Petrov affair
The Petrov Affair is an event in Australian history. In 1954, the Russian diplomat Vladimir Mikhailovich Petrov (1907-1991) asked for political asylum in Australia on the grounds that he had information about a Soviet spy ring that operated from the Russian embassy in Australia. The Russians demanded that Petrov's wife return to Russia. A great public outcry followed when she was forcibly put on a plane at Sydney Airport . The crowd was furious as they believed they had been kidnapped by Soviet guards to their native Russia, the country of their birth. When the plane stopped over in Darwin , it was found that the guards were carrying guns. Ms. Petrowa was soon granted political asylum.
This happened at the height of the Cold War . The growing fear of communism in Australia resulted in this event receiving extremely high profile in the media. Petrov and his wife were Soviet spies who were converted to capitalism by the Australian way of life .
Then-Prime Minister Robert Menzies used this affair as evidence that the threat from communism was real and not exaggerated. As a result of the Petrov affair, Menzies won the next election, the Australian Labor Party got into disagreement, which led to the Democratic Labor Party splitting off from the parent party. The DLP was much more anti-communist and pro-Catholic.
Australians fondly remember the Petrov affair as their own exciting Soviet spy story, almost a reversal of the Rosenberg scenario .
In the spring of 2005, an exhibition about the Petrov affair took place in the Old Parliament House in Canberra (Australia), which documented the incident in detail. Petrov and his wife were given new identities and lived in Melbourne as Australian citizens. He died in 1991 at the age of 84 and she died in 1988 at the age of 88.
literature
- Д. П. Прохоров: Сколько стоит продать родину? "(How much does it cost to betray your homeland?) St. Petersburg Moscow 2005 ISBN 5-7654-4469-5 .