In September 1945, a young Russian man symbolically ushered in the Cold War when he walked into Ottawa newsroom and announced he had proof of a widespread Soviet spy ring operating in Canada.
In 1945, Igor Gouzenko and his family received new identities from the Canadian government after the young Russian Embassy cipher clerk announced he had proof of a widespread spy ring in Canada. Pictured here, Gouzenko wears a hood to conceal his identity
In 1945, Igor Gouzenko and his family received new identities from the Canadian government after the young Russian Embassy cipher clerk announced he had proof of a widespread spy ring in Canada. Pictured here, Gouzenko wears a hood to conceal his identity while appearing on television in 1966. (National Archives of Canada, PA-129625)
"It's war. It's Russia," he told the night editor of the Ottawa Journal.
Hitler's fascist forces had just been defeated in the Second World War. And the Soviet Union had been an ally to the West during the war. But this event would help fuel anti-Communist sentiments throughout the western world.
The man who touched off the political crisis was Igor Gouzenko. Gouzenko had spent part of the Second World War at the Soviet Embassy in Canada, as a cipher clerk, encoding communications to Moscow.
