Famous Soviet "defectors": why the successful and famous fled from the USSR, and how they lived abroad

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

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.

VICTOR BELENKO

This name is hardly known to many today. He was a Soviet pilot, an officer who conscientiously treated his military duties. Co-workers remember him with a kind word, as a person who did not tolerate injustice. Once, when in his regiment he spoke at a meeting with criticism of the conditions in which the families of officers lived, persecution of his superiors began against him. The zampolit threatened with expulsion from the party.

Fighting the system is like banging your head against a wall. And when the confrontation reached a boiling point, Victor's nerves could not stand it. During the next flights, his board disappeared from the tracking screens. Having overcome the air defense of the two countries, on September 6, 1976, Belenko landed at a Japanese airport, left the MiG-25 with his hands up, and was soon flown to the United States, having received the status of a political refugee.

The West glorified the Soviet pilot - the ace, who risked his life overcame the Iron Curtain. And for his compatriots, he forever remained a defector and a traitor. READ MORE …

VIKTOR SUVOROV

Vladimir Rezun (literary pseudonym - Viktor Suvorov) in Soviet times graduated from the Military Diplomatic Academy in Moscow and served as an officer of the GRU. In the summer of 1978, he and his family disappeared from an apartment in Geneva. Breaking his oath, he surrendered to British intelligence. As the reader later learned from his books, this happened because they wanted to blame him on the failure of the Swiss residency. A former Soviet intelligence officer was sentenced to death in absentia by a military tribunal. Currently, Viktor Suvorov is a British citizen, an Honorary Member of the International Union of Writers. His books "Aquarium", "Icebreaker", "Choice" and many others have been translated into twenty languages of the world and are very popular.

Today Suvorov teaches at the British Military Academy.

BELOUSOV and PROTOPOV

This legendary pair of skaters entered the "high sport" at a fairly mature age. They immediately captivated the viewer with their artistry and synchronicity. Not only on the ice, but also in life, Lyudmila and Oleg showed themselves as a single whole, having gone through moments of glory and persecution.

They walked towards their summit slowly but surely. They were their own choreographers and trainers. First they won the Union Championship, then the European Championship. And soon they made a splash at the Olympics in Innsbruck in 1964, and then, in 1968 at the World Championships, where, under the jubilant approval of the audience, the referees unanimously put them 6, 0.

Young people came to replace the star couple, and Belousova and Protopopov were openly pushed out of the ice arena, deliberately lowering the scores. But the couple was full of strength and creative plans, which were no longer destined to come true in their homeland.

During the next European tour, the stars decided not to return to the Union. They stayed in Switzerland, where they continued to do what they loved, although they did not receive citizenship for a long time. But they say that your place is where you can breathe freely, and not where the stamp in your passport indicates.

And recently Olympic champions 79-year-old Lyudmila Belousova and 83-year-old Oleg Prototopov took to the ice again.

ANDREY TARKOVSKY

He is called one of the most talented screenwriters and directors of all time. Many of Tarkovsky's colleagues openly admire his talent, considering him their teacher. Even the great Bergman said that Andrei Tarkovsky created a special cinema language in which life is a mirror. This is the name of one of his most popular tapes. "Mirror", "Stalker", "Solaris" and many other masterpieces of cinema, created by the brilliant Soviet director, still do not leave screens in all corners of the world.

In 1980, Tarkovsky went to Italy, where he began work on another film. From there, he sent a request to the Union so that his family would be allowed to go to him during filming for a period of three years, after which he undertakes to return to his homeland. The Central Committee of the CPSU refused this request to the director. And in the summer of 1984, Andrei announced his non-return to the USSR.

Tarkovsky was not deprived of Soviet citizenship, but a ban was imposed on showing his films in the country and mentioning the name of the exile in the press.

The master of cinema made his last film in Sweden, and soon died of lung cancer. At the same time, the ban on the demonstration of his films was lifted in the Union. Andrei Tarkovsky was awarded the Lenin Prize posthumously.

RUDOLF NURIEV

One of the most famous soloists of world ballet, Nureyev, in 1961, while on tour in Paris, asked for political asylum, but the French authorities refused him. Rudolph went to Copenhagen, where he danced successfully at the Royal Theater. Moreover, his homosexual tendencies were not condemned in this country.

Then the artist moved to London and for fifteen long years became the star of the English ballet and the idol of British fans of Terpsichore. Soon he received Austrian citizenship, and his popularity reached a peak: Nureyev gave up to three hundred performances annually.

In the 80s, Rudolph headed the ballet troupe of the theater in Paris, where he actively promoted young and handsome artists.

In the USSR, the dancer was allowed to enter only for three days in order to attend the mother's funeral, while limiting the circle of communication and movement. For the past ten years, Nuriev has lived with the HIV virus in his blood, died from complications of an incurable disease, and was buried in a Russian cemetery in France. READ MORE …

ALICE ROSENBAUM

Ayn Rand, née Alice Rosenbaum, is little known in Russia. The talented writer has lived most of her life in the United States, although she spent her childhood and adolescence in St. Petersburg.

The revolution of 1917 took away almost everything from the Rosenbaum family. And later, Alice herself lost her loved one in Stalin's dungeons and her parents during the blockade of Leningrad.

At the beginning of 1926, Alice went to study in the States, where she remained to live permanently. At first, she worked as a statistician at the Dream Factory, and then, after marrying an actor, she received American citizenship and became seriously involved in creativity. Already under the pseudonym Ayn Rand, she created scripts, stories and novels.

Although they tried to attribute her work to a certain political trend, Ayn said that she was not interested in politics, because it was a cheap way to become popular. Perhaps that is why the volume of sales of her books exceeded the sales of works of famous history creators, such as Karl Marx, for example.

ALEXANDER ALEKHIN

A famous chess player, world champion, Alekhine left for France for permanent residence in 1921. He was the first to win the title of world champion from the undefeated Capablanca in 1927.

Throughout his career as a chess player, Alekhine only once lost to his rival, but soon took revenge on Max Euwe, and remained the world champion until the end of his life.

During the war years, he took part in tournaments in Nazi Germany in order to somehow feed his family. Later, the chess players were going to boycott Alexander, accusing him of publishing anti-Semitic articles. Once "beaten" by him, Euwe even offered to deprive Alekhine of his well-deserved titles. But Max's selfish plans were not destined to come true.

In March 1946, on the eve of the match with Botvinnik, Alekhine was found dead. He was sitting in an armchair in front of a chessboard with pieces spaced apart. It has not yet been established which country's special services organized his asphyxiation.

Fyodor Chaliapin left his homeland at one time, about whose romance Iola Tornaghi was talking about - love with an Italian accent.