. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  25. [25]
    "Evadare din comunism cu avionul de vânătoare". adevarul.ro. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  26. [26]
    "Chinese Army Major Defects To South Korea With His Wife". The New York Times. July 30, 1989.
  27. [27]
    Karas, Steffen (2022). 66 Jahre BFC Dynamo – Auswärts mit 'nem Bus (2nd ed.). Berlin: CULTURCON medien, Sole trader: Bernd Oeljeschläger. p. 135. ISBN 978-3-944068-95-4.

References
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