Cold War West Germany: Giving Eastern Bloc Truck Drivers License to Spy

Every now and then, while researching other materials being translated, I’ll bump into a curious news article that catches the eye and won’t let it go. For example, this gem from the Philadelphia Inquirer from 10 January 1986: As I was living and working in West Berlin at the time, many kilometers within the bowelsContinueContinue reading “Cold War West Germany: Giving Eastern Bloc Truck Drivers License to Spy”

Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry

Earlier this week, the official website for the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation published an article on newly revealed activities of the nuclear industry’s counterintelligence organs. We’re translated the article and are happy to provide it to our readers. Nuclear Secrets of Department “K”: Counterintelligence Activities in the Development of Russia’s Nuclear Industry 1 DecemberContinueContinue reading “Rosatom: Nuclear Secrets of Department K: Counterintelligence Activities in Russia’s Nuclear Industry”

FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities

An earlier article from TranslatingHistory offered some details from a brief interrogation of Aleksandr Lakhno, who was trained in West Germany in the early 1950s along with several other émigrés from the Soviet Union to carry out, at best, an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign. Lakhno spent months learning tradecraft from US and British intelligence specialists inContinueContinue reading “FSB Spill: Russian Anti-Soviet Saboteur Describes Training by American Agents, Quick Capture by Soviet Authorities”

FSB Materials on Post-War Operations of Soviet Nazi Collaborators With American Intelligence Agencies

The Central Archives of the Russian Federation Federal Security Service (FSB) recently declassified documents from criminal cases against members of a group of American intelligence agents — Aleksandr Lakhno, Aleksandr Makov, and Sergei Gorbunov — who served in Nazi penal establishments during the Great Patriotic War and were arrested in April 1953 by Soviet stateContinueContinue reading “FSB Materials on Post-War Operations of Soviet Nazi Collaborators With American Intelligence Agencies”