53 Facts About Sergei Kourdakov

Sergei Nikolayevich Kourdakov 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.

Sergei Kourdakov is known for having written The Persecutor, an autobiography that was written shortly before his death in 1973 and published posthumously.

Sergei Kourdakov's father Nikolai Ivanovich Kourdakov was a soldier in the Soviet Army and a political activist who was a very loyal supporter of Joseph Stalin.

Sergei Kourdakov led a brigade in the Winter War and led a unit under General Konstantin Rokossovsky in World War II.

Sergei Kourdakov lived with his mother until her health began to deteriorate and when he was four years old, she became very ill and died.

Sergei Kourdakov was invited to live with a family who had known his mother.

Sergei Kourdakov got along well with everyone in the family except with their son Andrei, whom he believed to be mentally handicapped.

Sergei Kourdakov was promptly sent to an orphanage then known as Children's Home Number One, where he joined the Octobrianiks, a Soviet youth organization required for all children grades one through three.

Sergei Kourdakov joined a gang that turned into a reign of terror for the city.

Sergei Kourdakov then went back to Novosibirsk to live in the train station and steal from the food stalls.

Sergei Kourdakov later said that living in that orphanage had been a turning point in his life.

Sergei Kourdakov soon befriended him and ordered any teasing towards him to stop.

At the age of fifteen, Sergei Kourdakov joined Komsomol, known as the Communist Union of Youth.

Sergei Kourdakov cultivated a great interest in Marxism-Leninism, one that was not particularly shared with his friends in his orphanage.

Sergei Kourdakov graduated from his school in June 1967 and was awarded a silver medal for being the second best student in his grade level.

At the academy, Sergei Kourdakov met Pavel Sigorsky, a Pole who taught him Polish.

Shortly after attending a peace conference he was invited to between a gang his friends were in and another nearby gang, Sergei Kourdakov was shot in the left breast in revenge by a member of the other gang.

In just that single year at the academy, Sergei Kourdakov served as the League leader, performed well in his studies, organized entertainment events for the cadets, lectured at nearby schools on many current events topics, and competed in all of the sports offered by the academy.

Sergei Kourdakov came to tell him about a "special-action squad" he was forming as an official but secret branch of the city's police.

The first of these operations, as Sergei Kourdakov puts it, ended in disaster.

Sergei Kourdakov still retained his position as the leader of the academy's Communist Youth League and continued to compete in the school's sports, primarily consisting of wrestling, judo, karate, and track.

Sergei Kourdakov had usually assumed that Believers, especially younger ones, would distance themselves greatly from Christian meetings after experiencing the wrath of his group.

Sergei Kourdakov was invited to receive an award which honored him as the Number-One Communist Youth of Kamchatka Province, for which he prepared and gave a fifteen-minute speech, which was broadcast nationwide.

Sergei Kourdakov later wrote that he had been a genuine and firm believer in communism.

Sergei Kourdakov began to notice an increase in Believers, which made it seem to him that the bigger the fight they put up, the larger they grew.

Sergei Kourdakov later wrote in his autobiography about his experience when reading the book for the first time:.

In late July 1970, Sergei Kourdakov was sent to Novosibirsk for military duty.

Sergei Kourdakov soon formulated a plan that would involve him swimming across the Tisza river to Hungary using an aqua-lung he acquired at a black market.

Sergei Kourdakov even went as far as obtaining Hungarian currency and making his way to the border, but after seeing the immense amount of security at the border, he quickly realized that it would be impossible.

Sergei Kourdakov later wrote that because he was dissatisfied and ill at ease at the time, the last raids he led were the most vicious.

In January 1971, Sergei Kourdakov graduated from the Petropavlovsk Naval Academy as a radio officer and was assigned to duty on a Soviet Navy destroyer.

On March 4,1971, Sergei Kourdakov left the Soviet Union for the last time to board a Soviet submarine.

Sergei Kourdakov constructed a makeshift raft and hid food and water provisions for his escape.

Sergei Kourdakov planned escape that night, but had to perform one more shift as a radio officer before sunset.

Sergei Kourdakov spent many hours each day exercising in preparation of his escape.

Desperately, Sergei Kourdakov tried thinking of a good escape strategy.

Sergei Kourdakov quickly realized this would be his very last opportunity.

On September 3,1971, around 10 pm, Sergei Kourdakov plunged into Canadian waters.

Just as Sergei Kourdakov began looking ahead to the bright future, he was given disturbing news that he might be handed back to the Soviet government.

Sergei Kourdakov was flown to Vancouver and placed in the Vancouver Central Jail.

Alone in his cell, Sergei Kourdakov began rethinking his decision to attempt to defect to Canada instead of America.

Sergei Kourdakov tried talking to God, although he felt embarrassed because he didn't know any prayers.

Sergei Kourdakov was visited by many people, usually new friends and acquaintances.

Sergei Kourdakov left a note to where he was going to his two Bulgarian friends and translators and went to the interview.

Sergei Kourdakov began studying English at a university in the city.

Sergei Kourdakov went to a church in Toronto which was always open for prayer, where he stayed for two days only praying and drinking water.

On May 1,1972, Sergei Kourdakov joined Underground Evangelism and moved to California where he moved in with a family that had heard his story and offered him a place to stay.

Sergei Kourdakov spent his time traveling all over the United States speaking in schools, universities, and bible studies about his life and the state of Christian communities in the Soviet Union.

Sergei Kourdakov spent much of his time making live radio broadcasts about Christianity and the evils of Communism in Russian, which were broadcast to the Soviet Union.

On January 1,1973, Sergei Kourdakov was found dead in his motel room in Running Springs, California, killed by a gunshot to the head.

Sergei Kourdakov was buried in a Russian section of Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC, United States on January 11,1973.

Sergei Kourdakov's death stirred up much controversy among Christian anti-communist organizations and elsewhere.

The documentary produced by Damian Wojciechowski about Walker's findings, Forgive Me, Sergei Kourdakov won numerous awards worldwide.