Yuri Bezmenov

Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov (Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Безме́нов; December 11, 1939 – January 5, 1993; alias: Tomas David Schuman ) was a Soviet journalist for Novosti Press Agency (APN).

Bezmenov was born in 1939 in Mytishchi, near Moscow, to Russian parents.

Bezmenov stated that his father was a high ranking Soviet Army officer, later put in charge of inspecting Soviet troops in foreign countries, such as Mongolia and Cuba.

Bezmenov is best remembered for his anti-Marxist and anti-Atheist lectures and books published in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

After graduating in 1963, Bezmenov spent two years in India working as a translator and public relations officer with the Soviet economic aid group Soviet Refineries Constructions, which built refinery complexes.

In 1965, Bezmenov was recalled to Moscow and began to work for Novosti Press Agency as an apprentice for their classified department of "Political Publications" (GRPP).

Bezmenov alleged that about three quarters of Novosti's staff were actually KGB officers, with the remainder being "co-opted" or KGB freelance writers and informers like himself.

However, Bezmenov did not do real freelance writing.

Instead, he stated that he edited and planted propaganda materials in foreign media, and delegations of Novosti's guests from foreign countries on tours of the Soviet Union or to international conferences held in the Soviet Union.

After several months, Bezmenov stated that he was forced to act as an informer while maintaining his position as a Novosti journalist, and used his journalistic duties to help gather information and to spread disinformation to foreign countries for the purposes of Soviet propaganda and subversion.

Rapid promotion followed, and Bezmenov was once again assigned to Bila in 1969, this time as a Soviet press-officer and a public relations agent for the KGB.

He continued Novosti's propaganda efforts in New Delhi, working in the Soviet embassy.

Bezmenov was directed to slowly establish a Soviet sphere of influence in India.

In the same year, a secret directive of the Central Committee opened a new secret department in all the Soviet Union's embassies around the world, entitled the "Research and Counter-Propaganda Group".

Bezmenov became a deputy chief of that department, gathering intelligence from sources like Indian informers and agents, on influential and/or politically significant citizens of India.

Bezmenov alleged that he was instructed not to waste time on idealistic leftists, as they would become disillusioned, bitter, and adversarial when they realized what Bezmenov thought was the true nature of Soviet communism.

During that period, Bezmenov became dissatisfied with the Soviet system.

He then began careful planning to defect to the West.

In 1970, as a member of the KGB Soviet mission in New Delhi, India, Bezmenov defected to the West and was re-settled in Canada pursuant to an arrangement between American and Canadian security agencies.

After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and the culture of India.

At the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned repression of Soviet dissidents and other intellectuals who dissented from Moscow's policies and he decided to defect to the West.

Bezmenov's father died in the 1970s.

When Bezmenov was seventeen, he entered the Institute of Oriental Languages, a part of the Moscow State University which was under the direct control of the KGB and the Communist Party Central Committee.

In addition to languages, he studied history, literature, and music, and became an expert on Indian culture.

During his second year, Bezmenov sought to look like a person from India; his teachers encouraged this because graduates of the school were employed as diplomats, foreign journalists, or spies.

As a Soviet student, Bezmenov stated in an interview that he was required to take compulsory military training in which he was taught how to play "strategic war games" using the maps of foreign countries, as well as how to interrogate prisoners of war.

According to a statement provided to the Delhi Police by the so-called Russian Information Centre, on February 8, 1970, Bezmenov was set to see a screening of the American film The Incident with two of his colleagues.

However, it was reported by them at the time that he had not bought his ticket, and told them he would join them in a moment and try to purchase one from a Scalper outside the theater.

Bezmenov did not return to the theater.

Instead, Bezmenov put on hippie clothes, complete with a beard and wig, before joining a tour group.

By these means, he escaped to Athens, Greece.

His defection was reported in the United States, with Soviet sources stating he was "not important" and did "clerical work", and American intelligence openly stating they believed him to be an agent of the KGB.

At the time, his whereabouts were depicted in American media as unknown.

After contacting the American embassy and undergoing extensive interviews with United States intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was able to help Bezmenov seek asylum in Canada, granted by the administration of Pierre Trudeau.

The CIA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assigned him a new name and identity for reasons of safety.

In order to save face with the embarrassment of defection of an alleged KGB officer, the Delhi residency officially reported he had been abducted, and his son, his closest surviving relative, was given financial compensation.

After studying political science at the University of Toronto for two years, and working on an Ontario farm for three years, in 1973, Bezmenov was hired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal, broadcasting to the Soviet Union as part of the CBC's International Service.

This is when he met his wife, Tess.

In 1976, Bezmenov was fired from the CBC at the request of then Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

The Soviet ambassador to Canada phoned then-prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau to complain about Bezmenov’s Russian-language broadcasts.