Russians in Cold War Australia

Australian Journal of Politics & History, 2017

In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union made great efforts to persuade its former citizens among the "displaced persons" (DPs) resettled in Australia after the war to repatriate. They sent two undercover military intelligence men to Canberra to identify DPs who might be interested in returning, offer them free passages, and organize the repatriation. The result was a paltry dozen repatriations, out of the estimated 50,000 eligible DPs resettled in Australia. This strange story -hitherto completely unknown and reconstructed on the basis of recently opened Soviet classified material in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and ASIO files in the National Archives of Australia -adds a new angle to our understanding of Soviet-Australian (and, in general, Soviet-Western) relations at the height of the Cold War. Soviet diplomat Anatoly Gordeev arrived in Australia in December 1951, docking at Port Melbourne on the S.S. Oronsay. The arrival of ocean-going steamers was still newsworthy, so there were journalists around to pick up any stories that were going. According to normal Soviet protocol, Gordeev, thirty-one years old, tried to avoid being interviewed, denying -"in almost perfect English", according to The Agethat he spoke English. "Fumbl[ing] nervously with a lighted cigarette", he tried to smile for the camera, unnatural though this was for a Soviet diplomat. The journalist noted, perhaps tongue in cheek, that he did not lose his cool "even when he dropped the lighted cigarette inside his coat". 1 The hapless Gordeev had officially come to take up duties as an assistant attaché at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra. In fact, according to Australia's new security agency, ASIO, he was a GRU man, that is, Soviet military intelligence. But that wasn't the field in which he was to work in Australia, at least not the main one: his assignment was persuading displaced persons (DPs) from the Soviet Union to repatriate. It's strange that a GRU man should be doing this, and reporting to a non-intelligence government agency on his results. Stranger still, given the Soviet political climate of 1952, the last year of Stalin's life, when he was in a particularly bloody-minded and securityconscious mood, is the benign manner in which Gordeev (and his masters in the repatriation agency) approached his task. Not only was there no hint of force or the

Australian Historical Studies, 2019

This article assesses the role of anti-Communism in Australia's postwar immigration policy in the years before the Petrov affair, with particular reference to the entry of Russians and Russian-speaking Jews from Europe and China. Our discussion focuses on the Department of Immigration under Arthur Calwell and his successor, Harold Holt, and the security agency, ASIO. We conclude that policy in this sphere was essentially bipartisan, and that anti-Communism was an important but not overwhelming motivation, stronger than the desire to prevent entry of Nazis and war criminals but probably less salient in practice than concern to minimise the entry of Jews.

2018

During the Cold War, Australia accepted c.14,700 Russian refugees from China. This thesis considers three key years for the scheme-1957-59, which marked the first major intake featuring non-government organisations. These included the Australian Council for the World Council of Churches (ACWCC) and associations formed by Russians in Australia. Some continue to mark 1957 as an anniversary.

Australian Historical Studies, 2019

Whilst most Russian-speaking displaced persons (DPs) settled in Australia were anti-Communist, a small number were actively left-wing. This article examines the revitalisation of Sydney's left-wing Russian Social Club sparked by the arrival of DPs from both Europe and China. Using recently released intelligence records, it highlights the voices and activities of left-wing DPs and suggests that the impacts of state surveillance and the Petrov Affair have contributed to these politically-active DPs occupying a gap in the historical record. Further, it points to the demands the state made of migrants' political lives during the early Cold War. Sasha Dukin was a displaced person (DP) of about twenty-two years of age, five feet eight inches, and solid build with dark hair and eyes, according to an intelligence operative code-named J. Baker. 1 Born in Vladivostok, or perhaps Leningrad, his past changed depending on his audience. 2 Certainly, he deserted the Red Army and was resettled in Australia, where he spent most Saturday nights on George Street at the Sydney Russian Social Club and was on close terms with several officials of the Soviet Embassy. Another club member, Boris Binetsky, was born to Russian parents in Harbin, China and had been wellknown among Russian communities in China for his left-wing political activity prior to arriving in Australia as a DP. 3 He had taken up Soviet citizenship in occupied China instead of remaining stateless, a fact which endeared him to the Russian Social Club, whose theatrical group he quickly took charge of, eventually becoming president of the club. 4 Literature regarding Soviet-origin DPs in I would like to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers and the AHS editorial team for their generous engagement with this article. I am grateful, also, to Sacha Davis for his guidance and feedback in the early stages of this research and to Sheila Fitzpatrick for her valuable comments on drafts of this article. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

This paper discusses the entwining of Australian communists, trade unions and indigenous activists: a much-studied topic. However, I approach it from a " transnational " perspective, unearthing intersections between global ideas and local activism through a case study of how the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and trade union bodies under its control or influence sent particular indigenous activists abroad during the 1950s and 1960s. It looks at why the CPA would invest the time and money in these trips, and what indigenous Australians thought they could get out of them. In so doing, it explores the possibilities and limits of this form of globally-centred solidarity, and adds a new dimension to our understanding of international communist and trade union politics.

2022

The latest book from one of the most eminent experts on Soviet history is a valuable addition to the emerging new wave of literature on East European migration. With overarching, all-encompassing accounts lacking, and most specialists pursuing only particular aspects of the complex area of diaspora studies, Sheila Fitzpatrick's book offers an accessible account of people 'who survived the war as best they could' (16), later ending up in Australia. World War Two was a major, and second, defeat for Russians abroad, whichever side they favoured in the chaos of 1939-1945. The active minority of military veterans in Europe largely supported the Axis. In Europe and Asia the overwhelming majority remained at a distance, reluctant to offer any resistance to or tangible support for the cause of the 'liberation of Russia'. For many of the old emigr es, the developments of 1945 precipitated a hasty second exile from Europe and Asia, and another painful displacement. These people shared their lot with the hundreds of thousands of Soviet displaced persons, and one of the destinations to which the two streams headed was Australia. As Fitzpatrick convincingly demonstrates, in the postwar world of chilling political winds and a need for migrant labour, the Australian government and security agencies, like those in the USA, were inclined to turn a blind eye and overlook certain biographical transgressions of those 'Russians'-and not only Russians-who were arriving Down Under. Some members of the diaspora had ample reason to shroud their past in mystery. Fitzpatrick presents a kaleidoscope of motley fates-tragic, hard, scary and contradictory. Among the people concerned, one had engaged in armed or civilian collaboration with the Axis powers in the years prior; another had lied on their application form about their nationality to get through the departmental pipeline faster; many were seized by fear of potential repatriation to the 'forgiving Motherland'; and almost all had something to hide. Biographical reinvention was not rare, especially among the former Soviet citizens, experienced in craftily concealing their less-than-ideal lives under the Bolshevik regime. This is where the book links neatly with Fitzpatrick's earlier milestone work Tear off the Masks (2005). These habits of secrecy among the diaspora members, combined with sparse documentary traces and a lack of first-hand accounts, make the work of any historian venturing into CONTACT Oleg Beyda

‘The Russians Are Coming’: migration and settlement of Soviet Jews in Australia. The exit out of the former Soviet Union that began in the 1970s and reached its peak in the 1990s, following the dissolution of the USSR, led to the subsequent worldwide resettlement over four decades of almost two million Soviet Jews.. A large majority of these Jewish emigrants relocated to Israel and the US, while others found new homes in other western countries, including, it is suggested, probably around 12,000 in Australia. Indeed throughout the period, Soviet Jews represented one of the three major sources (alongside South Africa and Israel) of new Jewish immigration to Australia. However, for many of these former Soviet citizens, the resettlement process, particularly their reception and integration into their new ‘communities’ did not always go as the Jewish leaders and activists who had helped facilitate their exit from the USSR had envisaged. In this paper I first present an overview of the broader historical contexts of both Jewish life under the Soviets and the process of emigration since the 1970s . I then explore the broader demographic characteristics of those former Soviet citizens who chose to settle in Australia as well as some of their post-immigration adaptation issues. I conclude by identifying a few of the more significant sociological, psychological, cultural and political factors that together may have contributed to the observable tendency for many Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union and their families to still both be perceived as, and to see themselves as “Russians”; a social identity that remains separate and distinct from other Australian-born and other immigrant Jews, who together constitute ‘mainstream’ urban Jewish community life in contemporary Australia.

This paper discusses a transnational relationship based on circuits of solidarity: how the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and trade union bodies under its control or influence sent several indigenous activists to the Soviet Union and the ‘Peoples Democracies’ of Eastern Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. These trips pose questions: why did the CPA invest the time and money in these trips, and what did indigenous Australians hoped to achieve by participating. I begin by exploring the entwinement of the CPA, trade unions and indigenous politics throughout the 20th century, before moving on to three case studies. In so doing, I explore the possibilities and limits of this form of globally-centred solidarity, and add a new dimension to our understanding of the Cultural Cold War, as well as international communist and trade union politics.

Sydney Journal, 2011

An account of the history of Sydney's Russian community.

Using а combination of migration literature analysis and practical experiences of Ukrainian migrants in Australia this paper examines the character of post-independence Ukrainian migration to Australia. Through comparative analysis of Ukrainian immigration waves to Australia, the paper looks back to origins of such immigration, briefly reflecting on the history of Ukrainian arrivals, and explains trends in current immigration movement. Particularly, using interview materials with Ukrainian migrants who came to Australia in the post-independence period (from 1991 until 2013) this paper identifies the main immigration streams popular among Ukrainians that form three groups of migrants: economic migrants "zarobitchany", tourist-visa over stayers (from illegal migrants to refugees) and high skilled migrants. The focus is on the logic of the post-Soviet immigration wave, which is formed and explained not only by socioeconomic rationale behind migration, but also by relations inside Ukrainian community, which have significantly changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Complex relations between post-war Ukrainian migrants and their Australian descendants on one hand, and postindependence Ukrainian migrants on the other, is argued to be rooted in the difference in qualitative characteristics and historical conditions, rather than in simple withstanding of political versus economic migration waves.