Grigori Tokaty

Grigori Aleksandrovich Tokaev (Russian: Григорий Александрович Токаев; Ossetian: Гогки Ахмæты фырт Токаты, Gorki Axmætî fîrt Tokatî;) also known as Grigory Tokaty; (October 13, 1909 – 23 November 2003) was a rocket scientist, British government propagandist,[1] and long-standing critic of Stalin's USSR.[2] During his time in Britain, he also worked to create material for the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the UK Foreign Office which delt in disinformation, pro-colonial propaganda and anti-communist propaganda during the Cold War.[1]

Grigori Tokaty
Born(1909-10-13)13 October 1909
Seker, Terek Oblast, Russian Empire
Died23 November 2003(2003-11-23) (aged 94)
Surrey, UK
NationalityOssetian
Alma materZhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy
Known foraerodynamics and rocket technology
Spouse(s)Aza Baeva
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics

Pre-war Life

He served as Head of Aeronautics Laboratory, Zhukovsky Academy 1938–41. After receiving his doctorate in technical sciences in 1941 he continued to lecture at the Zhukovsky Academy. Simultaneously he worked as Acting Head of the Department of Aviation at the Moscow Engineering Institute. One of his tasks was to study the possibility of developing a medium-range winged rocket.

Underground opposition

At first an 'young unquestioning fanatic' in his own words, he was a party activist, and was re-elected to the Trade Union Committee and the comsomol bureau multiple times.[3] Tokaty became disillusioned with socialism later in his life, and joined an opposition group with the aims of taking down Stalin.[4][5] He reported in his memóirs that his right-wing group wanted to establish a liberal democracy. He also reported how the opposition in the USSR behaved and how they planned a coup and assassinations against the soviet government and its leaders, sometimes even with the help of high-ranking party members who became disillusioned with Stalinism.[5]

Great patriotic war and aftermath

Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941 rapidly overrunning Soviet front-line forces. The Academy's staff was evacuated to Sverdlovsk in the Urals. Tokaty returned to Moscow during the Battle of Moscow. He later flew in bombing raids over Stalingrad using American bombers delivered through lend-lease.

By the end of the Second World War he had become a leading Party representative and academic. This was at the Zhukovsky Academy (now back in Moscow) and the Moscow Engineering Institute.

After German capitulation in May 1945 in the following month he was sent to Berlin. This was to serve on the Soviet Control Commission working directly under Marshals Georgi Zhukov and Vasily Sokolovsky. As such he gained access to top-secret communications between the General Staff and the Kremlin.

Defection

Tokaty was afraid of his links with the opposition being discovered. The fear of being arrested and his hatred for Stalin's government culminated into his defection to the United Kingdom. He and his family crossed into the British sector of occupied Berlin, and applied for asylum. He arrived in Britain in November 1947. He was given a false identity and was protected by the British intelligence services during his debriefing, since there was strong evidence soviet agents were planning to assassinate him.[1]

Life in UK

He later became Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Space Technology at the City University in London from 1967 to 1975. He regularly appeared in the New Scientist magazine.[6] He gave soviet military secrets to the British government, and also assisted the Information Research Department (IRD), to disseminate anti-Communist propaganda.[1] He appeared in episode five[7] of the World War II documentary series The World at War where he gives a recollection of his experiences.[8] Several historians have used his account of events to study the history of the Soviet Union.[4][9][10] A fictional Tokaev appears in Book 10 of Upton Sinclair's final novel in the Lanny Budd series as the rescuer of Lanny from a Russian MVD prison in East Berlin. Sinclair acknowledges his contribution to the novel in the Acknowledgements section appearing before the start of the novel or after the end, depending on the edition.[11]

Books
  • Stalin means war (1951)
  • Betrayal of an Ideal (1954)
  • Comrade X (1956)

References
  1. "Professor Grigori Tokaty". The Independent. 2003-11-25. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  2. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/heroesvillains/g4/cs2/g4cs2s5.htm
  3. "Betrayal Of And Ideal : G A Tokaev page 35-36". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  4. Getty, John Arch; Getty, John Archibald (1987-01-30). Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933-1938 page 207. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33570-6.
  5. "Tokaev Comrade X 1956". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  6. New Scientist Feb 20, 1975, New Scientist Jul 8, 1971, New Scientist Jan 20, 1973
  7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olYUrlIfWg0
  8. The World at War, Episode 5; Barbarossa originally broadcast 21 November 1973
  9. Conquest, Robert (1990). The Great Terror: A Reassessment. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507132-0.
  10. Cohen, Stephen F.; Cohen, Stephen F. (1980). Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888-1938. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-502697-9.
  11. Sinclair, Upton (1953). The Return of Lanny Budd. New York: Viking Press.
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