A grudge against Soviet rule, desire for a better life and fear of repressions at the hands of their superiors were among the main reasons that prompted these Soviet intelligence operatives to switch sides.
1. Igor Guzenko
When, in the fall of 1944, GRU operative Igor Guzenko, stationed at the time at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, was told he was being recalled to Moscow, the news did not sit well with him. The operative was by then used to a comfortable Western lifestyle and did not at all wish to return to the USSR, which was still dealing with the catastrophic aftermath of World War II. However, the only thing he could accomplish was to postpone his departure.
On September 6, 1945, Guzenko went to the immigration bureau in Canada with a request to grant him citizenship. Word quickly reached Prime-Minister WL Mackenzie King, as well as the Soviet embassy, which ended up discovering that a number of secret code books and sensitive decoding materials had gone missing. Four Soviet agents were sent to his apartment on the night he was found out, but Guzenko and his family spent it at their neighbors’ house. The following day, the family was placed under protection by the Canadian police.
