History, Interviews, People, Scribblings

Scribblings: Haynes & Klehr

Photo courtesy of
‘Soviet Unterzoegersdorf’
courtesy of ‘boklm’

In 1993, former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev was permitted unique access to Stalin-era records of Soviet intelligence operations against the United States. Vassiliev subsequently shared the notes he took with Library of Congress historian John Earl Haynes and Emory University professor Harvey Klehr. Together they have written an extraordinarily detailed and shocking account of the KGB’s espionage successes in America, including penetrations of American government and industry at the highest levels. The authors expose Soviet spy tactics and techniques and shed new light on many controversial issues, including Alger Hiss’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence, KGB recruitment of muckraking journalist I.F. Stone, and Ernest Hemingway’s meetings with KGB agents. Join John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, authors of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, at a special free lunchtime chat and booksigning event at the International Spy Museum on Thursday, August 20 from noon to 1 p.m. (No tickets required.)

A special Q&A with the authors after the jump. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Cold War, Revisited

Photo courtesy of
‘KGB / FSB Headquarters’ courtesy of ‘rodc’

Need a lunchtime diversion? How about a history lesson…from the other side’s point of view?

Spymaster: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West
Thursday, 30 July; 12 noon – 1 pm at the International Spy Museum
Cost: FREE!

He was the youngest general in the history of the KGB, and his intelligence career spanned the better part of the Cold War. As deputy chief of the KGB station at the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC, he oversaw Moscow’s spy network in the United States, and as head of KGB foreign counter-intelligence, he directed the KGB’s most valuable clandestine agents inside the United States. In his memoir, Spymaster, KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin (Ret.) provides an unparalleled look at the inner workings of Moscow’s famed spy agency. Join Kalugin to hear firsthand how he became disillusioned with the Soviet system, about his falling out with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and what he thinks of recent intelligence-related incidents with Moscow ties, including the death of Russian intelligence defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

And if you can’t make it during lunchtime, check out the two “spycasts” (podcasts) that Oleg did for the Museum a couple of years back.

Co-sponsored by The OSS Society.