Ebony Nilsson, ‘It Will Be Classified’ The Remarkable Story of Bill Marshall & ASIO’s Operatives in Australia

The biographies of migrants – as individuals who move through countries, across borders and continents – can be difficult to piece together. There are often gaps in their backgrounds and stories which remain mysterious, or parts of their lives which are not explicable. This same is true of the biographies of spies, though for different reasons. Writing the biography of a Russian migrant who became an intelligence officer with the fledgling Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), was thus a challenging process. But figures like Vladimir Mischenko, also known as Bill Marshall, reveal the importance of those who work behind-the-scenes, shaping Australian history from the shadows.

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Ebony Nilsson, a historian of Cold War surveillance, about one of ASIO’s most intriguing agents.