A Very Unusual Canadian Family (home, high school, college)

[cdnirene]

Their story was partly the inspiration for the excellent TV series, The Americans, which airs on Bravo in Canada.

This article about the family is very long:
The day we discovered our parents were Russian spies | World news | The Guardian

Canadian highlights:

The KGB sent the couple to Canada in the 80s. In June 1990, Vavilova, under the assumed identity of Tracey Foley, gave birth to Tim at the Women’s College hospital in Toronto. His first memories are of attending a French-language school in the city and visiting the warehouse of his dad’s company, Diapers Direct, a nappy delivery service.

Alex had been one when they left Toronto and Tim only five – but both felt Canadian. The family returned often to ski, and when the boys went on school trips from Boston to Montreal, they took pride in showing the other students around their “home” country. Alex made a big fuss about his Canadian background, because “at high school you always want to go counterculture”.

At Christmas, the boys would receive gifts marked “from grandparents”. Their parents told them they lived in Alberta, far from Toronto, which was why they never saw them. Occasionally, new photographs would arrive of the grandparents against a snowy backdrop; it helped that the climates of Alberta and Siberia are not so different.

The brothers’ battle to regain Canadian citizenship is not just just about logistics... More than anything, their Canadian identity is the last straw they have left to grasp on to, after so much of the rest of their previous reality fell away.

[Ottawa2011]

That's interesting... I'd known about the Russian couple in the U.S. who were identified as "sleeper spies", but not the ones who were in Canada.

Suburban New Jersey home of married KGB agents who inspired The Americans TV show goes on market | Daily Mail Online

[michgc]

Originally Posted by cdnirene

Their story was partly the inspiration for the excellent TV series, The Americans, which airs on Bravo in Canada.

This article about the family is very long:
The day we discovered our parents were Russian spies | World news | The Guardian

Canadian highlights:

Very interesting story! Thanks for sharing!