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Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov (Russian: Юрий Безменов, also known as Tomas David Schuman; 1939 – 1993) was a journalist for RIA Novosti and a former KGB informant from the Soviet Union who defected to Canada.
After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and the culture of India, but at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned oppression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow's policies. He decided to defect to the West. Bezmenov is best remembered for his pro-American, anticommunist lectures and books from the 1980s.
After graduating in 1963, Bezmenov spent two years in India working as a translator and public relations officer with the Soviet economical aid group Soviet Refineries Constructions, which built refinery complexes.
In 1965, Bezmenov was recalled to Moscow and began to work for RIA Novosti as an apprentice for their classified department of "Political Publications" (GRPP). He soon discovered that about three quarters of Novosti's staffers were actually KGB officers, with the remainder being "co-optees" or KGB freelance writers and informers like himself. However, Bezmenov did no real freelance writing; rather, he edited and planted propaganda materials in foreign media and accompanied delegations of Novosti's guests from foreign countries on tours of the Soviet Union or to international conferences held in the Soviet Union.
After several months, Bezmenov was forced to be an informer while still maintaining his position as a Novosti journalist. He then used his journalistic duties to help gather information and to spread disinformation to foreign countries for the purposes of Soviet propaganda and subversion.
Rapid promotion followed, and Bezmenov was once again assigned to Bila in 1969, this time as a Soviet press-officer and a public relations agent for the KGB. He continued Novosti's propaganda effects in New Delhi, working out of the Soviet embassy. Bezmenov was directed to slowly but surely establish the Soviet sphere of influence in India. In the same year, a secret directive of the Central Committee opened a new secret department in all embassies of the Soviet Union around the world, titled the "Research and Counter-Propaganda Group." Bezmenov became a deputy chief of that department, which gathered intelligence from sources like Indian informers and agents, regarding most every influential or politically significant citizen of India.
Those who favored the Soviets' expansionist policy into India were promoted to higher positions of power, affluence, and prestige through various KGB/Novosti operations.[further explanation needed] Those who refused to cooperate with Soviet plans were the target of character assassination in the media and press.
Bezmenov stated that he was also instructed not to waste time with idealistic leftists, as these would become disillusioned, bitter, and adversarial when they realized the true nature of Soviet Communism. To his surprise, he discovered that many such were listed for execution once the Soviets achieved control. Instead, Bezmenov was encouraged to recruit the persons in large circulation, established conservative media, rich filmmakers, intellectuals in academic circles, and cynical, ego-centric people who lacked moral principles.
During that period, increasingly saw the Soviet system as insidious and ruthless, Bezmenov began careful planning to defect.
Defection to the West
In February 1970, Bezmenov clothed himself in hippie attire, replete with a beard and wig, and joined a tour group; by this means, he escaped to Athens, Greece. After contacting the American embassy and undergoing extensive interviews with United States intelligence, Bezmenov was granted asylum in Canada.
In an interview with G. Edward Griffin, he detailed how Soviet help for inciting anger and uprising in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was the final straw in his personal decision to defect to the West. In the interview, Yuri details how Russian consulates in India were used to smuggle weapons and propaganda material to East Pakistan in a largely Soviet effort to break up the state of Pakistan, then a staunch Western and US ally.
After studying political science at the University of Toronto for two years, Bezmenov was hired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1972, broadcasting to the Soviet Union as part of the CBC's International Service. In 1976, the KGB compelled his departure from that position, and Bezmenov began free-lance journalism. He later became a consultant for Almanac Panorama of the World Information Network.
Pro-American lecturer, writer, advocate
In 1984, he gave an interview to G. Edward Griffin, who at that time was a member of the John Birch Society, an anticommunist group. In the interview, Bezmenov explained the methods used by the KGB for the gradual subversion of the political system of the United States.
Under the pen-name Tomas D. Schuman, Bezmenov authored the book Love Letter to America. The author's biography of the book states "Like a true-life Winston Smith, from George Orwell's 1984, Tomas Schuman worked for the communist equivalent of Orwell's Ministry of Truth, RIA Novosti. Novosti, which means "news" in Russian, exists to produce slanted and false stories to plant in the foreign media. The term for this KGB effort is 'disinformation.'
Tomas D. Schuman was associated with the World Information Network (WIN) of Westlake Village, California.
In 1983, at a lecture in Los Angeles, Bezmenov expressed the opinion that he "wouldn't be surprised" if the Soviet Union had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in order to kill Larry McDonald, a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Sources: YouTube, Wikipedia