KGB VS CIA: What intelligence secrets during the Cold War of the two countries are known today

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The arms race between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War forced both sides to intensify not only technological development, but also intelligence. The latter also required a very serious investment. Moreover, both scientific and financial. Considering the love of the Soviet side for military cunning and the principle "in war, all means are good" sometimes among the developments there were not only miracles of engineering, but also very funny little things. So what were the Soviet intelligence officers armed with?

Button and camera in combination

Of course, secret filming could only be carried out from a small camera. But for a long time she was not so small. Large enough to fit into an accessory or wardrobe item. More often than not, she was "addicted" to a pack of cigarettes. Approximately the same trick was used by the Western special services, so it is difficult to talk about its effectiveness. An experienced intelligence officer immediately saw the camera, and not a pack of cigarettes in the interlocutor's hands.

In the USSR, such a camera was produced at the Kiev plant "Arsenal" under the name "Kiev-30". But in the 50s, they began to work on a really small camera in Krasnogorsk. "Ajax-12" was so tiny that it could be hidden in a button. The camera had a separate remote control, more like an expander, by squeezing which the picture was taken.

Later, "Ajax" was modernized and it began to work without a remote control. It was inserted into a belt buckle, and the tie was tied so that its tip covered the camera. She took pictures when she was open. That is, it was enough for the operative to straighten up in order to pull on his tie and thus photograph the object of interest. But this camera had one small drawback. More precisely, intolerance to other people's shortcomings. If the scout had at least a small belly, then this method of shooting did not work.

In addition, it was rather difficult to photograph with such a camera. Often, instead of the desired object, only his legs appeared in the photo. Any operative who received such a camera had to take a course on working with it.

Another breakthrough in Soviet intelligence took place in the 1970s, together with the invention of the Zola camera. Unlike its predecessors, this unit was able to automatically adjust to the shooting conditions. Whereas earlier devices involved manual diaphragm replacement. Of course, this not only added work to the intelligence officer, but also reduced the effectiveness of the operation, forcing him to be constantly distracted by organizational moments.

“Zodchiy”, a camera that appeared already in the 80s, was the size of an audio cassette. They began to disguise it under it. This camera was practiced by shooting A4 documents. The "Architect" photographed in a sufficiently high quality, so that the negative could be enlarged if the document had too small print.

A little later, a special device appeared, designed to copy Alych documents. It was another small device that could easily fit into the back pocket of my trousers. The gadget was slightly opened to release the wheels, they were carried along the entire length of the document. For a standard A4 sheet, about three approaches were needed. In "Alych" the tapes were about three dozen pages long.

"Alycha" was declassified by the Western special services and fell into their hands. It is believed that it was she who became the prototype of the American "Xerox", now known throughout the world.

The devices that would record the conversation also tended to do as little as possible. The first dictaphones, made for Soviet intelligence officers, were created on the basis of a German development, which fell into the hands of Soviet inventors in a known way. The dictaphone could record 2, 5 hours of conversations. Not that it was very large, but it needed a briefcase to carry it. A device of much more modest parameters was needed.

In the 60s, a small Mezon dictaphone was invented, which could record about an hour and a half of operational information. But it was extremely inconvenient to search for the required recording on the dictaphone - it rewound in real time, with practically no acceleration. Other "Liszt" recorders no longer had such a drawback, the recording could be rewound in both directions and done quickly enough. But the length of the recording was still not long enough.

"Moshka-M" - the next dictaphone, the size of a pack of cigarettes, but had a recording reserve of 4 hours. Work in this direction was carried out constantly. In the 70s, a Soviet spy fell into the hands of the American special services, and during the inspection they found a curious device no larger than a matchbox. It was a midget who could record five hours continuously.

Already in the 80s, Soviet inventors will be able to improve this invention and make an even more elegant recording device. "Moth" was no more than one centimeter thick, it could be hidden anywhere. In addition, the high quality of the recording made it possible to highlight the desired information, even if it was recorded in a noisy environment.

Spy weapon

For those who obtained the information necessary for the country, a very special weapon was invented. A lot of requirements were also imposed on him. Again, it had to be small, while silent and have sufficient destruction power. In 1955, the assignment was given to make such a weapon. TKB-506 outwardly resembles a cigarette case, although it is a device of three steel barrels firing a special cartridge. There is little information on this type of weapon, apparently, like many other developments, it formed the basis for subsequent inventions.

There is no information about the operations in which this type of weapon was used. But the syringe pistol with which Soviet spies were armed is better known. There is evidence that it was from him that, for example, Stepan Bandera and other Ukrainian nationalists were killed. The pistol of this sample did not fire cartridges, but special ampoules containing potassium cyanide.

During the shot, the substance was released into steam and the one who was shot, inhaling the poison, died. The shooter himself was also harmed, after such an attempt it was necessary to urgently take an antidote.

However, poisoning, which is traditionally considered a female method of murder, was often used by Soviet intelligence to remove the right person quietly and unnoticed. It could even be an umbrella, in the tip of which a needle was mounted, the prick of which was poisonous. It was possible to gracefully prick the right person even in a crowd, while remaining unnoticed.

There were many such secret devices, and often they were modified, supplemented independently by the scouts themselves in the course of their use. The pistol knife was one of such developments, on the need to create which the scouts themselves insisted. They needed a weapon that would fire without sound, flame and a certain type of cartridge.

This is how the LDC appeared (a special scout knife), visually it looked like an ordinary knife, however, it could also be used as a cold weapon. One-and-a-half sharpening, a file completely allowed it to be used for ordinary purposes - to cut something, twist it, saw it off.

The back of the knife was a much more complex device. There was a barrel, a firing mechanism, a cocking lever. In order to shoot the knife, it was necessary to turn the blade towards you, aim through the slot on the protrusion of the handle. On the other hand, there were special hooks in order to pull out the sleeve.

Rectal kit and other strange accessories

No one promised that it would be easy, because love for the Motherland and work for the good of it was clearly not just an exciting game for spies and intelligence officers. However, the constant risk was far from the most unpleasant part of the job. Many of the scout's accessories were hidden directly on his body. And those who were responsible for his safety and could, for example, give a chance for salvation, and at all had to be in such a place that he would not have to be found even after the spy was exposed.

Houdini's rectal set (named after the American illusionist and magician) was meant to pick locks. For example, in order to free yourself from captivity, or to open a safe, a closet, an ordinary door. But the most versatile is the packaging, thanks to the shape and diminutiveness of which the set could be stored in such unexpected places.

If Houdini's recruitment did not help, then the spy could go to extremes. Special spy glasses, in the arches of which you could hide a capsule with poison, could be the last option for a scout who did not want to get caught by the enemy alive. However, the poison could have been intended for someone else.

Another accessory used by scouts, and not only Soviet ones, was invented in Germany after the war. A tiny camera mounted in an ordinary men's watch allowed surveillance without arousing suspicion. However, given the fact that such a watch was used by agents of both the KGB and the CIA, it is difficult to call this device too secret.

The more caches, the better. Considering the storage space was even on the scouts' bodies, the coins were a great alternative. At first glance, an ordinary coin, no different from the rest in weight and appearance in general, was opened with a needle. You could put a film inside. An uninitiated person, in principle, could not recognize the riddle of such a coin.

Cufflinks were often used as hiding places, which served as a place for storing information carriers. However, this fairly common method of transferring data, for example, across the border, was so widely used that the intelligence services of almost all countries knew about it. This technique began to be used even before the outbreak of World War II.

A mirror was often used as a secret repository of codes. The secret was that the information on it could only be seen from a certain angle. It is clear that such a mirror had to be compact and closed with a lid like a powder box.

A special device that allows you to neatly and discreetly open a letter without damaging its sticky edge was also a very necessary thing in the scout's arsenal. After reviewing or copying the contents, the letter was sealed and sent to the addressee in its original form, and the recipient did not even know that the letter had already been read. By the way, they say that such a device does not work with modern envelopes - another principle of gluing.

What did the West answer

Often, these or those developments of the Soviet and American intelligence services turned out to be similar or at least acting on a similar principle. However, truly unexpected decisions were encountered on both sides. For example, the CIA considered animals to be excellent allies and assistants in surveillance. The fact that in the secret operation "Takana" (70s) birds were used, the Americans revealed only in 2019.

In this direction, American services began to work in the early 70s. They explored many options, but settled on pigeons. Firstly, they are found on all continents and no one will be surprised by the presence of an ordinary pigeon nearby. Secondly, they perfectly coexist with people, amenable to training. Thirdly, if they are thrown even over long distances, they will return home.

The most difficult moment in such operations was the delivery of the poultry to the site. Let me out of the car? Just imperceptibly from your hands? No special training sessions were carried out with pigeons. But several times they carried out experiments at test sites. A special camera was attached to the pigeons.

It was planned that such ubiquitous winged spies would take many pictures on the territory of the USSR. The Americans especially hoped to receive information in this way from the territory of closed cities and other objects inaccessible for visiting. But that was not all. It was planned with the help of pigeons and sensors attached to them, to find out whether chemical weapons tests are being carried out in the country of the Soviets. The pigeon sensors were supposed to pick up air impurities near certain objects.

The first batch of pigeons was released in Leningrad, where a submarine was being built. But the results of the operation are unknown.

Another animal, which is definitely found everywhere, also became the object of attention of the CIA. Ordinary cats, somewhat modernized by surgery, were also supposed to work for the benefit of American intelligence. A listening device was mounted in the cat's ear. The cat, like the pigeons, landed in the right place. The implication was that the cat would also have a transmitter and an antenna in its tail.

An operation was even performed to implant all this stuff into the body of the cat. However, things did not go according to plan. After the cat woke up, her behavior became uncontrollable, she ran out onto the road, where she was immediately hit by a car. The CIA tried to involve even dolphins in their intelligence. So that they collect information directly from the depths of the sea about Soviet submarines. But the venture was also not successful.

After the CIA failed to attract existing animals to its work, it was decided to create a special robot that would pretend to be a dragonfly. Now it would be called a drone. The main task of such a device was, again, the collection of information. Weighing only one gram, it could fly at a speed of 4.5 meters per second. A generator was mounted inside, thanks to which the wings moved.

However, the device was too light and with a slight breeze it became impossible to control it. Upgrade? Then the engine would have to be changed, the rest of the design, the invention of which, by this time, had already cost 140 thousand dollars.

Despite the fact that the robot was approved for use, it never showed itself in practice. Although not only CIA agents counted on him, but also the military. Now the "dragonfly" is a museum exhibit of the special services.