He is mentioned in The Sword and the Shield, by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, in the context of KGB accusations of CIA "abductions" of KGB officers. Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB, in a letter dated May 21, 1970, to Leonid Brezhnev, then head of the Soviet Union, referenced "the disappearance without a trace of a Novosti correspondent in Delhi, Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov, on March 9, 1970" (quotation from Andrew/Mitrokhin, not the letter). Andrew writes:
Some FCD officers realized-- as Andropov did not-- that "abductions" were convenient fictions used by residencies to conceal the shameful reality of defection. Such was the case, for example, in the disappearance of Bezmenov. Anxious to save face, the Delhi residency had reported that he had been abducted, and his son (the closest surviving relative) was given financial compensation. In reality, as Bezmenov later admitted:This account differs from Bezmenov's in the Griffin interview, though only slightly. In this telling he was "exfiltrated" by the CIA, but in Bezmenov's account he managed to escape the country on his own. I chalk it up to typical KGB bravado.I decided to stay in India to become a kind of hippie and get to [know] the country. Unfortunately, I started reading [the] local newspaper and found out the Indian police were looking for me. I panicked. I tried to make a deal with smugglers to take me out of the country, but they either wanted too much money or didn't trust me.Eventually Bezmenov approached the CIA, who exfiltrated him first to Greece, where he was debriefed, then resettled him in Canada. The KGB abandoned the myth of Bezmenov's abduction after he was seen visiting an exhibition in Montreal in 1974, and ordered his bewildered son to return all the money they had paid to him.
The book references "Rob Bull, "Defector Bares 'Secret' Past," Vancouver Sun (April 5, 1976)", which I don't have access to at the moment.
Other references to Bezmenof/Schuman include: Soviet Analyst, a bimonthly publication which seems to have referenced him multiple times; Litaunus and Baltic Bulletin (see Part One of this post); Why the Soviets Violate Arms Control Treaties, published by Pergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers (which also published Ladislav Bittman's The KGB and Soviet Disinformation); Target America: The Influence of Communist Propaganda on U.S. Media by James L. Tyson in 1981; The World & I, apparently some kind of serial publication of Washington Times Corp.; an "Annual Report" of "Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas," in which he is listed as a "Program Director," though for what I do not know; Sûrya India, a serial publication; Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith; The African American Voice in U.S. Foreign Policy Since World War II, where he is cited: "Tomas D. Schuman, "Disinvestment Movement in the U.S.-- A Proven Soviet Active Measure," Family Protection Scoreboard (Special Issue on South Africa, 1987): 52-53"; Traitors: The Labyrinths of Treason (Chapman Pincher, 1987); and others.
In "Cry of the Pheonix," a bizarre publication if there ever was one:
Russian defector Tomas Schuman says of the Soviet elite: "They are not government-- they don't govern anything-- they are a bunch of self-imposed dictators, very dangerous criminals, and they are unwanted in my country, and the worst thing you Americans can do to my country, to 270 or more citizens of the U.S.S.R., is to keep on negotiating with their oppressors."The book Soviet Defectors: The KGB Wanted List lists "Yuri Bezmenov," Age: "31," Occupation: "Dipl[omat]," Date of Defection: "2/9/70," Country of Defection: "IN" [India], Country of Residence: "CA" [Canada], Identifying Data: "Press Officer." (For some reason they have February, not March, in the date of defection.)
He is also referenced in the bibliography of Defectors: "Bezmenov, Yuri. "Confessions of a Subverter." Our Canada (Toronto), October 1980. See also Schuman, Thomas. And "Schuman, Thomas [Bezmenov]. "My Role in the Subversion of India." Speak Up, April 1981. Interview with Keneko Magayoshi of Sekai Nippo, Japan. --- "Soviet Defector Tomas Schuman." Review of the News 20 (March 7, 1984): 31-35, 37-40.
I also found references to Bezmenov/Schuman through the Amazon Online Reader. In The OPS Story, Adolph Saenz quotes Bezmenov in a reference to Roger Morris, a fringe muckraker type:
A former KGB Officer named Yuri Bezmenov, AKA Tomas Schuman, analyzed the articles written by Roger Morris. "The author (Morris) consistently used the same methods of disinformation, the same semantic manipulation, and the same type of propaganda I had been instructed to use during all my years with the KGB." Was Morris trained in Novosti? Well he was in Moscow, in the USSR, for one year.It seems there is some sort of personal feud between Saenz and Morris regarding a New Mexico prison incident, and the accusation that Morris was a KGB agent of some sort should be taken in that light. More likely, Morris is just a useful idiot.
In The World and Europe: A Hidden Agenda Behind The Hall of Mirrors there are a number of references to Bezmenov/Schuman:
So the agenda is softening the concept of Communism. In another field of entertainment Soviet defector Tomas Schuman exposed Communist entertainer Yves Montad as a groomed Soviet infiltrator who like many others in the literary field had passed through the Novosti Press Agency.In a more lengthy excerpt, apparently from Love Letter to America:
To end my evidence of Marxist policy of diversion I quote from an up to date version given by Soviet defector Tomas D. Schuman, who detailed the subversion process to demoralise a population over a twenty year period. The target and policies can be summarised as follows;By the way, A Hidden Agenda is full of nonsense about a global Masonic plot and similar malarkey.
Religion; politicise, commercialise, entertain, remove religious observance from schools.
Education; inculcate permissiveness and relativity.
Media; monopolise, manipulate, discredit, focus on false or divisive issues such as homosexuality, rather than defend sexual morality.
Culture; create false heroes and role models.
Law and Order; introduce a legislative rather than a moral code.
Social Relations; promote rights rather than obligations.
Security; attack intelligence agencies, the police and armed forces.
Internal politics; Generate disunity through party antagonism.
Foreign Relations; repeated capitulation to Soviet strategies and disharmony between Western powers.
Family and Society; break up and induce disloyalty.
Health; promote sporting entertainment rather than individual participation, unrealistic ideals of socialised Medicare and junk food.
Race; promote hatred and division through environmental rather than genetic arguments, and promotion of racial issues and enforced legislation.
Population; control through urbanisation, and eliminate patriotism and independence based on land ownership.
Labour; pit trade unions against society.
It also cites another book of Schuman's of which I had not heard, Black is Beautiful, Communism is Not.
In The New Economic Disorder: Strategies for Weathering Any Crisis While Keeping Your Finances Intact, there is a chart of the familiar "disinformation process" which was "prepared by Tomas Schuman, who defected to the United States after having served as a KGB disinformation agent." The book was originally published in 2001; it is unclear where and when the author got the chart from Schuman.
A WorldCat search also reveals "Soviet ideological subversion of America in four stages[:] Elizabeth Clare Prophet interviews Tomas Schuman, Novosti Press, Soviet defector," "Malibu, CA : Summit University, 1984," "Audiobook on tape." (As well as all four books. I wish I had thought of WorldCat earlier.)
So there you have it. More references you could ever want to Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov, AKA Tomas D. Schuman. I'll post on this subject again when I read his "books" (more like pamphlets) and check out those newspaper articles.
