Emma Woikin (; December 30, 1920 – May 22, 1974) was a Canadian civil servant who, in 1946, was convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Woikin was one of the Canadians identified as spies by Igor Gouzenko when he defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa in September 1945 in what became known as the Gouzenko Affair. Woikin was sentenced to two-and-a-half years at Kingston Penitentiary, becoming the first woman imprisoned for espionage in Canada.
Early life
Woikin was born Emma Konkin on December 30, 1920 in Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan to Alex and Pearl Konkin, the youngest of five children. Her parents were Doukhobors who had fled Russia in 1899 and her family spoke Russian in the home. Her mother died when Woikin was 15 following a series of strokes.
Woikin excelled in school and, at the age of 12, she completed grade eight, the highest level of schooling offered by the local schoolhouse. However, the high school in Blaine Lake would not accept her as a student, as she was thought to be too young.
In 1937, at the age of 16, Woikin married William "Bill" Woikin, a Doukhobor from Langham. Life in the Prairies was exceptionally difficult at the time; Saskatchewan had been particularly hard-hit by the Great Depression and an ongoing drought meant 1937 saw some of the worst crop yields in the province's history. The couple's income averaged five dollars per month.
Woikin faced two major tragedies in relatively quick succession. She became pregnant in her second year of marriage. She went into labour on May 20, 1939; however, what would be the couple's only child – a boy – died at birth the next morning. Bill Woikin later developed debilitating headaches. He may have suffered from depression and, at one point, remarked to Woikin how he could no longer tolerate the pain. On March 18, 1942, he hanged himself at the age of 28. He had only 75 cents at the time of his death. Bill Woikin had not sought medical treatment due to the cost and Canada's lack of free health care at the time and, consequently, Woikin blamed the Canadian health care system for her husband's death.
For six months following her husband's death, Woikin found herself too weak to work. She eventually moved to Marcelin where she stayed briefly at a convent. She continued her education, studying typing, bookkeeping, and stenography and, by the end of her first year in Marcelin, completed a two-year commercial course. In the summer of 1943, she moved to Saskatoon where she found janitorial work at St. Paul's Hospital.
Move to Ottawa
As the Second World War raged on, the federal government was rapidly expanding the civil service. In the summer of 1943, Woikin visited a federal government office in Saskatoon where she wrote a civil service exam. In August, she received a telegram offering her a job as a typist for the passport division of the Department of External Affairs with a monthly salary of $52. She moved to Ottawa the following month, arriving on September 10. Upon starting at the Department of External Affairs, she was given an employee information form where she declared herself a British subject of Russian origin.
In February 1944, she was transferred to the Cipher Division. She worked as a cipher clerk, coding and decoding cables to and from London and Washington. Her salary was raised to $57 per month.
Woikin's social life revolved largely around Ottawa's Russian community and, in particular, the Federation of Russian Canadians where employees of the Soviet Embassy had an active presence. She developed a fascination with Russia and became an avid reader of Leo Tolstoy's works. In March 1944, she applied unsuccessfully with the Department of External Affairs to be sent overseas to Russia as a typist.
Espionage
On May 1, 1944, May Day in the Soviet Union, Woikin attended a dinner party where she met Major Vsevolod Sokolov, a Russian army officer from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, and his wife Lida Sokolov. Over the next year, the husband-and-wife team cultivated a relationship with Woikin. They would exchange gifts and, at one point, Woikin presented Lida a watercolour sketch she had painted.
When Woikin learned that the Soviet Embassy sometimes recruited Canadians to serve various functions, she submitted an application. However, when Sokolov consulted his superiors, the reply was that Woikin was too valuable where she was. Dejected, Woikin reportedly told Sokolov, "I want to help Russia," to which he replied, "You can help Russia much better from where you are." Woikin was assigned the codename "Nora".