Gendering Spies: Characterizations of the Gouzenko Affair in the Press

Abstract

The Gouzenko Affair spy scandal took place in a barely post-war Canada that was still experiencing the instability created by the shift from total war to uncertain peacetime. However, despite the fact that this period of transition demonstrates some unique and fascinating cultural and social beliefs, it is largely unstudied by scholars. The Gouzenko Affair itself, in histories, is usually reduced to being solely about the actions of state and police. However, the cultural mores of the time profoundly shaped how the public viewed both the titular Igor Gouzenko and those accused of being Soviet spies. Through press coverage of the Affair, it is possible to study the ways in which the news media—a major access point for studying public opinion—characterized those involved and therefore the ways in they were viewed by the public at large. I will primarily focus on the ways in which Gouzenko and those tried for spying enacted—and were portrayed as enacting—gender roles. In Ottawa’s Evening Citizen and Montreal’s The Gazette newspapers, both of which contained significant coverage of the Affair and the following spy trials, there is a clear focus on gender and the ways in which those involved in the Gouzenko Affair fit or did not fit into expected roles and stereotypes. Member of Parliament Fred Rose—the most famous of the accused—initially appeared to embody the masculine ideals of post-war Canada. However, as his espionage trial continued, he became more and more passive, eclipsed by a new democratic hero in the defector Igor Gouzenko. On the other hand, the press struggled to make sense of the three women who were accused of being spies. They did not at all fit the Mata Hari stereotype of the femme fatale female spy nor the ideal of conventional women of the time, rendering them confusing figures in public opinion.