Armchair General MagazineImmediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belenko was sometimes hailed as a hero.
In September 1976, Lt. Viktor Belenko defected from the Soviet airbase at Chuguyevka, Siberia, to a civilian airport in Hakodate, Japan. In his defection he brought to the West the best fighter the Soviets had managed to produce up to that time, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat, along with its pilot’s manual. Immediately after landing, he requested and obtained political asylum in the United States.
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(Editor’s note: The Japanese government limited the U.S. to ground tests of the MiG’s radar and engines. The plane was then disassembled and returned to the USSR on a Japanese ship.)
In his book MiG Pilot, the Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko (McGraw-Hill 1980), John Barron, using the manuscript Belenko provided him, exposed in detail the reasons that moved Lt. Belenko to defect to the "adversary." Among the reasons given was the absurd life that common Soviet citizens were forced to live in those days, the so-called "years of Brezhnev’s stagnation." There were constant shortages of everything imaginable, from major food staples such as meat and sausages to toilet paper. When such items were available, citizens had to form kilometric lines to purchase them. As an elite fighter pilot, Lt. Belenko had access to many articles that were beyond the reach of the common citizen, such as meat and other food items (but not even he had access to toilet paper; old issues of Pravda was used).
It was not so much the scarcity of those articles that pushed him to defect, however; it was what he considered to be the obvious discrepancy between the promises of the Soviet communist system and the reality of life under it. All the promises the system made for a better life were accessible only to a select few members of the Nomenklatura in the upper echelons of Soviet life.
Another point of contention for him was the apparent contradictions between what Soviet propaganda fed their citizens about the West and the achievements Western society produced. In Belenko’s own words: "If they were so bad, how come they could send a man to be moon and bring him back? If they are falling apart right now, how come they’re producing better fighters than ours and have more Nobel Prize winners than we do?"
Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belenko was sometimes hailed as a hero for having escaped the totalitarian oppression of the Soviet regime in a bold and daring way, but after 2004 he was once again vilified as a traitor to Rodina, "Mother Russia." His detractors accuse him of having been "recruited" by the CIA while still in fighter pilot school, and of defecting solely for monetary gain, namely, the promise of U.S. $100,000 given to all those who defected to the West bringing with them a fighter plane.
My questions are: Is the old adage "once a traitor always a traitor" true? Is one who betrays a totalitarian regime a traitor or a hero? By defecting with a Mig-25 Belenko betrayed the Soviet Union; is he therefore a traitor to "Mother Russia?"
Post a comment below to offer your answers to these questions. After two weeks, we’ll post the author’s own POV on the answers.
Learn more about Miguel Vargas-Caba and Bear: Flight to Liberty. View images of the TU-95 Bear aircraft or see a video about the airplane.
I suppose that by definition, Belenko is a traitor. An abstract question that I would ask of Mr. Belenko is; given the opportunity, would you defect from the U.S.? Regardless of what label is put on him,he is a human being. He was an opportunist, he had an advantage not many other Russians had and he had access to something that he knew the west wanted and were willing to pay for. He used it for personal gain and a new life. This story is similar to Lt. Kim of North Korea who defected with a Mig during the Korean War, is he a traitor? By definition, yes? Have either of these men behaved other than honorably since their defection? Did America benefit from the action of these two men and their membership in our society?
Viktor Belenko, as with Mr. Kim, believed, but wasn’t quite sure of what he was getting himself into, if he succeeded. He was absolutely certain, however, of what lay in store should he fail. Whatever the lable, it took an exceptional amount of courage.
The stigma of traitorous activity really only has meaning depending on the side with which you place your own allegiance. The Russians no doubt cursed Belenko’s name (although they tried to keep up a front that he had lost his way, and some did turn him into a hero for a time), but to America he had become a “friend” and advisor, working in the Military Academy for several years. Having been given a life which probably suited him quite well, he would have no reason to defect back to Russia, or any other country.
A classic example of the mixed nature of the concept of treachery would be the character of Benedict Arnold during our own American Rebellion. He was a traitor to the British Crown when he fought for the rebellion, greatly aiding in the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga. He then went back to the British side and became a traitor to the Colonial cause. The British never really took him seriously, but how could they when he had so gallantly worked in favor of Colonial independence, besides the fact that he was not a very likeable fellow. However, they did give him a command and he ravaged Virginia for a time.
I believe the feature of Russian pilots defecting from their government is a statement of the unsatisfying system that they are forced to endure. Belenko writes, “It has always been a hard task in Russia to find tasty tinned goods. But in the USA I bought different tinned foods every day, and they were all very good. Once I bought a tin where was written Dinner and fried its content with potatoes, onions and garlic – it was delicious. Next morning my friends told me that I had eaten tinned chicken for cats. But it was delicious!” I don’t remember any point in history where the West Berliners were excited to jump the wall and enter the luxury of Eastern Germany. Belenko was exposing his dislike for Russian government, and risking death in the process, to gain for himself what he felt would be far better, and which turned out to be just that. The Russian ambassador in Japan, upon meeting with Belenko, informed him that they “knew he had lost his way and was forced to land on the island” (and with only seconds of fuel remaining in his MIG), but Belenko would not play the game, and the ambassador ensured him they would find him, no matter where he tried to hide.
The concept of treachery really only has meaning depending on the side upon which you stand. Indeed our entire national character is founded upon such “treacherous” circumstances. After all, was General George Washington a traitor, or a hero?
Just yesterday I was reading on the web of a staged “debate” between British barristers and American lawyers, on the legality of the American Revolution against the Crown of George III. It was an interesting opportunity to hold a “friendly match” between legal experts from both sides, with arguments that certainly held merit. As for Viktor Belenko I’d say that his personality as an adventurer came to the fore – he’d had the adventure of being a MiG pilot – now he wanted the adventure of living in the West. Reading Barron’s interesting book, Belenko did not come across as a political animal at all.
Hero
He was being true to higher principles of honesty. He figured out
that he and millions of Russians was being lied to and enslaved.
He began to hate the system that strips personal initiative and
individual and group exceptionalism. He hated Slavery. (The
Russian mafia ruled the place and still does.)
His defection caused a strategic re-alignment within the Soviet
Union that cost them billions. By the 1980′s the United States was
able to negotiate against the Soviet Union from a position of
strength. Eventually the Soviet Union collapsed.
By his act of defection and gift of the Mig 25, Viktor Belinko was
ultimately and in part instrumental in freeing many of his
countrymen and ending The Cold War.
Living conditions in Russia have not turned better for the masses
today, but the old Soviet Bloc countries, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Ukrane, Georgia, and Eastern
Europe — are all much better off without the Soviet Union being
able to completely dominate them. Totalitarian Communism
suffered a great blow when the USSR failed.
Unfortunately, America has become more comfortable with
Socialism and Communism. It appears America is beginning by
incrementalizm to adopt policies that also strip personal initiative
and individual and group exceptionalism. I believe the next four
to eight years will be very telling. Will America become
Communist? If so, it will be ONE PARTY and will eventually
become Totalitarian.
For the sake and hope of all humanity all Americans and
soveriegn people should root out the false principals and
propaganda s of Socialism and Communism, find the best in our
system and help the whole world to do the same.
Shortly before he defected, Viktor’s wife Ludmila demanded a divorce and planned to take their 4-year-old son Dmitri to live with her parents in Magadan, and Viktor figured that her Party connections would protect the family from what he was about to do. Does anyone know what became of them? Did Dmitri ever get in touch with his father? Did Viktor marry and start another family in the US?
In response to Mr. Coffin’s request about Viktor Belenko’s wife, Lyudmila, I found an interview made to her by the Russian newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” on 09-26-2006. She today works as manager of a children’s nursery in the Kuban Region of Russia. Neither her nor Dmitry ever got in touch again with Viktor after his defection. He did get married to an American music teacher, with whom he had 2 children, but later the couple divorced.
“Komsomolskaya Pravda is the KGB propaganda machine. Only an idiot will believe in its stories/interviews. Belenko’s relatives live in Canada. Only God knows how many wives and children he have had during his life time. New York Times is claiming that he worked for the CIA since 1974. The Russian cosmonavt Igor Volk does support this claim. John Barron wrote “Mig Pilot”. But he did not give any credit to Viktor Belenko regarding to the contribution to this book. Perhaps it is another fiction. But it is John Barron’s book.
Interview with Victor Belenko is pure fabrication . It has being done to support the sale of Barron’s books. For the legal protection from potential law suits the first name Victor was used with the letter “C”. The real first name Belenko is Viktor with letter “K”. The big question is this, ‘WHY DIDN’T VIKTOR BELENKO WRITE HIS OWN BOOK?”
Does anyone know how to get in touch with Mr. Belenko? I just read John Barron’s book, and realized that Mr. Belenko is about 63 years old now and probably still living.
Actually Mig Pilot was killed in a small plane crash about 10 years ago. He used to attend EAA Oshkosh where he made presentations about soviet military aviation.
It was Alexander Zuyev, who defected to Turkey in 1989 with his MiG-29, that was killed in 2001 in a small plane crash in Washington state.
Viktor Belenko betrayed his Russian homeland in order to be true to a higher standard, that of the human spirit living within him. Yes, he was most definitely a traitor to Soviet Russia. However, given their awful humanitarian record and abysmal economic mismanagement, as well as the near slavery-like conditions, alcoholism, and intellectual dishonesty forced upon its citizens, one would have to be woefully uninformed to say he did the wrong thing. Betraying such a corrupt system was an act of selflessness and courage, born out of desperation as well as persecution. The persecution was not specific to him. He existed in a state of widespread and anonymous persecution, where everyone was the victim and the perpetrator. Escape was both a necessity and a miracle.
Lieutenant Belenko did not choose to be born in Russia in order to betray it. He did not enlist in the Soviet Air Force so that he would eventually have something to trade in his eventual defection. At each stage in his life, he desired only to better himself, to avoid the pettiness and parasitism which surrounded him. He was a great man in a place which did not permit greatness. Before he could betray his country, it betrayed him. It betrayed him and millions more like him.
It is chauvinism of the worst sort to expect an honorable man to say black is white, that misery is happiness, or that slavery is freedom, simply out of some misguided idea that he must support the government that happens to rule the land of his birth. The concepts of freedom, bravery, and honor are above national identity. Lieutenant Belenko, uninformed as he was, found his way to the right place for such ideals to blossom. As flawed as it is, the constitutional republic of America is the best system ever devised to give the most possible freedom to the highest possible number of its citizens. He was drawn to it as iron filings are to a magnet. To refuse that pull would have been the real betrayal.
Wow Mark, that was a great comment.
Belenko was not married in Russia. He had a woman with a boy.
Writer Barron wrote ‘Mig Pilot’ and he ‘converted’ that woman into Belenko’s wife. It was done for the emotional appeal for potential readers. Some of Belenko’s relatives moved to Canada.
One time he was involved in BD-10 Jet test program. After 1996 he vanished from the aviation community. Perhaps he was killed during test flights.
Actually Belenko was the CIA agent. He was recruited in 1974 in Moscow . The British MI6 did assist CIA with his recruitment. They provided a woman agent who met Belenko at bar in Moscow.
Greg – Bull. You write English with Russian accent.
But one thing I’ll never understand. Why he left his family? For me, family is the most important thing in life! can not be selfish to an extent. After all, there were cases such as for example in Cuba. When the pilot returned to their families. Because of this, for me a traitor Belenko. Cause he left his family. This is not a male thing.