Background
Louis, Viktor was born in 1928 in Moscow.
Louis, Viktor was born in 1928 in Moscow.
Moscow correspondent for many Western publications. A Soviet citizen, non-party, and a millionaire whose articles have appeared under his own name in the London Evening News, Washington Post, New York Times, Time magazine, France-Soir etc. Specializes in scoops.
Was the first to announce Khrushchev’s retirement. Obvious source of inspired Soviet leaks to the world press. Known also for other operations, e.g. passed on Svetlana Allilueva’s pirated copy of Twenty Letters to a Friend to a publisher in the West in order to dampen the sensation from the book a few months before the official publication date.
Arrested as a student, 1947, spent 9 years in Gulag camps. The Committee for State Security defector Major lurii Nosenko alleged in 1964 that Louis had been recruited in the camps by the Committee for State Security. On his return to Moscow in 1956, got small jobs in the diplomatic sphere (tightly controlled by the Committee for State Security), first with the New Zealand Embassy, later at the Embassy of Brazil.
Met his future British wife, Jenifer, at that time a nanny to a British diplomat. They were soon given a 3-room apartment on the exclusive Leninskii Prospekt, an unusual gesture from the authorities, since they were a young childless couple and he was not in employment anywhere officially. This was followed in 1965 by the purchase of a magnificent country house on a large estate in Peredelkino.
Lives there now with his wife and three sons. Travels around the world on special missions, e.g. to Taiwan, Israel and South Africa.