Author and evangelist. As a young Communist, he was recruited by the KGB to lead a squad whose job it was to break up underground meetings of Christian believers, brutally if need be. He underwent a spiritual conversion and in early September 1971, by this time a Soviet naval officer, he jumped ship off the Pacific Coast of Canada and made his way to shore. After his defection, he joined a California religious group, Underground Evangelism, and traveled around the United States speaking for this group. He was found dead of a gunshot wound in a California motel and his autobiography, variously titled The Persecutor and Forgive Me, Natasha (Natasha was a believer who helped inspire his conversion to Christianity) was published posthumously. His story was the basis of a 2004 documentary, Forgive Me, Sergei.
Author and evangelist. As a young Communist, he was recruited by the KGB to lead a squad whose job it was to break up underground meetings of Christian believers, brutally if need be. He underwent a spiritual conversion and in early September 1971, by this time a Soviet naval officer, he jumped ship off the Pacific Coast of Canada and made his way to shore. After his defection, he joined a California religious group, Underground Evangelism, and traveled around the United States speaking for this group. He was found dead of a gunshot wound in a California motel and his autobiography, variously titled The Persecutor and Forgive Me, Natasha (Natasha was a believer who helped inspire his conversion to Christianity) was published posthumously. His story was the basis of a 2004 documentary, Forgive Me, Sergei.
