Vladislav Krasnov
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Vladislav Krasnov (russian: Владислав Георгиевич Краснов, ''Vladislav Georgievich Krasnov''; born February 24, 1937) is a Russian and American scholar and writer. While his scholarly works were published with his name spelled as Vladislav Krasnov, his social and political commentary appears under the name W. George Krasnow.


Biography

Vladislav Krasnov was born in Perm in 1937. In 1960 he graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in history and anthropology, and obtained a position with the Swedish service of Radio Moscow. On October 26, 1962, while on a trip to Sweden, he requested
political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
from the Swedish authorities, thus becoming, in the eyes of Soviet authorities, a defector.Krasnov's KGB file, quoted at For several years he studied and lectured in Swedish universities, and in 1966 moved to the United States. During his US academic career, Vladislav Krasnov obtained a Master's degree in Slavic languages and a Ph.D. in Russian literature from
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
(1974). He taught and conducted research at University of Texas, Austin,
Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...
, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and
Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...
at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He also was a visiting researcher at Sapporo University in Japan.


The defector study

In 1985, Vladislav Krasnov published a book which, according to
Peter Reddaway Peter Reddaway (born September 18, 1939) is a British-American political scientist, a Russia expert, known primarily for his study of its human rights and dissident movement. Peter Reddaway graduated from Cambridge University and did graduate s ...
, became the first scholarly study of the phenomenon of "
defection 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, ca ...
" from the Soviet Union. The work summarized several years of research he conducted at Hoover institution using a variety of sources. The most important source for his work was the document he nicknamed "The KGB Wanted List": an internal KGB publication containing a list of some 600 defectors then at large, summarizing the information the Soviet authorities had on each person‘s background, circumstances of their defection, their then-current whereabouts and activities, as well as the information about any '' in absentia'' sentences they may have received. The publication had been
leaked A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a tank or a ship's hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can enter the container. Leaks are usuall ...
to the émigré magazine ''Posev'', an organ of the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists. The leaked KGB files were supplemented by a number of other sources, such as records of interviews with a number of defectors conducted by US officials in the 1950s, and materials gleaned from the media. The collected materials allowed Krasnov to conduct a detailed statistical analysis of the phenomenon of defection throughout the four post-World War II decades. In his work Vladislav Krasnov also analyzed the attitudes of the American authorities (or the authorities of US allies) toward defectors, or potential defectors. He decried the not too uncommon actions of the US authorities choosing to discourage, or sometimes forcibly expel Soviet sailors, deserters, diplomats, etc. who wanted to "choose freedom". While the ''
cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
'' of the 1970s was the
Simonas Kudirka Simas Kurdika (9 April 1930 – 11 February 2023) was a Lithuanian sailor. He is best known for the attempted defection from the Soviet Union in 1970 and subsequent activism against the Soviet regime in Lithuania. An important outcome of the in ...
affair, Krasnov publicized a number of other violations of the '' non-refoulement'' principle; as he noted, the authorities too often were guided by the motives of diplomatic expedience or immediate benefits to the US intelligence rather than by humanitarian principles or ideals of freedom. As an example, he contrasted the star treatment of Lt. Viktor Belenko, who flew a valuable MiG-25 fighter to Japan with that of First Lt. Valentin Zosimov, who flew to Iran in an
An-2 The Antonov An-2 ("kukuruznik"—corn crop duster; USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau ...
"crop duster", and was promptly deported back to the USSR and a long prison sentence.


Notes


References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krasnov, Vladislav 1937 births Moscow State University alumni Living people Russian political writers Russian political activists Soviet emigrants to the United States Russian anti-communists ru:Краснов, Владислав Георгиевич