Talk:List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors

Lack of any perceived order in the list
Why is this haphazard list arranged neither chronologically nor alphabetically (in either the order of Latin or Russian alphabets)?

Seems rather unprofessional this way... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.245.66.123 (talk) 12:24, 30 May 2010 (UTC)


 * True.Nerissa-Marie (talk) 23:56, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It now appears to alphebetically arranged. Methinks, it had better be left separate from the "Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors", as the subject is more specific.Axxxion (talk) 19:49, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I am talking of List of KGB defectors.Axxxion (talk) 19:50, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

What about Lee Harvey Oswald? He was the most famous of this list by far. He was originally an American defector, but then he defected back. He is the only one I am aware of to do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.77.149.174 (talk) 23:52, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Michael Goleniewski
Goleniewski was not working for polish military intelligence!!!! For some time he was deputy of Main Directorate of Information, witch was from 1944-57 military counterintelligence. A lot mastakes was made cose the name of the MDI/GZI. At the time of his defection Goleniewski was worning for Interior Ministry in First Department (foreign intelligence) he was chead of Section VI wich was responseble for   economic, scientific and technological espionage --MX (talk) 14:19, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

KGB defectors
KGB = Soviet CIA. In the early 1960s, I was tenor soloist with the Cornell U. Glee Club and we had an engagement in the USSR, primarily Moscow and Leningrad. There were over 50 of us and (I learned later) 5 KGB agents had been assigned to look after us, surreptitiously.

I walked around Moscow, unaccompanied (I thought), and encountered one young, English-speaking male who invited me to his family home for dinner. It was pleasant. The young man interpreted for all of us. I returned, late, to our hotel.

Early in the AM I went downstairs for breakfast. A gentleman came over to me and whispered in my ear to the effect that he was a KGB agent assigned to follow me and had lost me last evening. He asked that I not tell anyone as he would be thrown into the gulag (prison) for failure to perform his duties. He was serious and I smothered a laugh.

I had enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army for 3 years in the latter 1950s. Although I played a quite minor role, my army branch was affiliated with US intelligence functions and it appeared that the Soviets had run thorough background checks on all of us, else I cannot imagine why Soviet intelligence would assign an agent to follow an American farm boy, singing with his college glee club.

Hopefully, that youngish man's error was not discovered. I guess that I now understand the paranoia of the time, and am pleased no end that US-Soviet antipathies seem to be forgotten in a remote past. I also suspect that many KGB people who were exposed to the citizenry of other countries (and, in some instances, to the actual countries)were tempted to defect. As open-minded as I appear to be, I can imagine staying in the USSR (as contrasted with any Western country) only because of a wish to remain physically close to family.

I wonder if the glee club is considering a tour of North Africa and the Middle East? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.60.181.33 (talk) 17:49, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

Break across 1944
Is there any particular reason or reasons why the list is broken into two tables across 1944? (Sorry if I've missed it.) 213.246.91.108 (talk) 07:49, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree. There is no particular reason to create a cutoff at 1944. Also, it would help if this whole list were rearranged chronologically (by year) and then alphabetically (by surname). Zloyvolsheb (talk) 15:13, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Should Liliana Gasinskaya be added
See http://www.smh.com.au/national/bikini-girl-who-made-a-splash-20091231-ll1h.html 18 July 2013 Jswd (talk) 09:23, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Some east germans should be added
Thomas Kretschmann (actor) http://www.tv.com/people/thomas-kretschmann/biography/ Richard Z. Kruspe (musician) http://www.mtv.com/artists/richard-z-kruspe/biography/

Ivan Lendl
Should Ivan Lendl be added? He was born in Czechoslovakia and played under the Czechoslovakian flag until 1992 when he decided to play under the USA flag.Perfectamundo (talk) 22:16, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

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Birthplace
The column called "birthplace" is supposed to indicate from which country these people defected. However, to break up the former Soviet Union into consitituent republics makes no sense, as it places these countries on par with countries such as East Germany, Poland, etc, in effect saying that people were defeting from the Ukraine, Lithuania, etc., which is not the case — they were defecting from the Soviet Union. Rui &#39;&#39;Gabriel&#39;&#39; Correia (talk) 10:25, 16 September 2017 (UTC)


 * I believe the specific soviet republic is relevant as an indication of their situation prior to defecting, as some internal antipathies did unofficially exist in the USSR. This is most notable for the Estonian defector on the list.  94.145.25.69 (talk) 20:23, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

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Wolfgang Leonhard
He was deleted from this list on 9/16/17 by Rui &#39;&#39;Gabriel&#39;&#39; Correia, but seems to belong on it - he was a political and intellectual leader of East Germany who fled to Yugoslavia and then to the West. I would reinstate him. Sullidav (talk) 18:51, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

He is described as a defector, for example, here his Times obit subhead and here Chrstian Sci Monitor headline and here George W Bush autobiography Sullidav (talk) 20:14, 31 October 2019 (UTC)

List incomplete for strategically important defectors
I would define a strategically important defector as someone with knowledge of military or secret things, typically people with military, diplomatic or political positions. This as contrasted with the artists, athletes, intelligentsia and even children that crowd the current list. 94.145.25.69 (talk) 20:30, 5 June 2023 (UTC)