Liliana Gasinskaya
Liliana Gasinskaya is a Ukrainian woman who defected from the Soviet Union in 1979. On board a Soviet cruise ship, SS Leonid Sobinov, in Sydney Harbour, Liliana slipped out of a porthole wearing only a red bikini (earning her the name The Girl in the Red Bikini).[1][2][3]
"A debate ensued over whether then Immigration Minister Michael MacKellar should grant Ms Gasinskaya asylum or deport her as was the customary fate for other ship deserters. Despite her unspecified claims of repression which one commentator sneered may have been "the shops in Russia are boring", she was allowed to stay.[3][4]
She later earned $15,000 as the first nude centerfold in Australia's edition of Penthouse Magazine.[3]
References
- ^ Soviet defectors: the KGB wanted list. Hoover Press. 1985. pp. 135–. ISBN 9780817982331.
- ^ Anderson, Zoe (2012). "Borders, babies, and "good refugees": Australian representations of "illegal" immigration, 1979". Journal of Australian Studies. 36 (4): 499–514. doi:10.1080/14443058.2012.727449. ISSN 1444-3058.
The most striking contrast in the ways in which refugees/boat people were depicted was through the high-profile story of Liliana Gasinskaya...
- ^ a b c "Cabinet papers 1979: Liliana Gasinskaya: Red Bikini Girl". The Sydney Morning Herald. January 1, 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
- ^ "Liliana no braver than Viet refugees". The Age. January 23, 1979. Retrieved 10 May 2013.