Talk:Petrov Affair
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Petrov Affair Exhibition--nixie 02:39, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
[edit] The Beria connection
The comment to the effect that "The Petrovs had been sent to the Canberra embassy in 1951 by the Soviet security chief, Lavrenty Beria" is a bit off. Beria had lost his "security chief" position in January 1946 and didn't resume direct control of the Soviet security and intelligence agencies until after Stalin's death in March 1953.
Beria did exercise a degree of influence on the security apparatus in 1946-1953, though, so it's possible that Petrov was "Beria's man" and hence afraid to return to the USSR after Beria's fall. However, it's also possible that Petrov, who was, after all, only a colonel, had nothing to do with Beria and had other reasons to defect. The new Soviet leadership purged its security apparatus rather thoroughly in 1953-1954 and Petrov had reasons to be worried even if he was not a direct protege of one of the newly appointed fall guys like Abakumov and Beria.
Anyway, a source for Petrov's motives (his autobio? the 1987 Manne book?) would be nice. Ahasuerus 23:57, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
