The USSR was formed 100 years ago this month, binding Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Federation into what was once a powerful bloc. The Communist Party controlled the government and secret police who built a deadly network of spies. SPYSCAPE traces the dark history of Russia’s espionage operatives since the 1922 treaty through six of our exclusive podcasts.
The 'Ace of Spies' who infiltrated the Cheka
Who was Britain's Ace of Spies, brilliantly portrayed by Sam Neill in the epic miniseries? No one knows for sure but at Scotland Yard he was known as Sidney Reilly. In his native Ukraine, Reilly went by ‘Sigmund Rosenblum’. In Moscow, however, he was known as Comrade Relinsky, Communist Party member and agent for the Cheka’s criminal investigation division, hiding among the enemy in plain sight.
Dmitri Bystrolyotov was one of the KGB's most daring operatives, a ‘Romeo’ spy who used seduction to coax female targets in the West to reveal state secrets. Dmitri operated in the post-WWI years when sex and spying went hand-in-hand. When US author Emil Draister met Dmitri, he could scarcely believe his story - much less publish it. After the USSR collapsed, however, Emil finally revealed Dmitri's tale.
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Party at the most dazzling venue in NYC, enjoy premium food and cocktails, and put your spy skills to the test! Everyone leaves with an inspiring personal profile from a former Head of Training at MI6.
Albrecht Dittrich was recruited by the KGB to go deep undercover in the US while still in his senior year at an East German university. His goal was to disappear in New York in the ‘70s using the alias Jack Barsky. For years he operated under the radar until KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the UK in the ‘90s, bringing classified documents with him - including one bearing Barsky’s name.
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen was CIA deputy chief of Moscow Station during the turbulent days of 1993. The USSR collapsed two years earlier. Boris Yeltsin was in charge and he was pushing through changes that didn’t sit well with Moscow’s old guard. Russia and the US were still sworn enemies - or were they? When Rolf landed in the midst of a bloody insurgency led by Kremlin rebels, help came from a most unusual ally.
At the dawn of the millennium, FSB spy Janosh Neumann (not his real name, of course) was operating in the new age of Russian oligarchs and opulence - that is, until Janosh’s life was threatened by the same spies who’d hired him. Janosh and his wife fled Moscow in 2008. They planned to defect and help the CIA fight international money laundering. What transpired was very different.
Get a FREE copy of a hot thriller, spy story, or crime novel every Monday with a special Story Mondays ticket to SPYSCAPE HQ. Next Monday it's A Private Spy - an archive of never-before-seen letters written by the late John le Carré, giving readers access to the intimate thoughts of one of the greatest writers of our time edited by his son Tim Cornwell. Don't miss your FREE copy when you experience SPYSCAPE HQ next Monday.
Alexei Navalny believes the Russian state poisoned him in August 2020 while he was opposition leader but the Novichok scare didn’t silence him. Five months later, Navalny released a film that sent shockwaves through Russia. Part-psychological portrait, part-exposé, his investigation claimed to reveal a culture of corruption at the Kremlin - with ex-KGB spy Vladimir Putin at its heart, denying everything.
