MetaFilter posts tagged with kgb

The Old Man and the CCCP

educatedslacker — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:23:35 -0800

Ernest Hemingway outed as potentially useless KGB spy during the 1940s in a new book, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.

Reviews: The New Republic, Telegraph.co.uk

hatchink fiendish plan to catch moose and squirrel

shothotbot — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:14:05 -0800

Interested in Soviet era spying by the KGB in the United States? Bummed that you cant get into the KGB archives? Well it turns out that someone copied all the good stuff already, and you can take a peek. Alexander Vassiliev was a KGB officer who turned to journalism in 1990. From 1993-96 he had access to the KGB archives for the 1930s to early 1950s to write notes for a book project on Soviet spying in the Stalin era. His original notebooks - including extensive verbatim transcriptions - were left behind in Moscow when he moved to London but smuggled out via an elaborate plan. There are eight notebooks, on the Cold War International History site there are scans, transliterations and translations of each notebook, free for nothing. Vassilev assisted in the transcriptions and transliterations. The whole story is in Alexander Vassiliev’s Notebooks: Provenance and Documentation of Soviet Intelligence Activities in the United States (pdf). "Since the KGB’s archives remain closed, Vassiliev’s notebooks are as close as we are likely to get to the actual documents for many years, likely decades"

Former spy Alexander Litvinenko has died

Kwantsar — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:18:13 -0800

Former spy Alexander Litvinenko has died (more , more)

KGB's secret UFO files finally made public

Postroad — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 06:33:58 -0800

KGB's secret UFO files finally made public Files comprising the famous Blue Folder have been declassified a while ago. The prominent Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich got the folder from the KGB in 1991. These days Mr. Popovich holds the position of honorary president of the Academy of Informational and Applied Ufology. The folder contains numerous descriptions of UFO flights and reports on some (mostly failed) attempts taken by the military in order to catch the aliens.

"But, Comrade Stalin," stammered Beria, "five suspects have already confessed to stealing it."

orthogonality — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:40:28 -0800

The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat. . . . . When torture is condoned, these rare talented people leave the service, having been outstripped by less gifted colleagues with their quick-fix methods, and the service itself degenerates into a playground for sadists. Thus, in its heyday, Joseph Stalin's notorious NKVD (the Soviet secret police) became nothing more than an army of butchers terrorizing the whole country but incapable of solving the simplest of crimes.

Vladimir Bukovsky, "who spent nearly 12 years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals for nonviolent human rights activities," explains how America's use of torture "will destroy your nation's important strategy to develop democracy in the Middle East."

What's Going On In Balochistan?

afu — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 00:53:27 -0800

What's Going On In Balochistan? (part 2) Deception and treachery. Live and let die. The ultimate zero sum game. Repetition of bloody history: Call it what you may, something is happening in the Pakistani province of Balochistan that defies comprehension on any conventional scale. From a posting at The Agonist. According to the article Balochistan may be the key to future developments in Central Asia. Two former KGB agents report that Russian, Indian, Iranian and American agents are all supporting a resurgent insurrection which is becoming increasingly active. Why would these countries do this? Two easy answers: Oil pipelines and China's Gwadar Port.

skwm — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 16:58:40 -0800

The CONET Project. A 4-CD documentary of Shortwave Number Stations, which consist of nothing but an unidentified human voice reciting a long list of seemingly random numbers. Some speculate that these signals are used for espionage by the likes of MOSSAD, the CIA and the former KGB.
There's also a great NPR feature on Number Stations (html page w/links to real audio broadcast)

tiaka — Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:22:25 -0800

Sometimes, I'm proud to be a commie, heh. well, a russian. whichever. ohh, and here is photo 1, and photo 2 too.