Josef Frolík (September 22, 1928 – May 1989) was a

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

who, in 1969, defected 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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and joined the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

Childhood

Josef Frolík was born in

Libušín Libušín is a town in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,300 inhabitants. Geography Libušín is located about northwest of Kladno and northwest of Prague. It lies mostly in the Prague Plateau ...

, Czechoslovakia. He graduated from secondary school at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war he studied at the business academy in

Slaný Slaný (; german: Schlan) is a town in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administ ...

and worked as an accountant for the state-owned communist newspaper '' Rudé právo''.

Secret Service

Whilst serving his mandatory two years service in the

Czechoslovak People's Army The Czechoslovak People's Army ( cs, Československá lidová armáda, sk, Československá ľudová armáda, ČSLA) was the armed forces of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1954 until ...

Frolík discovered that some officers of the 2nd Infantry Regiment had stolen a small fortune in jewels and paintings. He reported this to the Third Directorate of Counter Intelligence in Prague and was then recruited into the State Security as a 1st Sergeant in the Finance Directorate. He moved on to counter intelligence and from 1964 to 1966 worked as a spy in London under the guise of a

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

in the Czechoslovak

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

. He was recalled back to Czechoslovakia and in 1969 he managed to gather as many state secrets as he could and escaped to the west, defecting to the CIA.

Emigration

After defecting to the West, he wrote a book in which he recalled his life and work for the StB and detailed his defection. The Czechoslovak government sentenced him to death in absentia. In 1987, he was diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

and died in May 1989.

External links

Joseph Frolik - Man in the Wrong Place (Czech)

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frolik, Josef 1928 births 1989 deaths People from Libušín Cold War spies Czechoslovak spies People of the StB Defectors to the United States Eastern Bloc defectors Czechoslovak defectors People sentenced to death in absentia Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States