Soviet "defectors": How the life of outstanding scientists after their escape from the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The authorities preferred to keep silent about the fact that really great minds were leaving the Soviet Union. Only very high-profile cases became known when prominent actors or athletes did not return to their homeland. In fact, there were many more people who left the USSR forever. Among them were many talented scientists and even the Chairman of the State Bank. What was the fate of these people far from their homeland and did they not have to regret their choice?

Vladimir Ipatiev

After the revolution, the brilliant chemist, who was put on a par with Lomonosov and Mendeleev, refused to emigrate from Russia. He continued his scientific activities, founded several research institutes, headed Glavkhim (in fact, the Ministry of the Chemical Industry). However, with the beginning of the repressions, the scientist began to seriously fear for his life. The last straw was the arrests of his students and colleagues. Taking advantage of a trip to a congress in Germany in 1930, Vladimir Nikolaevich decided not to return to Russia.

Subsequently, he moved to the United States, where Ipatiev, suffering from throat cancer, was successfully operated on. The chemist worked at the University of Chicago and made several important discoveries. However, he missed his homeland immensely and dreamed of returning until his death in 1952.

Aron Sheinman

In 1921, after the creation of the State Bank of the RSFSR, he served as Chairman of the Board, later served as People's Commissar for Foreign Trade, and later became Chairman of the State Bank of the USSR. The decision not to return to the Soviet Union was made during a vacation in Germany in 1928, but during the negotiations a certain compromise was reached and Sheinman became chairman of Armtorg, which was engaged in Soviet-American trade. When in 1939 he was removed from office and obliged to return to the USSR, Aron Lvovich categorically refused, emigrated to Great Britain, where he died in 1944 from brain cancer.

Mikhail Voslensky

He defended his doctoral dissertations in history and philosophy, headed the department of history at the Peoples' Friendship University, and often traveled abroad from the Academy of Sciences and the Peace Committee. Nevertheless, in 1972, during a visit to Germany, he decided to stay in Germany. Worldwide fame to Mikhail Voslensky was brought by his book "Nomenclature", which analyzes the process of creation and formation of the party elite of the Soviet Union.

Lived and worked in Bonn, headed an institute dealing with the study of the Soviet era. He died in Germany in 1997.

Stanislav Kurilov

The idea of escaping from the Soviet Union originated in the oceanographer after he was several times denied the right to travel abroad on a business trip for various reasons. The formal reason for this was his sister, who lives in Canada.

Stanislav Kurilov used a cruise from Vladivostok to the equator to escape. The oceanographer studied the route for a long time and as a result jumped from the liner under cover of darkness near the Philippines. His swim lasted more than two days without interruption. According to Kurilov, this would have been impossible without long-term yoga classes, which the scientist studied from samizdat collections. Before returning to his academic career, he worked as a laborer in Canada. In recent years he lived and worked in Israel, where he tragically died in 1998, entangled in nets under water.

Victor Korchnoi

This chess player, who refused to return in 1976 from a tournament in Amsterdam, was called a dissident and a fighter against the regime. However, Viktor Korchnoi himself always said: the only reason for his failure to return is the desire to play chess. He wanted to participate in international tournaments and championships, but in the Soviet Union this would have been impossible, since they were betting on young chess players. When the chess player was reminded of criticism of the authorities, he easily countered: the authorities started first.

Viktor Korchnoi played chess until the end of his life. He died at the age of 85 and was the oldest playing grandmaster in the world.

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Boris Bazhanov

He served as Stalin's personal secretary (assistant), attended meetings of the Politburo. Bazhanov had no influence and weight in political society, since he was not an independent figure, but he was aware of many things, the disclosure of which was unacceptable. After working with Stalin, he worked as an editor and worked in the sports committee.

According to his own recollections, the escape was caused by disillusionment with communist ideas. In 1938, he crossed the Soviet-Persian border, and then the Persian-Indian border. As a result of all the transitions, he ended up in France. They tried to eliminate Bazhanov several times, but all attempts were unsuccessful. In France, Boris Bazhanov published in 1930 the book "Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary", which brought him worldwide fame. During the Soviet-Finnish war, he fought against the USSR, and during the Great Patriotic War he was a candidate for the post of head of an alternative government, which was supposed to be created in the event of a German victory. He died in 1982.

Nikolay Timofeev-Resovsky

An outstanding biologist working in radiation genetics, he worked in Germany for more than ten years. However, in 1937, the scientist received a refusal to extend the validity of his passport and insistent recommendations to return to the USSR. Perhaps a biologist would have done just that, but in the Land of the Soviets, many scientists, including genetic biologists, have already fallen under the skating rink of repression. Nikolai Vladimirovich was informed about the upcoming troubles by his teacher Nikolai Koltsov.

In 1945, after the liberation of Berlin, the scientist was arrested and sent to the Soviet Union, where he served his sentence, and then took part in the work on the creation of the atomic bomb. He was rehabilitated in 1955, after which he was able to write and defend his doctoral dissertation and freely engage in science. He passed away in 1981.

The term "defector" appeared in the Soviet Union with the light hand of one of the State Security officers and came into use as a sarcastic stigma for people who left the country of the heyday of socialism for life in decaying capitalism. In those days, this word was akin to anathema, and the relatives of the "defectors" who remained in a happy socialist society were also persecuted. The reasons that pushed people to break through the "Iron Curtain" were different, and their fates also developed in different ways.