HIST 102 Study Guide - Final Guide: Florence Bird, Grande Noirceur, Agrarian Socialism

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: History
• Course: HIST 102
• Professor: John- Henry Harter

Document Summary

The discovery that the soviets had operated a spy network in canada in which canadians spirited classified information to the soviet government created a sensation when it became public news in february 1946. In practice, both the canadian and soviet governments agreed that what the soviet had collected from their canadian spies was not particularly significant. Much of it was public information they could have obtained without resorting to spying. The government"s concern was less with the actual information that had been passed to the soviet than with the potential for real secrets to fall to the hands of the enemy , such as research related to nuclear weapons. The government established a commission to investigate the gouzenko files and determine what charges should be laid against the individuals involved in them. In the aftermath of the gouzenko affair and the resulting court cases, a chill fell over the political activity on the part of canada"s scientists.