Nicholas George Shadrin, born Nikolai Fedorovich Artamonov (1922 – December 1975), was a Soviet naval officer serving in

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

who defected to the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

in 1959.

Life

Shadrin was born in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1922. After joining the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

he received advanced training in nuclear missiles, and at the age of 27 became the youngest destroyer captain in the fleet.

Center for the Study of Intelligence The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(1995),
Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977-92
', DIANE Publishing, p30 Stationed in

in 1959, he fell in love with a Polish woman, Ewa Gora. With Navy restrictions and Gora's family's

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

making marriage impossible, the two defected by commandeering a naval launch to Sweden. The

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

then brought Shadrin and Gora to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Shadrin's information proved particularly useful to the

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serv ...

. Working with the ONI under new identities, Shadrin gained an MA and PhD in engineering, and Gora opened a dental practice. Later, with ONI not granting Shadrin higher level security clearances, he was assigned to translation in the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

. Shadrin was engaged in various counter-intelligence assignments during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

after being approached by the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

in 1966. He disappeared on assignment in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in December 1975, apparently kidnapped by KGB agents. Later,

Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of ...

stated that Shadrin had died an accidental death during the kidnapping, apparently of a heart attack. According to former CIA counterintelligence officer Tennent H. Bagley,

James Angleton James Jesus Angleton (December 9, 1917 – May 11, 1987) was an American CIA officer who served as chief of the counterintelligence department of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1954 to 1975. According to Director of Central Intelligence Ric ...

had warned Shadrin's American handlers, CIA officer

Bruce Solie The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

and FBI agent

Elbert Turner Elbert is a name that derived from the Germanic ''Alibert'' and may refer to: People Given name * Elbert Andrews (1901–1979), American baseball player * Elbert Dysart Botts (1893–1962), American engineer * Elbert Adrain Brinckerhoff (1838– ...

, to not let him travel out of the United States, but they allowed him to go to Canada in 1971 to meet with the KGB and let him travel to Vienna, Austria, in December 1975 to meet with his KGB recruiter,

Igor Kochnov Igor may refer to: * Igor (given name), an East Slavic given name and a list of people with the name Arts, entertainment, and media *Igor (character), a stock character * Igors (''Discworld''), a fictional humanoid family in the ''Discworld'' ...

References

External links

Shadrin: The Spy Who Never Came Back - Henry Hurt
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shadrin, Nicholas 1922 births 1975 deaths American spies against the Soviet Union Soviet Navy officers Soviet defectors to the United States People of the Defense Intelligence Agency People of the Office of Naval Intelligence People sentenced to death in absentia by the Soviet Union People killed in KGB operations Saint Petersburg Naval Institute alumni

Life

See also

References

External links