defectors

Li Cunxin, a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet and Australian Ballet, explains how his childhood of poverty in rural China changed when he was selected by Madame Mao to attend the dance academy in Beijing, tells how his devotion to Communist philosophy was shaken during his first visit to the U.S. as part of an exchange program with the Houston Ballet, and discusses his eventual defection to the West.

An account of the defection of a Soviet pilot who escaped to the West in Russia's most advanced secret fighter plane.

Investigates whether various government spy agencies were responsible for the disappearance of renowned Russian scientist Vladimir Alexandrov, whose Nuclear Winter theory described the disastrous environmental consequences of a nuclear war.

On a school trip to Washington, D.C., twins, Susan and Chris Pratt, become involved in a Russian ballerina's plan to defect.

The author describes his experiences training and performing as a dancer, discussing his acceptance into the Beijing Dance Academy as a child, travel to America, supportive family, and other related topics.

Vacationing at a posh tennis resort in Antigua, Perry and Gail are recruited by big-time Russian money launderer Dima to help him defect, an arrangement for which Dima promises to expose financial corruption but renders the hapless couple pawns in a deadly international scheme.

In the months leading up to the August 1991 coup attempt that resulted in the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, a young dancer with the Kirov Ballet struggles to decide whether to defect while on an upcoming trip to Paris.