Fred Rose was born in Lublin, Poland, in 1907. He arrived in Canada with his parents, who settled in Montreal. He became a member of Gaik Ovakimyan's North American NKVD network and was involved with Jacob Golos in securing Canadian travel documents for Soviet agents. In 1943 Rose was elected to the federal Canadian parliament from a working class district in Montreal and re-elected in 1945.
In September 1945 Soviet specialist Igor Gouzenko defected, revealing an elaborate atomic espionage operation. Fred Rose was a major player in the scheme and was found guilty of conspiring to commit espionage; he was sentenced to a six-year prison term.
In November 1953 he returned to his native Poland and passed away in Warsaw in 1983. The key importance of his role is revealed for the first time in this masterful study.
About the Author
David Levy is a film maker and historian of Canadian communism. This is his first book on the subject.