Something happened where they forced my hand, and this is the only time that a Soviet agent was anywhere near me on the territory of the United States. So I'm waiting for the A train on a dark morning still in Queens, and there's this man in a black trench coat comes up to me from my right, and he whispers into my ears, you gotta come back or else you're dead. The following is a conversation with Jack Barsky, a former KGB spy, author of Deep Undercover and the subject of an excellent podcast series called The Agent. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| And this conversation gives a window into its operation, both from an ideological and psychological perspective, but also it tells the story of a man who lived one heck of an incredible life. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| What is the KGB? Комитет Государственной Безопасности. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| There's an opossumist. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Without threat. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| But the most capable intelligence agency in Russia is the GRU, Military Intelligence. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Nobody ever mentioned anything like that. And by the way, I recently had the pleasure to give a talk at the DIA. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| That's always the question. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| But FSB is the thing that carries the flag of KGB, KGB being probably one of, if not the most sort of infamous, famous, infamous, and powerful intelligence agencies in history ever. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| In writing your book, you've looked back at the predecessors of the history. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| So that's an indication that this was an organization that ate itself from the inside. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Eventually, if you rest your power on something that is made out of bricks that don't hold a lot of load, it will fall apart. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Stalin was always worried about the most powerful people coming after him. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| It comes from the top. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Oh, absolutely. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| If they don't trust me, they don't send me out. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| There were hints about how long my assignment would be, so 10 to 12 years. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Love always screws up your employment competence, yes. You're absolutely right. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| This is a hard question about the KGB because it's one of the most ruthless organizations, but in general, are there lines, KGB agents at every level of the hierarchy that they would not cross, political, legal, ethical, or does anything goes to achieve the goal? I was only in touch with two types of agents, the technical experts, the ones that taught me tradecraft, and they were like engineers and they were in charge of the secret writing and the Morse code, shortwave radio reception, decryption, encryption, and that kind of stuff. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| I don't think they would not fit into the stereotype of the ruthless gun carrying agent. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Oh, very much so. I mean, this is what the KGB did really, really well, compartmentalization, and that was based on the communist movement while it was still underground.

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