# List of Soviet and Eastern Bloc defectors

Soon after the formation of the Soviet Union, emigration restrictions were put in place to keep citizens from leaving the various republics of the USSR, though some defections still occurred. During and after World War II, similar restrictions were put in place in non-Soviet countries of the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe (except for non-aligned Yugoslavia).
Until 1952, however, the Inner German border between East and West Germany could be easily crossed in most places. Accordingly, before 1961, most of that east–west flow took place between East and West Germany, with over 3.5 million East Germans emigrating to West Germany before 1961. On August 13, 1961, a barbed-wire barrier, which would become the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin, was erected by East Germany.
Although international movement was, for the most part, strictly controlled, there was a steady loss through escapees who were able to use ingenious methods to evade frontier security. Numerous notable Eastern Bloc citizens defected to non-Eastern Bloc countries.
The following list of Eastern Bloc defectors contains notable defectors from East Germany, the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Albania before those countries' conversions from communist states in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

## List of defections

Defections violating emigration restrictions of the Eastern Bloc countries :
| Defector | Profession/ Prominence | Birthplace | Year | Notes |
| George Balanchine | Choreographer | Russia | 1924 | Defected during a tour of Germany to the Weimar Republic |
| Boris Bazhanov | Politburo secretary | Ukraine, Russian Empire | 1928 | Defected to France via Iran and India |
| Georges Agabekov | OGPU | Turkmenistan | 1930 | Defected in France; led the manhunt for Boris Bazhanov before defecting |
| Grigol Robakidze | Author | Georgia | 1930 | Defected to Germany; primarily known for his exotic prose and anti-Soviet émigré activities |
| Tatiana Tchernavin | Writer | Russia | 1932 | Fled from the USSR with her husband Vladimir Tchernavin and her son Andrei through Karelia to Finland and then to the United Kingdom. She and her son visited her husband in a gulag prison, before fleeing together. She wrote a book about their experience: Escape from the Soviets and her husband wrote another: I Speak For the Silent Prisoners of the Soviets. |
| George Gamow | Physicist | Ukraine | 1933 | First tried to kayak across the Black Sea; defected in Brussels, Belgium; later discovered alpha decay via quantum tunneling |
| Ignace Reiss | NKVD | Austria-Hungary | 1937 | Former spy of Soviet intelligence services; assassinated by the NKVD |
| Walter Krivitsky | NKVD | Austria-Hungary | 1937 | Defected in Paris after the assassination of Reiss; apparent suicide in the United States in 1941 may have been an NKVD assassination |
| Alexander Orlov | NKVD | Belarus | 1938 | Fled while stationed in Spain to avoid execution in the Great Purge |
| Genrikh Lyushkov | NKVD | Ukraine, Russian Empire | 1938 | Crossed the border into Manchukuo with secret documents; family arrested and sent to the gulag, where several died |
| Aron Sheinman | Director of the London department of Intourist | Poland, Russian Empire | 1939 | Was recalled from London, refused to return to the USSR |
| Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov | Author | Russia | 1942 | Sent to infiltrate anti-Soviet Chechens; he joined them instead |
| Nasreddin Murat-Khan | Architect/engineer | Russia | 1944 | Fled to evade religious persecution. Defected in Berlin, Germany; then to Pakistan in 1950 where he was given refuge and citizenship. In honour of his new home, Pakistan; he designed and constructed the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, which stands as a national symbol of the country to this day. He also constructed the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore and Nishtar Medical University in Multan. |
| Victor Kravchenko | Engineer | Ukraine | 1944 | Soviet engineer who witnessed the horrors of the Holodomor; defected while serving in the Soviet Purchasing Agency in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. |
| G. M. Dimitrov | Politician | Bulgaria | 1945 | Saved from execution by the U.S. ambassador; later founded anti-communist organisations |
| Fedir Bohatyrchuk | Chess player, medical doctor | USSR | 1945 | Former Soviet chess champion who eventually immigrated to Canada, where he became a professor of medicine and resumed his competitive chess |
| Géza Füster | Chess player | Hungary | 1945 | Defected through East Berlin with friend Pal Benko who was caught and jailed for three years |
| Igor Gouzenko | GRU | Russia | 1945 | Defected in Ottawa, Canada; helped uncover communist spy rings |
| Konstantin Volkov | NKVD | Russia | 1945 | Deputy head of the NKVD in Istanbul, Turkey; contacted the British consulate about defection, was arrested by the Soviets, and disappeared forever (possibly executed) |
| Valeri Tihonovitch Minakov | | Russia | 1945 | Escaped from Siberia across the Bering Sea in a small boat with his 6-year-old son Oleg. He was assisted by Yupik of Savoonga and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. Shortly afterward, 14 Siberians arrived for "a visit" and questioned inhabitants whether they had seen a "white Russian". |
| Anatoli Granovsky | MGB agent | Ukraine, Russian Empire | 1946 | Defected in Stockholm, Sweden and later wrote an autobiography |
| Grigori Tokaty | Scientist and politician | Ossetia | 1947 | Secretly worked with an underground opposition group in the USSR. Afraid that his ties to the underground would be discovered, he defected to the British Sector of Occupied Berlin, and arrived in the UK in 1947. He later worked in the Information Research Department, helping disseminate anti-communist propaganda. |
| Jan Čep | Writer | Czechoslovakia | 1948 | Defected to France; poet friend who stayed behind was jailed for 13 years for "anti-socialist thinking" |
| Nesti Josifi Kopali | Chief of the Sigurimi Albanian security service in Rome | Albania | 1949 | Offered himself to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in late 1949, but was rejected, so he turned to Italian intelligence. After a couple of months of interrogation, he was turned over to the CIA, which flew him to Washington, D.C., for debriefing. Kopali had, among his other anti-western assignments in 1946–47, tried and failed to set up a liaison with the editor of an ethnic newspaper in Boston. In 1950, Kopali provided some valuable information about Albanian security and military matters, but not enough for the U.S. government to offer him political asylum and resettlement in the U.S. He was ultimately flown back to Germany. |
| Alena Vrzáňová | Figure skater | Czechoslovakia | 1950 | Defected during the 1950 World Championships in London |
| Josef Buršík | Tank commander | Czechoslovakia | 1950 | Escaped from prison to West Germany and later the UK. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Buršík returned his Hero of the Soviet Union medal to the Soviet embassy in London. |
| Czesław Miłosz | Author | Poland | 1951 | Defected to France after serving as a Polish diplomat and later settled in the U.S. |
| Istvan Rabovsky | Dancer | Hungary | 1953 | Escaped with wife Nora Kovach to West Berlin on an East Berlin tour |
| Franciszek Jarecki | Pilot | Poland | 1953 | Flew a MiG-15 from Słupsk, Poland to Rønne Airport on the Danish island of Bornholm |
| Józef Światło | UB agent | Poland | 1953 | Defected on a mission in East Berlin; he went on to reveal in Radio Free Europe broadcasts the internal struggle in the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and the true face of the Security Office (UB). One result of his escape was the liquidation of the Ministry of Security (MBP). |
| Nikolai Khokhlov | KGB | Russia | 1953 | Refused to assassinate George Okolovich; defected in West Germany and survived a KGB assassination attempt in 1957 |
| Nora Kovach | Dancer | Hungary | 1953 | Escaped with husband Istvan Rabovsky to West Berlin on an East Berlin tour |
| Andrzej Panufnik | Composer | Poland | 1954 | Escaped Polish secret police in a nighttime taxi chase in Zurich, Switzerland, then defected to the UK while in London |
| Peter Deriabin | KGB major | Russia | 1954 | KGB major and personnel officer who contacted U.S. intelligence in Vienna and was exfiltrated through the "Mozart Express" military train; worked with the CIA for years afterwards |
| Vladimir Petrov | Diplomat | Russia | 1954 | Husband of undercover KGB agent Evdokia Petrova; defected on a mission in Australia which sparked the Petrov Affair |
| Evdokia Petrova | KGB agent | Russia | 1954 | Undercover KGB agent who was the wife of Vladimir Petrov; defected in Australia during the Petrov Affair |
| Béla Berger | Chess player | Hungary | 1956 | Defected during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 to Australia |
| Ferenc Puskás | Football player | Hungary | 1956 | Defected during the 1956–57 European Cup in Madrid, Spain |
| Imre Lakatos | Philosopher of science | Hungary | 1956 | Fled to Vienna, Austria, and later to the UK after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |
| Jenő Kalmár | Football player | Hungary | 1956 | Defected during the 1956–57 European Cup in Madrid, Spain, then went to Switzerland |
| József Mindszenty | Cardinal | Hungary | 1956 | Fled to the U.S. Embassy in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; later moved to Austria |
| Sándor Kocsis | Football player | Hungary | 1956 | Defected during the 1956–57 European Cup in Madrid, Spain, then went to Switzerland |
| Zoltán Czibor | Football player | Hungary | 1956 | Fled to Spain during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |
| Ágnes Keleti | Artistic gymnast | Hungary | 1956 | Defected in Melbourne, Australia, during the 1956 Summer Olympics |
| Christo Javacheff | Environmental artist | Bulgaria | 1957 | Escaped from Czechoslovakia to Austria |
| Reino Häyhänen | KGB agent | Russia | 1957 | Defected in Paris after spending several years spying undercover in the west |
| Pal Benko | Chess player | Hungary | 1957 | Defected in Reykjavik following the World Student Team Championship |
| Nicholas Shadrin | Naval officer | Russia | 1959 | Defected in Sweden; later allegedly killed by the KGB |
| Alexander Petrovich | Photographer | Russia | 1960 | Defected through Iran and India; settled in the U.S. in Tampa, Florida |
| Ernst Degner | Motorcycle racer | East Germany | 1961 | Defected once he knew that his wife and two children had already escaped to West Germany in a car trunk. Degner, who was familiar with MZ Motorcycles' loop scavenging technique secrets, drove his car from the Swedish Grand Prix to Denmark, then on to West Germany. |
| Michael Goleniewski | SB MSW | Poland | 1961 | Defected in West Germany; sentenced to death after defection; subsequently worked for the CIA. Before he defected, he had spied for the CIA under the cover name Sniper, but the CIA did not know his identity until his escape. |
| Anatoliy Golitsyn | KGB agent | Ukraine | 1961 | Defected to the U.S. from Helsinki, Finland via Sweden and West Germany with his wife and daughter when he was stationed in Helsinki; made sensational claims after his defection |
| Rudolf Nureyev | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1961 | Defected while on tour in Paris |
| Jonas Pleškys | Submarine tender captain | Lithuania | 1961 | Sailed vessel to Sweden; sentenced to death and hidden by the CIA from the USSR |
| Valentin Poénaru | Mathematician | Romania | 1961 | Defected at a conference in Stockholm, Sweden; known for low-dimensional topology |
| Emil Poklitar | Football player | East Germany | 1961 | Football player of SC Dynamo Berlin. Defected together with teammate Rolf Starost after a friendly match against Boldklubben af 1893 in Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Rolf Starost | Football player | East Germany | 1961 | Football player of SC Dynamo Berlin. Defected together with Emil Poklitar after a friendly match against Boldklubben af 1893 in Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Konrad Schumann | Border guard | East Germany | 1961 | Photographed jumping the Berlin Wall during construction |
| Bohdan Stashynsky | KGB agent | Ukraine | 1961 | Defected in West Berlin; assassinated Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera before his defection |
| Petr Beckmann | Physicist | Czechoslovakia | 1963 | Defected as a visiting professor to the University of Colorado in the U.S.; became a proponent of libertarianism and nuclear energy |
| Yuri Krotkov | KGB agent | Georgia | 1963 | Defected while an undercover agent in London; later became a novelist |
| Gabor Balla | Marksman | Hungary | 1964 | Defected in Tokyo, Japan during the 1964 Summer Olympics |
| András Törő | Flatwater canoe athlete | Hungary | 1964 | Defected in Tokyo, Japan during the 1964 Summer Olympics |
| Paul Barbă Neagră | Film director | Romania | 1964 | Defected in Tours, France |
| Yuri Nosenko | KGB agent | Ukraine | 1964 | Defected in Washington, D.C., United States; for years, the CIA believed that he might be a double agent |
| Michael Polywka | Football player | East Germany | 1966 | Fled after a match in Sweden; traveled to West Germany |
| Ivan Diviš | Poet | Czechoslovakia | 1967 | Fled after the Prague Spring to West Germany and worked for Radio Free Europe |
| Svetlana Alliluyeva | Joseph Stalin's daughter | Russia | 1967 | Defected to the U.S. via New Delhi, India; denounced the former regime of her late father Joseph Stalin, but softened her criticism of him in the 1980s |
| Anatoly Kuznetsov | Author | Ukraine | 1968 | Defected after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia while doing research in London to the UK |
| Jan Šejna | General | Czechoslovakia | 1968 | Fled after the Prague Spring to the U.S. |
| Miloš Forman | Film director and actor | Czechoslovakia | 1968 | Defected to the U.S. when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to end the Prague Spring; known for directing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus |
| Vladimir Oravsky | Writer | Czechoslovakia | 1968 | Fled after the Prague Spring to Sweden |
| Cornel Chiriac | Journalist | Romania | 1969 | Defected to Austria using a fake invitation |
| Georgi Markov | Playwright | Bulgaria | 1969 | Fled to Italy after a ban on plays; assassinated in London in 1978 |
| Jerzy Lewi | Chess player | Poland | 1969 | Defected during a tournament in Athens, Greece; traveled to Sweden |
| Ladislav Bittman | Czechoslovak state security, disinformation | Czechoslovakia | 1969 | Became a professor at Boston University, lecturing on disinformation and propaganda |
| Josef Frolík | Czechoslovak state security | Czechoslovakia | 1969 | Defected from Bulgaria to Turkey on a boat, moved by the CIA to the U.S. |
| Simonas Kudirka | Seaman | Lithuania | 1970 | Leaped from a Soviet ship to a U.S. Coast Guard ship |
| Natalia Makarova | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1970 | Defected while on a ballet tour in London; later won a Tony Award |
| Yuri Bezmenov | KGB propaganda agent | Russia | 1970 | Left his KGB station in India disguised as a hippie, traveled to Greece, was debriefed in the U.S., but refused to stay in the country because of KGB infiltration of the CIA; later granted asylum in Canada |
| Oleg Lyalin | KGB agent | Russia | 1971 | Defected in London after being arrested there; exposed dozens of KGB agents in the city |
| Vasek Matousek | Figure skater | Czechoslovakia | 1972 | |
| Ioan P. Culianu | Philosopher | Romania | 1972 | Defected during lectures in Italy. He was murdered on the campus of University of Chicago in 1991, and speculation arose that it was at the hands of former Securitate personnel. |
| Alexander Elder | Author | Russia | 1974 | Jumped from a Soviet ship, on which he was working as a doctor, while it was off the Ivory Coast; later traveled to the U.S. |
| Mikhail Baryshnikov | Ballet dancer | Latvia | 1974 | Defected during a tour in Toronto, Canada |
| Paul Nevai | Mathematician | Hungary | 1974 | Defected in Paris; emigrated to the U.S. in 1976 |
| Stanislav Kurilov | Oceanographer | USSR | 1974 | While on a "cruise to nowhere" in the open ocean, jumped into the sea and swam to the Philippine coast, many kilometres away |
| Václav Nedomanský | Hockey player | Czechoslovakia | 1974 | Defected during a vacation in Switzerland |
| Martina Navratilova | Tennis player | Czechoslovakia | 1975 | Defected at the 1975 US Open in the U.S. |
| Jürgen Pahl | Football player | East Germany | 1976 | Fled with Norbert Nachtweih after an under-21 match in Turkey; traveled to West Germany |
| Norbert Nachtweih | Football player | East Germany | 1976 | Fled with Jürgen Pahl after an under-21 match in Turkey; traveled to West Germany |
| Viktor Belenko | Fighter pilot | Russia | 1976 | Flew a MiG-25 from Chuguyevka, Russia to Hakodate, Japan |
| Viktor Korchnoi | Chess player | Russia | 1976 | First Soviet Grandmaster to defect; fled following a tournament in Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Youri Egorov | Pianist | Russia | 1976 | Fled during a tour in Rome, Italy |
| Vladimir Rezun (Viktor Suvorov) | GRU | Russia | 1978 | GRU military intelligence officer who defected to the UK while working under UN cover in Switzerland |
| Arkady Shevchenko | UN Undersecretary General | Ukraine | 1978 | Spied for the U.S. for three years before defection. His wife in Moscow died two months after his defection, purportedly of suicide. |
| Kirill Kondrashin | Conductor | Russia | 1978 | Defected in December 1978 while touring in the Netherlands and sought political asylum there |
| Ion Mihai Pacepa | Securitate agent | Romania | 1978 | Two-star Romanian Securitate general and personal advisor to Nicolae Ceauşescu; defected in U.S. Embassy in Bonn, West Germany; sentenced to death twice in absentia with a $2 million bounty. Carlos the Jackal was sent to assassinate him. |
| Matei Pavel Haiducu | Securitate agent | Romania | 1978 | Defected to France in 1981 while on an industrial espionage mission; sentenced to death in absentia |
| Imants Lešinskis | KGB agent | Latvia | 1978 | Defected to the U.S. while working at the UN |
| Alexander Godunov | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1979 | Defected while on a ballet tour in New York City at JFK International Airport in Queens; later became an actor, playing among other roles as a terrorist in Die Hard |
| Werner Stiller | Stasi agent | East Germany | 1979 | Defected to West Germany after stealing state secrets |
| Jörg Berger | Football coach | East Germany | 1979 | Used a match with the East German youth national football team in Yugoslavia to flee to West Germany |
| Leonid Kozlov | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1979 | Defected with wife Valentina Kozlova during their company's tour in Los Angeles, California |
| Valentina Kozlova | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1979 | Defected with husband Leonid Kozlov during their company's tour in Los Angeles, California |
| Lev Alburt | Chess player | Russia | 1979 | Soviet chess grandmaster; defected to the U.S. where he won the US Chess Championship three times |
| Ludmila Belousova | Figure skater | Russia | 1979 | Defected while in Switzerland |
| Lutz Eigendorf | Football player | East Germany | 1979 | Football player of BFC Dynamo. Fled during a match in West Germany; died in a car accident in 1983, allegedly assassinated by the Stasi |
| Oleg Protopopov | Figure skater | Russia | 1979 | Defected with Ludmila Belousova while on tour in Switzerland |
| Stanislav Levchenko | KGB agent | Russia | 1979 | Defected during a mission in Tokyo, Japan; detailed the KGB's Japanese spy network |
| Vladas Česiūnas | Sprint canoe athlete | Lithuania | 1979 | Defected during the world championships at Frankfurt Airport in West Germany; recaptured by the KGB |
| Anton Šťastný | Hockey player | Czechoslovakia | 1980 | Defected with brother Peter during the European Cup tournament in Innsbruck, Austria |
| Igor Vasilyevich Ivanov | Chess player | Russia | 1980 | Ran from KGB agents when his plane made an emergency stop in Gander, Canada |
| Peter Šťastný | Hockey player | Czechoslovakia | 1980 | Defected with his wife and brother Anton during the European Cup tournament in Innsbruck, Austria |
| Sulamith Messerer | Ballet dancer | Russia | 1980 | Sister's husband purged; defected to the UK at the age of 72 to coach ballet |
| Walter Polovchak | Underage defector | Ukraine | 1980 | Fled from his parents when they were about to return to the Ukrainian SSR. Granted political asylum as a naturalised U.S. citizen upon turning 18 on October 3, 1985. Had been the subject of a lengthy political cause célèbre during the preceding five years |
| Maxim Shostakovich | Conductor | Russia | 1981 | Defected while on tour in West Germany with his son |
| Romuald Spasowski | Ambassador | Poland | 1981 | Defected when martial law was declared in Poland in 1981 |
| Zdzisław Rurarz | Ambassador | Poland | 1981 | Defected to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo with Spasowski following the Polish United Workers' Party's declaration of martial law |
| Ryszard Kukliński | Colonel | Poland | 1981 | Spied for the U.S. for 10 years after the 1970 massacre of Polish workers. Later defected to the U.S. and was sentenced to death in absentia. Died of a stroke; sentence annulled in 1998 by the Polish Supreme Court |
| Vladimir Tismăneanu | Political scientist | Romania | 1981 | Defected in Spain while on an authorised trip with his mother to visit the site of his father's battles |
| Miroslav Fryčer | Hockey player | Czechoslovakia | 1981 | Defected to Canada while at a tournament with the Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team in Bern, Switzerland |
| Clifford Kettemborough | Mathematician, computer scientist | Romania | 1982 | Defected to Turkey, then Austria, via Bulgaria before emigrating to the U.S. in June 1983 |
| Vladimir Kuzichkin | KGB agent | Russia | 1982 | Defected to a British intelligence station in Tehran and then to the UK |
| Gega Kobakhidze | Actor | Georgia | 1983 | Hijacked Aeroflot Flight 6833; tried to defect to Turkey and was arrested |
| Falko Götz | Football player | East Germany | 1983 | Football player of BFC Dynamo. Fled before a match in Yugoslavia together with teammate Dirk Schlegel; traveled to West Germany |
| Dirk Schlegel | Football player | East Germany | 1983 | Football player of BFC Dynamo. Fled before a match in Yugoslavia together with Falko Götz; traveled to West Germany |
| Vakhtang Jordania | Conductor | Georgia | 1983 | Defected while on tour with Viktoria Mullova via Kuusamo, Finland and Haparanda, Sweden, to the U.S. |
| Viktoria Mullova | Violinist | Russia | 1983 | Defected in a tour with Vakhtang Jordania via Kuusamo, Finland, and Haparanda, Sweden, to the U.S. |
| Oleg Bitov | Editor | Russia | 1983 | Foreign editor of Literaturnaya Gazeta; defected in Venice, Italy, to the UK |
| Dariusz Janczewski | Track and field athlete | Poland | 1984 | Left a hotel room in the middle of the night while in Turin, Italy, at an international track meet; spent several months in a refugee camp in Italy before relocating to the U.S. |
| Vasily Matuzok | Diplomatic translator | Russia | 1984 | Translator at the Soviet embassy in Pyongyang, North Korea. Defected during a guided tour of the Korean Joint Security Area by running across the demarcation line to South Korea |
| Valdo Randpere | Deputy Minister of Justice | Estonia | 1984 | Defected via Kotka, Finland to Sweden; fled during a Soviet crackdown on Estonian nationalism |
| Ivo Zdarsky | Aviation engineering student | Czechoslovakia | 1984 | Defected from Czechoslovakia after he created a homemade aircraft, which he flew to Vienna International Airport; subsequently settled in the U.S. and founded the Ivoprop corporation |
| Ladislav Pataki | Sports scientist | Czechoslovakia | 1985 | Defected to the U.S. via Rome, Italy; known as "the highest-ranking Soviet-bloc sports scientist ever to defect to the West" |
| Milan Švec | Embassy employee | Czechoslovakia | 1985 | Defected in Washington, D.C., where he was Minister-Counselor at the Czechoslovak embassy; later became a commentator on east–west relations |
| Oleg Gordievsky | KGB agent | Russia | 1985 | Defected to the UK via Finland; became an MI6 double agent after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and was sentenced to death in absentia |
| Vitaly Yurchenko | KGB agent | Russia | 1985 | Defected in Rome, Italy and exposed two KGB/CIA double agents, Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard; later ended up back in the KGB |
| Mircea Florian | Musician | Romania | 1986 | Defected in the U.S. while on an authorised visit for a performance |
| Frank Lippmann | Football player | East Germany | 1986 | Football player of SG Dynamo Dresden; fled after a match against FC Bayer 05 Uerdingen in the quarter finals of the 1985–86 European Cup Winners' Cup |
| Naim Süleymanoğlu | Weightlifter | Bulgaria | 1986 | Defected during the World Cup final in Melbourne, Australia; traveled to Turkey |
| Vyacheslav Polozov | Opera singer | USSR | 1986 | Defected during a Madama Butterfly singing competition in Tokyo, Japan |
| Mihai Smighelschi | Air force cadet | Romania | 1987 | Flew his Aero L-39ZA Albatros jet trainer aircraft from Buzău, Romania to near Kırklareli, Turkey, where he landed on a dirt road |
| Tamás Buday | Sprint canoe athlete | Hungary | 1987 | Defected to Canada |
| Jürgen Sparwasser | Football player | East Germany | 1988 | Defected to West Germany while taking part in a veterans' tournament in Saarbrücken |
| Mihai Suba | Chess player | Romania | 1988 | Defected to the UK during the 1988 Lloyds Bank chess tournament in London |
| Miodrag Belodedici | Football player | Romania | 1988 | Defected to Belgrade, Yugoslavia |
| Luboš Kubík | Football player | Czechoslovakia | 1988 | Defected from a Czechoslovakia national football team training camp in West Germany to Belgium alongside Ivo Knoflíček; eventually settled in Italy after signing for Fiorentina |
| Ivo Knoflíček | Football player | Czechoslovakia | 1988 | Defected from a Czechoslovakia national football team training camp in West Germany to Belgium alongside Luboš Kubík; eventually settled in West Germany after signing for St. Pauli |
| Aleksandr Zuyev | Pilot | Russia | 1989 | Flew an Mikoyan MiG-29 to Trabzon, Turkey |
| Alexander Mogilny | Hockey player | Russia | 1989 | Defected after the World Championships in Sweden |
| Kalinikos Kreanga | Table tennis player | Romania | 1989 | Defected in Luxembourg during a youth table tennis championship |
| Mihai Apostol | Sprint canoe athlete | Romania | 1989 | - |
| Nadia Comăneci | Gymnast | Romania | 1989 | Defected weeks before the Romanian revolution to Austria |
| Cristian Raducanu | Rugby player | Romania | 1989 | - |
| Petr Nedvěd | Hockey player | Czechoslovakia | 1989 | Defected during a midget hockey tournament in Calgary, Canada |
| Vladimir Pasechnik | Bioweapons engineer | Russia | 1989 | Defected in Paris, France, to warn the West about the Soviet biological weapons program |
| Zuo Xiukai | Military officer | China | 1989 | Defected to South Korea from his post at the Joint Security Area |
| Richard Kruspe | Musician | East Germany | 1989 | Defected to West Germany after political imprisonment |
| Marco Köller | Football player | East Germany | 1989 | Football player of BFC Dynamo; left for West Germany only a short time before the fall of the Berlin Wall |
| Gorsha Sur | Ice dancer | Russia | 1990 | Defected to the U.S. while on tour with a Soviet troupe |
| Sergei Fedorov | Hockey player | Russia | 1990 | Defected in Seattle, Washington during the Goodwill Games |
| Vitali Vitaliev | Author | Ukraine | 1990 | Became a regular on BBC television in the UK |