A Rose for Sergei
Prologue
Sergei
Kourdakov, a former KGB agent and Soviet naval intelligence officer, defected
to Canada more than forty years ago. One
of his assignments with the Russian police was to break up secret meetings of
Christian “Believers.” While serving
aboard the surface ship Elagin, a
Soviet trawler, he jumped overboard when they were near the coast of
Canada. His search for freedom began
that very day—September 3, 1971. In
Canada, he learned to speak English and became a Christian. To say he had a change of heart is an
understatement. It would be more
accurate to say he found his heart.
In the fall of 1972 Sergei spent several weeks in
Washington DC meeting with Government Officials. During that time he met a young secretary
with whom he had an instant connection; they were both twenty-one years
old. This is their true, bittersweet
story…I know because I was that young girl.
Sergei’s book, The
Persecutor, was not published until after his death. There were many facets about his life that I
never knew. Sergei had only told me a
shortened version, carefully leaving out parts of his life in the Soviet Union
that would have alarmed me if I had known every detail.
I knew the person Sergei had become after he
defected. He was honest, smart, gentle,
and caring. He was a completely changed
person. And that is the person I fell in
love with.
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