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

Book


Nilsson, Ebony Grace. (2024). Displaced Comrades : Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West Bloomsbury Academic.
AuthorsNilsson, Ebony Grace
Abstract

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 unprecedented 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.

KeywordsElectronic surveillance; United States; Russians; Cold War; History; Government policy; Intelligence service
ISBN978-1-3503-7841-4
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1-272
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
PrintJan 2024
Publication process dates
Deposited16 Feb 2024
Additional information

Copyright © Ebony Nilsson, 2024.

Frontmatter and introduction full-text only.

Year01 Jan 2024
PublisherBloomsbury Academic
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/90307/displaced-comrades-politics-and-surveillance-in-the-lives-of-soviet-refugees-in-the-west

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