Peter Deriabin

Peter Sergeyevich Deriabin (Russian: Петр Сергеевич Дерябин; 1921 – 20 August 1992) was a KGB officer who defected to the United States in 1954. After his defection, he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and wrote several books on the KGB. He died in 1992 at the age of 71.

Deriabin died following a stroke on 20 August 1992 in Northern Virginia. At the time of his death, he was survived by family members whose names were kept secret by the CIA. According to the CIA, Deriabin's knowledge and understanding of the KGB was "the foundation for the West's knowledge of the agency."

Deriabin was considered an asset when the NSA ramped up operations in the 1970s, and entered the agency's ranks during a visit to Fort Meade in 1973. A detailed report of his visit was declassified in 2012.

In 1953 following Stalin's death, Deriabin was stationed in Vienna as Chief of Soviet Counterintelligence as well as Communist Party boss for the entire Austro-German section. In 1954, he defected to the United States "via a freight train ride through Soviet occupied territory near Vienna," and was the highest ranking Soviet intelligence officer to have done so at the time. He chose the Americans because he felt they "won't cave in when the USSR demands my return". In retaliation, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death in absentia. He testified before the US Senate and the HUAC in 1959, and co-wrote a book about his time in the KGB.

Deriabin was born in Siberia's Altai region. In his book The Secret World, he gave his date of birth as 13 February 1921. The KGB Wanted List for 1979 gave his date of birth as 1919.