Plaque erected to honour Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko
A bronze plaque was erected in Ottawa Thursday to commemorate the bravery of Igor Gouzenko, the Soviet embassy cipher clerk whose defection in 1945 marked the beginning of the Cold War.
- CBC ARCHIVES: The Gouzenko Affair
The plaque was unveiled in a ceremony at the National Library and Archives and then moved to its permanent location in downtown Dundonald Park, opposite the apartment building where Gouzenko lived with his pregnant wife, Svetlana, and their baby boy.
Gouzenko left the Soviet embassy on Sept. 5, 1945, with 109 secret documents that revealed a Soviet spy ring had penetrated key government departments, the Canadian military and a laboratory with access to secrets of the atomic bomb.
His revelations led to major investigations in Canada, the U.S. and Britain and resulted in dozens of arrests.
Family hid
The terrified family hid for two days in a neighbour's apartment, watching through a keyhole while Soviet agents ransacked their place, before the government and the RCMP took an interest in his story.
Gouzenko's daughter, Evelyn Wilson, says her parents were keenly aware of the risk they were taking by defecting.
"They did not expect to live more than three days," she said.
Gouzenko worried about retaliation for the rest of his life, living anonymously in a suburb west of Toronto and wearing a bag over his head during appearances in public and on television.
Gouzenko died in 1982, but a headstone bearing his name was not erected on the grave until his wife was buried beside him in 2001.
The plaque, which was approved by the federal Historic Sites and Monuments Board, joins one placed in the small park by the City of Ottawa last year.