1945-46 Gouzenko Affair

| Copyright Dominique Clément / Clément Consulting

This site has an extensive section on the history of the Gouzenko Affair. In addition, it includes further resources on Gouzenko’s defection and the royal commission that was established to investigate his allegations:

Chronology: A timeline for the Gouzenko Affair.

Sentences: The results of the spy trials, which include the prosecutions of individuals whom the espionage commission accused of spying for the Soviets.

Key figures: Biographical information for the main characters in the Gouzenko Affair.

Archives: A rich collection of primary documents relating to the defection and the commission.

Historical studies: Further reading on this topic.

To read more about the defection and the commission, see

Clément, Dominique. “The Royal Commission on Espionage and the Spy Trials of 1946-9: A Case Study in Parliamentary Supremacy.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 11, 1 (2000): 151-72.

Clément, Dominique. “Spies, Lies and a Commission, 1946-8: A Case Study in the Mobilization of the Canadian Civil Liberties Movement.” Left History 7, 2 (2001): 53-79.

Knight, Amy. How the Cold War Began: The Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2005.

Lambertson, Ross. Repression and Resistance: Canadian Human Rights Activists, 1930-1960. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.