AN NKVD COUPLE

On February 5, 1951, a party of five, destined for the Soviet Embassy in Canberra, disembarked in Sydney from the liner Orcades. Amongst the group were Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov. An Australian Security Intelligence Organization ( ASIO) field officer noted Petrov as a round-faced, solidly built man of 35 years or 40 years of age and his wife as a 35 year old of ‘medium to stout build.’ Although Petrov's official position was merely Embassy ‘referent’ or clerk, detective Longbottom of the New South Wales special branch, who had an informant on board the Orcades, let ASIO know that Petrov gave the impression of ‘being the “boss” of the Soviet group.’ The new arrivals were greeted on the wharf by the Soviet Embassy second secretary, Sadovnikov, and the ‘Tass' correspondent, Pakhomov. Unbeknown to ASIO at that time, the group chatting on the Sydney dock that day included four full-time officers of the Soviet intelligence service, two of whom were to influence, not negligibly, the future course of Australian political history. While Petrov's passage from his village to a post in the OGPU or NKVD (as it was renamed in 1934) was more protracted than that of his future wife, Evdokia Kartseva, her origins were even harsher than his.