The Gouzenko Affair: Russia's Cold War Information & Influence Operations

Active Measures

In this episode, we’ll look at Russia’s historic information and influence operations in the western world and specifically Canada, with renowned historian Professor Amy W. Knight who is described by the New York Times as the world’s foremost scholar on the KGB. We’re going to step back to 1945 when a soviet military intelligence cipher clerk, Igor Gouzenko stationed at the soviet embassy in Ottawa, left the embassy one night with a suitcase full of top secret files , those files contained detailed information about the Canadian and other western agents and assets who were helping the soviets advance their interests in the democratic world . The files Gouzenko handed over to Canadian authorities uncovered soviet assets inside government and academia and led to the conviction of 11 Canadians involved in soviet spying and influence operations. And it brought global attention to the threat of soviet influence operations in the western world. In 2005 Amy Knight published a book about Gouzenko and his defection entitled “How the Cold War Began: The Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet spies” . In this episode, your host – Marcus Kolga - speaks with Professor Knight from her home in New Jersey.