Soviet Defectors

Overview

The topic of defection is taboo in the USSR, and the Soviets, are anxious to silence, downplay, or distort every case of defection. Surprisingly, Vladislav Krasnov reports, the free world has often played along with these Soviet efforts by treating defection primarily as a secretive matter best left to bureaucrats. As a result, defectors' human rights have sometimes been violated, and U.S. national security interests have been poorly served.

Author Biography

Vladislav Krasnov is a former editor of Radio Moscow's foreign language broadcasts who defected in Sweden in 1962. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, Seattle, and is author of Solhzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky (University of Georgia Press, 1980).