The KGB Plays Chess

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: The KGB Plays Chess

2008 post by J. Berry

It's just a vague recollection, but weren't there three Soviet staff involved, and didn't one or two of them get sent back to the Motherland? The name Usaty or Usaaty sticks in my mind. Of course, that all happened 20 years before my chess time in Ottawa.

While I lived in Ottawa (1975-84), another spy scandal happened, though it had nothing to do with the RA Chess Club.

The main headline of the Toronto Daily Star on Monday Sept. 24, 1956 was "Soviet envoy expelled as spy tries to buy super jet data."

I assume that was the Avro CF-100 or CF-105, Arrow, which eventually got cancelled [with US pressure and the engineers took their ideas to NASA]. The news came from the Pan-Canadian Anti-Communist League.

Gennadi F. Popov, 2nd secretary at the Soviet embassy met a civil servant [30-year-old James Stanley Staples, accountant/Grade 2 clerk at the Rockcliffe air station] at a local chess club and invited the player to a game at the Soviet embassy. Over a period of 7-8 months a dozen Russian officials tried to pry out air force secrets from the RCAF employee. He said they first tried to convert him to communism then were fishing for military secrets but he gave them nothing. They offered him a camera. He was always short of money and on one evening, while he was drinking, he did borrow $50 from Popov, and the next day consulted a RCMP friend who told him to return it. The Russians didn't realize that he wasn't in a position to obtain any highly-secret information. Staples was fired in June and blacklisted. He also reported being shadowed by Nikolai P. Ostrovsky of the NKVD.

Club President John Bergevin said that more than a few members were approached to be spy contacts and he told Popov that if he heard any more complaints that they would be expelled. Some Canadian members resigned in protest when the Russians flocked to the club. The club was part of a civil servant recreation association, the RA centre.

The next day had photos of Popov at the chess board, Staples, and Mrs. Sam Goldstein, Popov's landlady, who was shocked to hear that he was a spy. Popov was ordered out by external affairs and left Canada on Aug. 12. The other Russian involved, Sergei V. Selivanov, third Secretary, wasn't recalled.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: The KGB Plays Chess

The main headline of the Toronto Daily Star on Monday Sept. 24, 1956 was "Soviet envoy expelled as spy tries to buy super jet data."

I assume that was the Avro CF-100 or CF-105, Arrow, which eventually got cancelled [with US pressure and the engineers took their ideas to NASA]. The news came from the Pan-Canadian Anti-Communist League.

Gennadi F. Popov, 2nd secretary at the Soviet embassy met a civil servant [30-year-old James Stanley Staples, accountant/Grade 2 clerk at the Rockcliffe air station] at a local chess club and invited the player to a game at the Soviet embassy. Over a period of 7-8 months a dozen Russian officials tried to pry out air force secrets from the RCAF employee. He said they first tried to convert him to communism then were fishing for military secrets but he gave them nothing. They offered him a camera. He was always short of money and on one evening, while he was drinking, he did borrow $50 from Popov, and the next day consulted a RCMP friend who told him to return it. The Russians didn't realize that he wasn't in a position to obtain any highly-secret information. Staples was fired in June and blacklisted. He also reported being shadowed by Nikolai P. Ostrovsky of the NKVD.

Club President John Bergevin said that more than a few members were approached to be spy contacts and he told Popov that if he heard any more complaints that they would be expelled. Some Canadian members resigned in protest when the Russians flocked to the club. The club was part of a civil servant recreation association, the RA centre.

The next day had photos of Popov at the chess board, Staples, and Mrs. Sam Goldstein, Popov's landlady, who was shocked to hear that he was a spy. Popov was ordered out by external affairs and left Canada on Aug. 12. The other Russian involved, Sergei V. Selivanov, third Secretary, wasn't recalled.

Thanks for looking that up, Erik. Another Popov! Bergevin was a major builder of the CFC. But I feel sorry for James Stanley Staples, who lost his livelihood while apparently fully cooperating with Canada's counter-spy operation. Concerning the Arrow scandal, I'd like the evidence of a fly on the wall. Was it that Diefenbaker was struggling with the conscience of a nation, or was there some other influence from that most influential of neighbours? When I was a little boy in Winnipeg, among the collections of my brothers was a small white plastic model of the Arrow, regarded with reverence. In the current fighter jet hoo-haw, the same design, with a bit of electronics updating, might fill the bill, except that all plans were destroyed. Or were they?

[Dan Scoones]

Re: The KGB Plays Chess

The internet has his letter where he wrote that he emigrated in 1995, though it did not said he moved to Canada directly.

Russian text "В августе 1995 года в возрасте 48 лет я навсегда покинул Россию, оставив в ней все, что было дорого: любимую престарелую мать и свою семью. Все эти годы я живу в Канаде, " from the one of the book author website http://felshtinsky.livejournal.com/6125.html

But when he writes, "Все эти годы я живу в Канадe," surely he's implying there were no stopovers.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: The KGB Plays Chess

But when he writes, "Все эти годы я живу в Канадe," surely he's implying there were no stopovers.

I read it the same way as Dan did. "All these years I live in Canada". Adding my voice in agreement is rather like an RA Chess Club spy agreeing about the best chess move with Boris Spassky, but anyway...

[Paul Leblanc]

Re: The KGB Plays Chess

Canada 411 lists 29 V. Popovs including one Vladimir Popov in Richmond, BC