Defected from the Soviet Union in 1954 after a career with the Communist Party, which included military service for the Red Army during World War II, for which he received several medals.
He later joined the forerunner of the K.G.B. and held several high-level posts during his 10-year tenure with the agency. At one point, he served as Stalin's bodyguard.
Shortly after Stalin's death in 1953, Mr. Deriabin was put in charge of counterintelligence in Vienna, and defected while posted there during a freight train ride through Soviet occupied territory near Vienna. At that time, he was the highest ranking Soviet intelligence officer to defect, and was sentenced to death in absentia by the Military Collegium of the Soviet Union.
Shortly after arriving in the United States, Mr. Deriabin continued his career in intelligence, but with the C.I.A. He worked for the C.I.A. until his retirement in 1981 and was the author of three books on Soviet intelligence, as well as an autobiography.