Sergei Kourdakov
Sergei Nikolayevich Kourdakov (
Russian: Сергей Николаевич Курдаков; March 1, 1951 – January 1, 1973) was a self described former
KGB agent and
Soviet Navy officer who from his late teens allegedly carried out more than 150 raids in
underground Christian communities in regions of the
Soviet Union in the 1960s. At the age of twenty, he defected to Canada by jumping from a
Naval trawler into the
Pacific. Kourdakov swam ashore to
Haida Gwaii, and converted to
Evangelical Christianity. He is known for having written ''
The Persecutor'' (also known as ''Forgive Me, Natasha''), an
autobiography that was written shortly before his death in 1973 and published posthumously. Since its publication, it has been the source of varied
criticism. After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Caroline Walker, an American Evangelical Christian journalist and filmmaker who hoped to adapt ''The Persecutor'' for the big screen, travelled to the
Russian Federation and attempted to confirm the memoir of Kourdakov. Instead, Walker's interviews with Russians who had known Kourdakov before his defection exposed that ''The Persecutor'' was a work of fiction; made up first in order to be granted
political asylum in Canada and then repeated incessantly and written down in order to build a financially lucrative career as an Evangelical author and public speaker in the West. A documentary film, produced by Damian Wojciechowski, followed Cathleen Walker during and after her research trip to Russia, ''Forgive Me, Sergei'', won numerous awards worldwide.
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