Kasenkina Case

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The Kasenkina case (Russian: "Дело Касенкиной") was a 1948 Cold War-era political scandal associated with the name of Oksana Kasenkina (Russian: Оксана Касенкина), a teacher of chemistry at the Soviet school in New York. Kasenkina disappeared and was believed by the American public to have been abducted by Soviet officials after wishing to seek asylum in the United States. The events were sensationalized by the media and became part of the Red Scare. In reality, the most likely explanation of events is that Kasenkina suffered from a series of unfortunate events where she became a political chess piece during an unstable and tense period of international relations, and being left with a poor set of available options, facing deception from multiple sides, decided upon what was familiar and chose to return to the Soviet Union. The full scope of events only became clear 50 years later when the top-secret documents from the State Department and FBI were declassified and released to the public. The events of the scandal took place in the context of McCarthyism and the Berlin Blockade, and received wide coverage in the mass media, and continues to receive attention today. Ellis M. Zacharias, a retired Rear Admiral and senior Intelligence Officer of the US Navy, wrote: "Bigoted individuals should not be allowed dominant influence on the delicate conduct of our foreign relations – but soon it became evident that such persons had gained complete control of the case. By inspiring headlines and stimulating the news stories below them, they drove the State Department to a diplomatic action whose severity was out of proportion to the incident".