For two decades, the burial site of a former Soviet code clerk who exposed a clandestine espionage network in Canada remained unmarked in a cemetery in Mississauga, Ontario. The grave of Igor Gouzenko and his wife Svetlana lacked a headstone due to lingering concerns of reprisal from Moscow. Since 2002, their gravesite has been recognized by a sizable Muskoka rock with a plaque inscribed with their names and the statement “We chose freedom for mankind.”
A modest assembly gathered at the grave this past weekend to commemorate 80 years since Gouzenko’s defection from the Soviet Union, sneaking 109 confidential documents out of the Ottawa embassy in his shirt and delivering them to the offices of the Ottawa Journal newspaper in 1945. Known as the Gouzenko Affair, this defection is regarded by some historians as the initial spark of the Cold War.
Reflecting nearly a century later from the Springcreek Cemetery in Mississauga, Gouzenko’s daughter Evy Wilson remarked that her parents acted impulsively with a singular objective in mind. “They wanted to alert the West,” Wilson stated. “That was their sole mission – to warn the West about the Soviet possession of nuclear weaponry, specifically the atomic bomb.”
Wilson emphasized the significance of commemorating the defection, particularly in the current climate of heightened tensions between Western nations and Russia in light of the Ukraine conflict.
In the same year as Gouzenko’s defection, the defeat of Hitler’s fascist forces in World War II and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred. On September 5, 1945, Gouzenko absconded with documents that exposed a Soviet spy ring operating within Canada, infiltrating crucial government departments, the Canadian military, and a laboratory with access to atomic bomb secrets.
“The documents unveiled a unique insight into their principal mission, which revolved around atomic bomb development,” explained Wilson, who was born in 1946 near Oshawa, Ontario, at Camp X, North America’s first specialized spy training center.
The revelation of extensive Soviet espionage through the stolen documents sparked widespread concern among Western authorities. Gouzenko lived in perpetual fear of retaliation, residing anonymously in a Toronto suburb and concealing his face with a bag during televised appearances.
A bronze plaque honoring Gouzenko was installed in Ottawa’s Dundonald Park in 2004, situated across from the brown brick apartment building on Somerset Street where he resided with his family prior to defecting. Gouzenko passed away in 1982, and his headstone was only erected after his wife’s burial beside him in 2001.
Attendee Don Mahar, who moved from Saskatchewan to Ottawa in 1976 to join the RCMP Security Service, was present at the ceremony in Mississauga. Mahar, who later specialized in counterintelligence, remarked on the personal significance of the anniversary, symbolizing the completion of a chapter from his early days as a Mountie to the present.
Mahar underscored the importance of acknowledging Gouzenko’s role in shedding light on the Soviet threat during the Cold War era, revealing that the Soviets were engaged in espionage against Western nations and were not the allies they were perceived to be.
Wilson expressed hope that the anniversary would shed light on this historical chapter, especially at a time when nuclear proliferation poses grave global risks. “Both my parents firmly believed they made the correct decision until their last breath,” she concluded.