Displaced Comrades
Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West

By (author) Ebony Nilsson

ISBN13: 9781350378421

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 26/06/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
This book explores the lives of left-wing Soviet refugees who fled the Cold War to settle in Australia, and uncovers how they adjusted to life under surveillance in the West. As Cold War tensions built in the postwar years, many of these refugees happily resettled in the West as model refugees, proof of capitalist countries’ superiority. But for a few, this was not the case. Displaced Comrades provides an account of these Cold War misfits, those refugees who fled East for West, but remained left-wing or pro-Soviet. Drawing on interviews, government records and surveillance dossiers from multiple continents this book explores how these refugees’ ideas took root in new ways. As these radical ideas drew suspicion from western intelligence these everyday lives were put under surveillance, shadowed by the persistent threat of espionage. With unprecented access to intelligence records, Nilsson focuses on how a number of these left-wing refugees adjusted to life in Australia, opening up a previously invisible segment of postwar migration history, and offering a new exploration of life as a Soviet ‘enemy alien’ in the West.
Introduction 1. The Russian Social Club 2. Boris: ‘I am a Soviet Citizen and so I will stay’ 3. Jerzy: Pied Piper of Discontented Workers 4. Juris: From Latvian Legionnaire to Kolkhoznik 5. Sasha: KCB Residents and Orthodox Priests 6. Natalia & Lydia: Harbin Women Abroad 7. Jacob: ‘A Jew First and Foremost’ 8. Surveillance, Spies and Informants Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
  • Australasian & Pacific history
  • The Cold War
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £28.99