“All Will Be Forgiven”

Abstract

Chapter 10 addresses “redefection,” or the movement of Russian exiles back across the Iron Curtain from West to East. In mid-decade, in part as a reaction to Amcomlib’s emergence as a viable sponsor of psychological-warfare programs, the Kremlin launched a massive campaign to convince Soviet exiles to relocate to the USSR. The chapter depicts the return campaign, pursued through a KGB-front organization called the Committee for Return to the Homeland, as an effective tool for destabilizing and demoralizing the Russian anti-communists in Germany. While the return campaign damaged the émigré anti-communist camp badly, it also had the unanticipated consequence of encouraging American cold warriors and Russian anti-communists to bury their differences after the fiasco of the united-front campaign. In this way, the return campaign demonstrated the difficulty both superpowers experienced in influencing the Russian émigré milieu, as each step by one side produced a countermove by the other.