New podcast: What happened to the Petrovs?
They were Bentleigh East’s worst-kept secret — the Soviet spy couple who dramatically defected, exposing 600 fellow agents. So what happened to the Petrovs? NEW PODCAST LISTEN NOW
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After spilling their country’s secrets and exposing 600 fellow agents, the lives of Soviet spies Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov in Melbourne suburbia could not have been more mundane.
In 1954, the Cold War spies were at the heart of the Petrov Affair, a world coup for ASIO.
Dramatic photos were beamed around the world of a terrified Evdokia, known as Eva, being dragged by two burly Soviet couriers across the tarmac at Sydney Airport, losing a shoe.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies intervened, and when the plane stopped in Darwin to refuel, the couriers were disarmed by local police and Eva agreed to join her husband in defecting.
The Petrovs are the subject of the latest In Black and White podcast episode, out today.
While Vladimir Petrov was ASIO’s no. 1 target, it was multilingual cryptologist Eva who proved to be the biggest prize thanks to her code-breaking expertise.
After giving up their secrets to ASIO, the CIA and MI5, the Petrovs settled down to a typically suburban lifestyle in 1956 in a nondescript brick veneer house in Parkmore Rd in Bentleigh East.
The couple became Australian citizens and were given new identities as Sven and Anna Allyson.
Neighbours were stunned to learn the new arrivals in their quiet street were none other than the famous Soviet spies, with their true identity an open secret.
Sven, who enjoyed Aussie rules and rabbit shooting, worked at the Ilford photographic company in Upwey where he developed film.
That was a skill he used in his spy days — developing film sent from Moscow to receive his instructions from the KGB.
Anna worked as a typist for the William Adams farm machinery firm, and shopped for groceries at the local Bentleigh shopping centre. She even volunteered for Meals on Wheels.
By all appearances they were just another hardworking migrant couple.
Yet unlike other couples in Melbourne’s suburbs, the Allysons lived out the rest of their lives in fear of assassination.
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In 1967 Sven, an abusive drunk who battled depression, described his predicament: “No friends, no future. I wish I was dead. No-one could dream of our misery.”
Sven suffered a series of strokes in the mid-1970s and was forced to live for the rest of his life at the Mount Royal Hospital in Parkville.
He died from pneumonia, aged 84, in 1991, with only a handful of people, including a few ASIO agents, at his funeral. Anna died in 2002, aged 87.
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here on Spotify here or on your favourite platform.
Read more on the earlier episodes, from the real Sherlock Holmes, to the inglorious end of the “baby killer of Brunswick” to the musical spy who turned from piano prodigy to WWII agent listening in on German pilots.
Check out In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday to see more stories like this.