In
politics, a defector is a person who gives up
allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, cause, or doctrine to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.
This term is also applied, often pejoratively, to anyone who switches loyalty to another
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...
,
sports team,
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
, or other rival faction. In that sense, the defector is often considered a
traitor by their original side.
International politics
The physical act of defection is usually in a manner which violates the laws of the nation or political entity from which the person is seeking to depart. By contrast, mere changes in
citizenship
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
, or working with allied militia, usually do not violate any law(s).
For example, in the 1950s,
East Germans were increasingly prohibited from traveling to the western
Federal Republic of Germany where they were automatically regarded as citizens according to
Exclusive mandate. The
Berlin Wall (1961) and fortifications along the
Inner German border
The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...
(1952 onward) were erected by the Communist
German Democratic Republic to enforce the policy. When people tried to "defect" from the GDR they were to be shot on sight. Several hundred people
were killed along that border in their
Republikflucht attempt. Official crossings did exist, but permissions to leave temporarily or permanently were seldom granted. On the other hand, the GDR citizenship of some "inconvenient" East Germans was revoked, and they had to leave their home on short notice against their will. Others, like singer
Wolf Biermann, were prohibited from returning to the GDR.
During the
Cold War, the many people illegally emigrating from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
or
Eastern Bloc to
the West were called defectors. Westerners defected to the Eastern Bloc as well, often to avoid prosecution as spies. Some of the more famous cases were British spy
Kim Philby, who defected to the USSR to avoid exposure as a
KGB mole, and
22 Allied POWs (one Briton and twenty-one Americans) who declined repatriation after the
Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top: ...
, electing to remain in China.
When the individual leaves his country and provides information to a foreign intelligence service, they are a
HUMINT source defector. In some cases, defectors remain in the country or with the political entity they were against, functioning as a
defector in place. Intelligence services are always concerned when debriefing defectors with the possibility of a
fake defection.
Entire militaries can defect and choose not to follow orders from a state's leaders. During the
Arab Spring protests, militaries in Egypt and Tunisia refused orders to fire upon protesters or use other methods to disperse them.
The decision to defect can be driven by the desire to prevent insubordination: if a military leader judges that lower officers will disobey orders to fire upon protesters, they could be more likely to defect.
Notable defectors
Artists
*
Paquito D'Rivera, Cuban saxophonist and clarinetist, who defected to the United States in 1980.
*
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; lv, Mihails Barišņikovs; born January 28, 1948) is a Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Latvian-born R ...
,
Soviet (Russian) dancer, who defected to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
in 1974, while in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
, touring with the
Kirov Ballet. He later moved to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
.
*
Natalia Makarova, Soviet (Russian) dancer, who defected while in London in 1970.
*
Georgi Markov, Bulgarian author, who defected in 1968, eventually settling in London, England.
*
Rudolf Nureyev, Soviet (Russian) dancer, who defected while in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
touring with the
Kirov Ballet in 1961.
*
George Balanchine, Georgian
choreographer, who defected to the
Weimar Republic in 1924.
*
Arturo Sandoval, Cuban trumpeter, pianist, and composer, who defected to the United States in 1990.
*
Jan Sobota Jan Bohuslav Sobota (c. 1939–2012) was a Czechoslovakian-born fine bookbinder. He is known for his often playful sculptural bindings that transform the book into a three-dimensional work of art. He is known for books of all sizes, including a sign ...
, Czech fine bookbinder, who defected to Switzerland in 1982, and settled in the United States in 1984.
Athletes
*
Guillermo Rigondeaux, Cuban
professional boxer, who defected to the United States in 2009.
*
Aroldis Chapman, Cuban
baseball pitcher, who defected to Andorra in 2009 before signing a
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
contract in 2010.
*
José Fernández, Cuban
baseball player, who defected to the United States in 2008.
*
Lutz Eigendorf, an East German
football player for
BFC Dynamo
Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo e. V., commonly abbreviated to BFC Dynamo () or BFC (), alternatively sometimes called Dynamo Berlin, is a German football club based in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg of Berli ...
who defected to
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
in 1979.
*
Orlando Hernandez, Cuban
baseball pitcher, who defected to the United States in 1997.
*
Nadia Comăneci, Romanian Olympic gymnast, who defected to the United States in 1989.
*
Alexander Mogilny, Soviet (Russian)
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...
forward, who defected to the United States in 1988. He was the first Soviet player to defect to play in the
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
.
*
Béla Károlyi and his wife
Márta Károlyi
Márta Károlyi (; ; born August 29, 1942) is a Hungarian-American gymnastics coach and the former national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics. She and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, Romania, who trained athletes i ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
n
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...
coaches (of
Nadia Comăneci and
Mary Lou Retton among others), who defected to the United States in 1981.
*
Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban
soccer player, who defected to the United States in 2007.
*
José Abreu
José Dariel Abreu Correa (born January 29, 1987) is a Cuban-born professional baseball first baseman for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox. Overall he has had a fantas ...
, Cuban baseball player, who defected to the United States in 2013.
*
Kimia Alizadeh, Iranian
taekwondo martial artist, who defected to the Netherlands in 2020.
*
César Prieto
César Prieto (born May 10, 1999) is a Cuban professional baseball infielder in the St Louis Cardinals organization.
Career
Prieto was a member of the Cuba national baseball team. He also joined the Elefantes de Cienfuegos in 2017. His perform ...
, Cuban baseball player, who defected to the United States in 2021.
*
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, Belarus sprinter, who defected to Poland in 2021.
Military
*
Larry Allen Abshier, the first of six American soldiers to defect to North Korea between the years 1962–1982. He died in 1983 from a heart attack while residing in
Pyongyang.
*
Benedict Arnold‚ a colonial general who during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...
defected to the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
.
*
Riad al-Asaad
Riad Mousa al-Asaad (; ar, رياض موسى الأسعد, born 2 February 1961) is a Syrian military commander, politician and one of the founding leaders of the Free Syrian Army. He currently serves as the Deputy Prime Minister for Military ...
, founder of the
Free Syrian Army and the entire Tlass Family during the
Syrian civil war.
*
Viktor Belenko, a
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
lieutenant who flew a MiG-25 fighter to Japan in 1976 and gained
political asylum in the United States.
*
James Joseph Dresnok, a
US Army private who defected to
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
by sneaking across the Demilitarized Zone in 1962. He would live the remainder of his life in the DPRK until his death in 2016.
*
Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet
cipher clerk who defected to Canada and released information regarding Soviet espionage activities in western society. Credited as one of the triggering factors for the beginning of the Cold War.
*
No Kum-Sok (later Kenneth Rowe) is known for having been a
lieutenant in the
North Korean Air Force during the
Korean War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Korean War
, partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict
, image = Korean War Montage 2.png
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Clockwise from top: ...
who defected to
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. On September 21, 1953, he flew his
MiG-15 to the
Kimpo Air Base in South Korea, claiming that he wanted to get away from the "red deceit" and is often associated with
Operation Moolah.
[Factsheets: Story of the MiG-15]
." National Museum of the United States Air Force.
*
Genrikh Lyushkov, the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
chief in the
Russian Far East, defected to
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...
in 1938 under
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
and then cooperated with
Imperial Japanese Army.
*
Ivan Mazepa,
Ukrainian Hetman of Zaporizhian Host
The Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host ( uk, Гетьман Війська Запорозького, la, Cosaccorum Zaporoviesium Supremus Belli Dux) was the head of state of the Cossack Hetmanate in what is now Ukraine. The office was disestablishe ...
from 1687–1708 who defected from the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
to the
Swedish Empire during the
Battle of Poltava of the
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...
.
*
Lee Harvey Oswald,
assassin of President John F. Kennedy claimed defection to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in October 1959 but was ultimately refused citizenship and returned to the United States in 1962.
*
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa (; 28 October 1928 – 14 February 2021) was a Romanian two-star general in the Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania, who defected to the United States in July 1978 following President Jimmy ...
, a
Romanian Securitate general who defected to the United States from the
Socialist Republic of Romania in 1978.
*
Matiur Rahman, a Pakistani/Bangladeshi pilot who in 1971 attempted to defect with a T-33 along with Confidential Pakistani War plans to India to join the
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...
. However his plan was foiled by Flt.Lt
Rashid Minhas
Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas ( ur, ) was a Pakistani pilot in the Pakistan Air Force. Minhas was the only PAF officer to receive the highest valour award, the Nishan-e-Haider. He was also the youngest person and the shortest-serving officer to ...
who crashed the plane after a brief struggle for control over the aircraft. The plane crashed some 50 Kilometres from the border.
*
Leamsy Salazar
Leamsy José Salazar Villafaña is an ex-lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Navy who was also the head of security details for Hugo Chávez and Diosdado Cabello. Salazar defected to the United States in December 2014 with the assistance of the ...
, former
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel ...
of
Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela and head of
security detail
A security detail, often known as a PSD (protective services detail, personal security detachment, personal security detail) or PPD (personal protection detail), is a protective team assigned to protect the personal security of an individual or ...
for
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
, defected to United States in December 2014.
*
Heng Samrin
Heng Samrin ( km, ហេង សំរិន; born 25 May 1934) is a Cambodian politician who serves as the President of the National Assembly of Cambodia. Between 1979 and 1992, he was the ''de facto'' leader of the Hanoi-backed People's Republi ...
, a top-brass military figure in
Democratic Kampuchea defected to
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
during the
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...
purges of the Eastern Zone after considering the fate of
So Phim, his superior in command.
Politics
*
Guy Burgess, British diplomat and member of the
Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1951.
*
Donald Maclean, British diplomat and member of the Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1951.
*
Kim Philby, British intelligence officer and member of the Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.
*
Viktor Suvorov (born 1947), Russian writer and former Soviet military intelligence officer who defected to the United Kingdom in 1978.
*
Thae Yong-ho, a former
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
n diplomat for Britain. At an unknown date Thae defected from North Korea for his family, because he "didn't want his children, who were used to life of freedom, to suffer life of oppression". Being one of North Korea's elite, for the nation he was the highest profile defection since No Kum-sok (above) in 1953. He was elected to the
South Korean National Assembly in
2020 for the
United Future Party, representing the Gangnam A district of
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...
.
*
Vladimir Petrov - Soviet diplomat who defected to Australia in 1954.
Others
*
Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess Grandmaster, defected in Amsterdam in 1976.
*
Walter Polovchak, minor, defected to the United States in 1980 at 12. He and his parents moved to the United States from
Soviet Ukraine in 1980 but later that year his parents decided to move back to Ukraine. He did not wish to return with them and was the subject of a five-year struggle to stay permanently. He won the right to permanent sanctuary in 1985 upon turning 18.
* The crew of
oil tanker Tuapse, held hostage in 1954 by the government of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...
during the
White Terror. An unusual case of forced defection, where the crew were forced to defect to the United States to secure their release. Those who refused were subjected to various forms of torture, while those who subsequently retracted their defection and returned to the Soviet Union were sentenced for treason but later pardoned. All surviving crew were released in 1988.
* , in order to defect from Russia in 2021, swam from
Kunashir Island to
Hokkaido
is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...
, a distance of about 20 kilometers, in 23 hours.
See also
*
Desertion
*
Dissident
*
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
**
List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
**
List of baseball players who defected from Cuba
**
North Korean defectors
Since the division of Korea after the end of World War II, North Koreans have fled from the country in spite of legal punishment for political, ideological, religious, economic, moral, personal, or nutritional reasons. Such North Koreans are re ...
**
Nevozvrashchentsy
*
List of Cold War pilot defections
*
List of Western Bloc defectors
**
Martin and Mitchell defection
In September 1960, two U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) cryptologists, William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, defected to the Soviet Union. A secret 1963 NSA study said that: "Beyond any doubt, no other event has had, or is like ...
**
List of American and British defectors in the Korean War
*
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliati ...
*
Sociological definitions of apostasy
*
Treason
*
Turncoat
References
Further reading
* Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. ''The storm petrels: the first Soviet defectors, 1928-1938''. HarperCollins, 1977).
* Hänni, Adrian, and Miguel Grossmann. "Death to traitors? The pursuit of intelligence defectors from the Soviet Union to the Putin era." ''Intelligence and National Security'' (2020): 1-21.
* Krasnov, Vladislav. ''Soviet defectors: The KGB wanted list'' (Hoover Press, 2018).
* Riehle, Kevin P. "The Defector Balance Sheet: Westbound Versus Eastbound Intelligence Defectors from 1945 to 1965." ''International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence'' 33.1 (2020): 68-96.
* Riehle, Kevin P
"Early Cold War evolution of British and US defector policy and practice" ''Cold War History'' 19.3 (2019): 343-361. online free
* About
Oleg Penkovsky.
**
* Tromly, Benjamin
"Ambivalent heroes: Russian defectors and American power in the early Cold War" ''Intelligence and National Security'' 33.5 (2018): 642-658.
External links
Famous Defectors - slideshow by ''
Life magazine
''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
''
Iranian diplomats defect
{{Authority control
Military terminology
Political terminology
Spies by role