Soviet deception operation you probably never heard about. Operation STORM, #MGB plan to fake the landing of #CIA agents in Lithuania. Based on my ongoing archival research at @hooverinstitution.bsky.social The link for my article: tinyurl.com/5h4zyj6c #spies #coldwar @socintelhist.bsky.social

When #CIA veteran William Hood wrote that "some of the best fiction by former insiders is out of print" in 1989, did he know that this would apply to his own spy novels? Few knew #KGB so well as Hood & I plan to write about his novels if I ever compile enough archival material.

My new article on Substack! "The Spy Who Wasn't There: #MGB Search for a Suspected Agent of U.S. Intelligence in Lithuania in 1950" #coldwar #spies @socintelhist.bsky.social Based on my ongoing archival research @hooverinstitution.bsky.social. The link: kgbstack.substack.com/p/the-spy-wh...

Happy 95th birthday to my grandmother! As I do archival research at @hooverinstitution.bsky.social, I always think about the fact that she was born in 1930 when Hoover was U.S. president.

Thank you to the Hoover Library & Archives and @hooverinstitution.bsky.social for a research grant this semester! @socintelhist.bsky.social #coldwar #KGB #intelhistory

My new article on Substack! Part 3 of "11 Lithuanian #KGB Counterintelligence Operations Against the West in 1955." #spies #coldwar Based on my ongoing research at the Hoover Library & Archives, Stanford University. @socintelhist.bsky.social The link: tinyurl.com/48h2ujp6

The Arrest of Sergey Shoigu (this is how it will happen according to the Chekist playbook) 1. The arrest of close associates (done) 2. The incriminating testimonies obtained from the associates (done) 3. The sending of the testimonies to the supreme leader (done) 4. (see below)

Thanks, Microsoft Copilot! 😎

The Chekist modus operandi going back to Operation Trust & KRO. ⬇️ "The main players on the Russian side were not diplomats or traditional spies — they were counterintelligence officers..." @andreisoldatov.bsky.social cepa.org/article/too-...

Unsurprisingly, #KGB General Nikolay Leonov (1928-2022) wrote nothing in his memoirs about this egregious failure of his tradecraft exposed by #CIA & leading to the arrests of 2 KGB Colombian Communist assets & the seizure of $100,000. Read it here: nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

My new article on Substack! "Soviet State Security & Pope Pius XII: How #MGB obtained & lost an official letter from the Vatican" Based on my ongoing research at Hoover Library & Archives, Stanford University. @socintelhist.bsky.social kgbstack.substack.com/p/soviet-sta...

#CIA v. #KGB in the book world. @socintelhist.bsky.social The CIA Book Club: tinyurl.com/ms29kbv4 KGB Literati (pre-order): tinyurl.com/2j3zhw44

My new article on Substack! Part 2 of "11 Lithuanian #KGB Counterintelligence Operations against the West in 1955" Based on my research at Hoover Archives, Stanford University. @socintelhist.bsky.social The link: tinyurl.com/29m9jjxk

My new article on Substack! "11 Lithuanian #KGB Counterintelligence Operations against the West in 1955 - Part 1" Based on my research at Hoover Library & Archives. @stanforduniversity.bsky.social @socintelhist.bsky.social The link: tinyurl.com/cnv4r437

#CIA on my FOIA request from 2021: "As you are aware, we provided you with a previous estimated completion date of 8 July 2025, which expired. Therefore, we checked on the status and have been provided an updated estimated completion date of 10 February 2027." 😎

"Real Spy Comics was formed by intelligence and special operations community veterans from both the United States and from around the world." Highly recommend! #spies #stories sof.news/publications...

My new article on Substack! "KGB vs. CIA & Mossad in the 1950s: The Case of #KGB General Aleksey Gorbatenko" Here's the link: tinyurl.com/3tuzb244 @socintelhist.bsky.social

Despite the subtitle, this excellent book argues that "counterintelligence at its core" is NOT only "assessing & preventing foreign espionage." Kevin P. Riehle offers a clear & succinct definition of counterintelligence that works across all ages and cultures. Highly recommend!

#CIA's Soviet #MGB leadership list in a report from June 1948 had only one mistake. There was no MGB deputy minister named A. S. Atakishiev. All other names are accurate. S. I. Atakishiev was a deputy minister of NKGB-MGB branch in Azerbaijan.

#KGB secrets you might want to know about. ⬇️ kgbstack.substack.com

What did KGB Know About Iran's SAVAK and CIA in Iran in Mid-1970s? Find out in my new article just published on Substack. #espionage #coldwarhistory @socintelhist.bsky.social Here's the link: open.substack.com/pub/kgbstack...

KGB defector & CIA consultant Pyotr Deryabin correctly identified "journalist N. S. Leonov" as a KGB officer. Leonov's official biography claims he joined KGB in 1958. But, if Deryabin knew him, he must have worked for KGB already in the early 1950s as a student in Mexico. ⬇️

On this day 70 years ago, the leadership of KGB Second Chief Directorate (counterintel) met in Moscow. I located & obtained the meeting transcript from the Lithuanian Special Archives in Vilnius. I translated it & wrote an analysis for the Wilson Center. ⬇️ www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/...

What did #KGB officer's service card look like? I provide an answer in this article using the service card of a prominent figure in Soviet counterintelligence as an illustration. ⬇️ kgbstack.substack.com/p/what-did-a...

My new article on KGB general Valentin Zvezdenkov. In the 1950s, he was a major player in the case against GRU officer & CIA agent Pyotr Popov. In the late 1980s, he was welcomed by Rand Corp & conferred with ex DCI William Colby. @socintelhist.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kgbstack...

OUR DEAR FRIENDS IN MOSCOW is a gripping first-hand account of Russia's descent into dictatorship under Putin. @andreisoldatov.bsky.social Next time I teach a course on Russian Politics at the University of San Francisco, I'll make it a required reading. www.amazon.com/Our-Dear-Fri...

Thank you to the former #CIA case officer & bestselling spy fiction author I.S. Berry for mentioning my forthcoming book KGB LITERATI in her inspiring review of Charlie English's THE CIA BOOK CLUB in @washingtonpost.com today. #spies #literature www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Bad news from Moscow. #KGB tactics in full force.

Writing an article on #KGB general based on docs I obtained from the Lithuanian Special Archives. Will be posted in a few days. Subscribe here not to miss it: kgbstack.substack.com

I highly recommend The Defector, a new book by Richard Kerbaj. Release date: September 4, 2025. As I wrote in my endorsement: "A lucidly written account of a significant setback for Soviet intelligence. Dynamic and vivid, reads like a spy thriller." www.panmacmillan.co.za/authors/rich...

Excellent podcast episode, @drichterova.bsky.social! Highly recommend.

We are so looking forward to @chekistmonitor.bsky.social's upcoming book (www.amazon.com/KGB-Literati... ). In the meantime, though, here's the link to enjoy his new substack: substack.com/inbox/post/1...

I just published my first post on Substack. It's about #KGB defector Yuri Nosenko as a young man in the Soviet Union. Based on both Russian & #CIA archives. #spies #lies #topsecret Read the full post here: open.substack.com/pub/kgbstack...

A spreadsheet of codenamed agents & safehouse owners of the Lithuanian #KGB First Department (the regional branch of KGB First Chief Directorate) and how much they were paid on the monthly basis in 1989. 60 people in total.

A plot for #Netflix? Small Lithuanian town, December 1956. A young woman, a Komsomol member, receives a threatening letter in the mail. 6-month #KGB investigation reveals she wrote the letter herself to get her nemesis (praised in the letter) fired from the job she coveted. ⬇️

NYT: "Russian Spies Are Suspicious of China, Even as Putin and Xi Grow Close." @nytimes.com For #KGB counterintelligence activities against Chinese spies, take a look at a 7-part article series I wrote for the Wilson Center's blog. ⬇️ www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/so...

#KGB meticulously recorded the monetary value & date of rewards given to agents. Lithuanian KGB agent codenamed OMAR, for example, was rewarded 22 times in the course of his 17 years of clandestine service (1972-1989). Money, meals, gifts. ⬇️

In August & September 1968, local branches of Lithuanian #KGB collected negative reactions of the population on the "events in Czechoslovakia" & reported them to the local Communist leadership. Here's an example from the town of Marijampole then called Kapsukas.

This table shows how much Lithuanian #KGB's First Department (the regional branch of KGB's First Chief Directorate aka Moscow Center) spent on its agents (monetary rewards, pensions, safe house maintenance, etc.) in 1988 & 1989 plus the projected expenses for 1990. #HUMINT

In mid-1980s, Lithuanian #KGB had an agent who was an expert on Soviet birds & attended the 19th International Ornithological Congress held in Ottawa in 1986. His codename: STARLING.

A dust jacket of the early 1990s Russian edition of Christopher Andrew & Oleg Gordievsky's book on #KGB with a blurb by Oleg Kalugin. No Russia-based publisher would be allowed to publish & distribute it in Russia now.

In 1979, Lithuanian #KGB compiled a secret report on how Lithuanian emigre organizations in the US tried to establish a common anti-Soviet front with Chinese diplomats at the UN & the visiting Chinese delegation led by Deng Xiaoping.

Two thumbs up for Kevin Riehle's new book on #counterintelligence. Looks like a great companion to James M. Olson's classic To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence. Hope #FBI Academy got a copy. www.rienner.com/title/Counte...

In November 1978, 12th Dept of #KGB First Chief Directorate prepared a top secret report on the likely impact of the election of Pope John Paul II on the Vatican's relations with the Soviet Union & sent it to Lithuanian KGB for "potential operational use." Here's that report ⬇️

A full decade at the University of San Francisco! 🎉 I've taught more than a dozen different courses (Eastern Europe/Russia/Central Asia) & was the first to design & teach a course on #intel & #counterintel past, present & future.

A plot for #Netflix from #KGB files A small Lithuanian town in 1957. Two 15-year-old girls, one, ethnically German, orphaned during WWII whose stepfather died, & the other with missing father & imprisoned mother, write & distribute anti-Soviet leaflets, evading KGB for months. ⬇️

Declassified records show that #CIA's Basic Orientation Course in mid-1950s had two major components: 1. Introduction to Intelligence 2. Communism and the USSR

#KGB psychological warfare (active measure) targeting United States through its mouthpiece Literaturnaya Gazeta after #RFK assassination. Found in RFK files released last week. ⬇️

When Landon Temple, a British travel agency manager, visited Vilnius in October 1989, his comments on British politics were sent by Lithuanian #KGB to Moscow as classified information, but there was nothing they couldn't read in the British press at the time. ⬇️

In December 1979, #KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov was one of the main advocates of military intervention in Afghanistan resulting in 14,500 Soviet soldiers' deaths. But, as this document shows, unlike millions of ordinary Soviets, his son Igor was exempt from military service.