Mrs Petrov’s Shoe: The True Story of a KGB Defection
Wilhelm Agrell, "Mrs Petrov’s Shoe: The True Story of a KGB Defection"
English | ISBN: 1788314603 | 2019 | 256 pages | PDF | 2 MB
English | ISBN: 1788314603 | 2019 | 256 pages | PDF | 2 MB
On April 19, 1954, the world was gripped by an unfolding drama at Sydney Airport. A small, seemingly fragile woman, was being aggresively marched to an awaiting plane by two burly men. Evdokia Petrova was the wife of Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov who, two weeks earlier, had defected from the embassy in Canberra after a prolonged 'cultivation' by the Australian Security Service, supported by MI5. Evdokia was now being hurried back to Moscow by the KGB. The subsequent intervention by Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies kept the world's media on tenterhooks.
But who was the couple at the center of this global news story?
After the defection, it turned out that Evdokia was, in fact, an even bigger catch than her husband. With a background both in cryptological work in Moscow and in field operations, she was able to supply Western intelligence with a wealth of information and insight into the workings of the Soviet intelligence system.
With access to newly-released archives and sources, this book sheds extraordinary new light on the two people at the heart of the Petrov Affair, one of the most bizarre stories of the Cold War era.
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