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. 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.