How Did Igor Gouzenko's Involvement In The Cold War?

How would you feel if you defected to another country and spent the rest of your life under Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) protection out of fear of Soviet reprisals? This is exactly what Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko faced in September of 1945 when he and his family defected to Canada. Igor Gouzenko stole over 100 documents that he had accumulated from his time working as a cipher clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. These documents implicated that Canadians were involved in espionage against their own country and detailed the efforts of a Soviet spy ring in Canada. Subsequently, I will emphasize Igor Gouzenko’s life, Canada’s involvement in the early Cold War period when he defected to Canada, and his involvement in some of the central events at the beginning of the Cold War in this

In the summer of 1939, Igor Gouzenko was invited to go as an instructor to a Pioneer Camp near Moscow. Shortly after returning to the Architectural Institute, Igor was admitted into The Kuibishev Military Engineering Academy of Moscow. Before even finishing a month at The Academy, Igor was appointed for training as a cipher clerk in the Intelligence Administration. Thus, Igor Gouzenko’s appointment as a cipher clerk would lead to his defection to Canada, the Gouzenko Affair, and the beginnings of the Cold War.

Igor Gouzenko’s defection to Canada in September of 1945 was “...One of the first shots fired in the Cold War”. The beginning of the Cold War started shortly after Gouzenko’s defection. The Cold War refers to a period of political and military tension beginning after World War II and ending in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Cold War pitted the capitalist powers of the Western Bloc (the United States & its NATO allies) against the communist powers of the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its allies). According to J. L Black and Martin