Olga Mahoney Petrovich: From Almost Spy to History Teacher
How Communism influenced the life of Olga Mahoney, a history teacher who is driven by her past.
by Henry Nicholls and Ethan Rose
Growing up in Mexico City, with a Serbian Dad who was blacklisted from his home country by the Nazis, Olga Mahoney was entrenched in fighting Communism. She went to Georgetown University with the idea in mind that she would work against Communism, majoring in Russian Language and later doing a double major in Soviet Studies. After College, she was approached by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She talked to us about her experiences with Communism, and how they translated into her teaching.
Please state your name.
Am I under investigation?
Yes, a CIA investigation.
My name is Olga Mahoney Petrovich.
Where and when were you born?
I was born in _______ in ________.
When you were younger did you have any idea what you wanted to do in your future?
I did. As far back as I can remember my dad and I would talk about politics and in particular about the Communists. He was born in Serbia, and his whole family has suffered greatly because of Communism. He fought in the second World War and emigrated to the United States. He first fought against the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and later opposed the Communist takeover fighting with the Freedom Fighter, Chetniks. My Dad would tell a story about me as a kid. When I was 10 years old I ran into the house with a newspaper in my hand and slammed it down on the breakfast table and I said “The Five-Year Plan has failed!”
Why do you dislike Communism?
My Grandparents had to live under Communism. They even had their home taken by a Communist family. Having dealt with it in my family for many years I have seen how terrible it is.
Did you have any first-hand experience of Communism?
Yes. We visited Yugoslavia growing up, and during the summers we would visit my grandparents. My father was sixteen when he had to join a militia group. He ran away from home without telling his parents. As a result of that, the government was very punitive to my grandparents. At one point when the Nazis had taken over, they brought them a blood covered shirt and said:
“this is your son’s shirt.”
The subsequent Communist regime blacklisted his family, and he couldn’t return until 1976.
When we would visit, the Serbian kids were excited to get to meet Americans, and one point we told my mother, “Let’s go buy them some toys.” And we went to the toy store in the town and there was nothing in there and I said, “No let’s go to the real toy store.” That’s when I realized how difficult life was under Communism. The Serbian people were so generous they’d have you over to their house and they had saved money for probably a month to give us these enormous chocolate bars, and I’ll never forget that.
So where did that take you after College?
My timing was a little off. I graduated in May of 1989 and I was looking for a job in Washington DC and I had been approached by the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency and I followed those leads through the CIA. I wanted to go to the Soviet Union, but I was told I had to complete 2 years of training in a soft placement like Angola which was undergoing a Civil War. Anyways, the Soviets were trying to influence many countries in Africa during that time and they were funding a lot of covert wars and civil wars so I was not keen on that. I wanted to go to Moscow, where I had studied the previous summer. That was a breaking point. I knew I didn’t want to go to Angola and miss out on the collapse of the Soviet Union. And then in November, the Berlin Wall fell and everything just crumbled and Communism ended.
How do you think that your experiences with Communism have affected your teaching style and what you want to bring to the community?
I think my personal stories are powerful. When I’m teaching, I share my dad’s story and his involvement in World War II and some personal anecdotes of my time studying in the Soviet Union. I bring that perspective to the classroom, and I think it’s really important, especially for my higher level classes.
