Ieva Lešinska (born 2 July 1958) is a Latvian translator, journalist and editor.^[1]

Biography

Ieva Lešinska-Geibere (Ieva Lešinska) studied English philology at the University of Latvia. In 1978 she defected to the United States with her father, a USSR diplomat who was a spy for the US, where she was granted political asylum.^[2] In the USA Lešinska studied at Ohio State University and the University of Colorado. In 1987 she moved to Sweden, where she worked as a journalist and translator, and studied for a Master of Arts in Baltic philology at the University of Stockholm. She now lives in Riga and works as a translator.^[3]

The story of Lešinska and her father's defection to the USA was made into the film "My Father the Spy" which premiered in June 2019 at Sheffield International Documentary Festival. In the film, Lešinska investigates the life of her father, Imants Lešinskis, who was a double agent and spy for the CIA and KGB, and the events which led him to organising for her to visit him on the holiday which would lead to her defection. The film describes the story of how Lešinska was forced to leave Latvia and her mother, whom she would never see again, and became a political refugee in the USA.^[4] Member of the Latvian Writers' Union (2004).^[5]

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References