The Petrov Affair began when Vladimir Petrov (a member of the Soviet Union's clandestine services) offered to proide the Australian Secrest Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) with evidence of a Soviet spy ring in exchange for political assylum in the middle of the Cold War. He defacted to Australia in 1954, causing a stir. Robert Menzies believed he could win the election by announcing there would be a Royal Commission Investigation into allegations of a Soviet spt ring in Australia.
Mrs Evdokia Petrov became involved in the affair when she was 'escorted' by two Soviet guards to the plane in which would take her home because she had not defacted with her husband. She was, by force, being sent back to Russia. During her flight, she managed to tell the airhostess that her 'companions' were breaking Australian law my carrying guns aboard the aircraft. When the plane landed to refuek in Darwin, the two Soviet guards were arrested and Mrs Petrov accepted to be defacted to Australia.
English: Portrait of Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (19...
Soviet Railways Container - 1
Soviet Pacific fleet tripThe Petrov Affair renewed Australias fear of communism by making Australia see how agressive and forcefull communism is. it made Australians fearful for their own side and unsure who to believe. It made people paranoid and start to think about what might happen to them if communism invaded and took over government.
The Liberal leader and prime minister at the time, Robert Menzies, used the petrov affair to his own political advantage by heightening fears of communist invasions by announcing there was a Soviet spy ring in Australia and blamed Vladimir Petrov. He made the labour party fall under the strain of the roumour campaign about Dr. Herbert Evatt being a 'communist sympathiser', eventually forcing the labout party to split into two (the Australian Labour Party, and the Democratic Labour Party), once again,