Petrov, Vladimir Mikhailovich (security officer)

Real name - Afanasy Mikhailovich Shorokhov. Born into a peasant family in the village of Larikha, Tyumen region. In 1923 he joined the Komsomol and in 1929 changed his name to the sonorous Vladimir Proletarsky.

He served in the Baltic Fleet as a cryptographer.

Since 1933 - an employee of the OGPU , he worked in the foreign department under the leadership of Gleb Bokiya . In 1938-39 served in China as the head of the encryption division. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Before being transferred to Sweden, he changed his name to Vladimir Petrov. In 1942, he was sent with his wife, Evdokia Petrova (Kartseva), to Sweden, where both worked as cryptographers of the Soviet embassy in Stockholm under the leadership of the famous other couple - Boris Rybkin and Zoe Rybkina-Voskresenskaya

In 1951 he was sent to Australia as a resident of Soviet intelligence under the guise of the post of third secretary of the USSR embassy. Oleg Gordievsky claimed that Petrov personally sent L.P. Beria to Australia ^[3] .

In 1954, having worked in Australia for three years, Petrov, having come in contact with the Russian-speaking immigrant Michael Bialoguski, asked for political asylum without informing his wife. After 10 days, Petrov was granted asylum. Later, his wife, Evdokia Petrova, also a cryptographic officer of the Soviet residency in Australia, also received asylum.

In 1953-1954, after the arrest and execution of Beria, the “purge” of foreign residencies from Beria’s personnel began. Fearing the possibility of being recalled to the USSR and subjected to reprisals there, Petrov 1954 on his own initiative came into contact with the Australian special services ( ASIO ) and asked for political asylum in Australia. Petrov sought refuge while being alone, without his wife Evdokia Petrova , who at that time was in another city. Two KGB officers forcefully brought her to Canberra airport and, against her will, in the presence of journalists and photo reporters, dragged her on a plane to the USSR. The plane made an intermediate landing for refueling at Darwin Airport. By order of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies , the Australian police intervened. Policemen in Darwin boarded the plane, under the pretext of banning the transport of firearms on board the aircraft, disarmed two Soviet " diplomatic couriers " and freed Evdokia Petrova. Then she was able to join her husband. Petrov took with him a number of documents revealing the work of Soviet intelligence activities in Australia, which were considered by the parliamentary commission, but were not declassified by the Australians. Petrov also transmitted a lot of data on the work of Soviet residents in Sweden and Finland. Thanks to his testimony, British counterintelligence was able to identify the third member of the " Cambridge Five " - Kim Philby - after fleeing the USSR in 1951 of the first two, Burgess and Macklin .

In 1956, received Australian citizenship. The book of memoirs of Petrov's "Empire of fear", written by ASIO officer from their stories, was released. The Petrovs, until the end of their days, lived in Australia under the protection of the Australian special services under the names of the Allison spouses, almost not talking to reporters. In the mid-1970s, Petrov suffered a series of strokes and spent the last 17 years of his life in a nursing home in a wheelchair. Evdokia Petrova survived her husband by 11 years and died in 2002.

Soviet foreign counterintelligence had plans to kidnap Petrov and take him to the USSR for a trial court ^[4] .

• Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, Empire of Fear, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1956
• Nicholas Whitlam and John Stubbs, Nest of Traitors: The Petrov Affair, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1974
• Robert Manne, The Petrov Affair: Politics and Espionage, Pergamon Press, Sydney, 1987

• The famous deserter died - an article about Petrov’s wife.