Shaun Walker

They wrote each other letters in invisible ink. Basically, they used a lot of spy craft. And so when Lenin and the Bolsheviks take over after the October revolution in 1917, they readapt a lot of this spy craft for their brand new intelligence service.

And it's that heritage of the Bolsheviks as an underground clandestine organization that really kind of informs this idea of sending illegals out into the field.

And it's that heritage of the Bolsheviks as an underground clandestine organization that really kind of informs this idea of sending illegals out into the field.

And it's that heritage of the Bolsheviks as an underground clandestine organization that really kind of informs this idea of sending illegals out into the field.

Yeah. I mean so the logic of the purges was such that even the most loyal people were subject to suspicion and everybody was desperate to show they were more loyal than everybody else. Yeah. A key feature of the purges was accusing people of having links with foreign intelligence services. So essentially spying for the enemies of the Soviet Union to bring down the Soviet state.

Yeah. I mean so the logic of the purges was such that even the most loyal people were subject to suspicion and everybody was desperate to show they were more loyal than everybody else. Yeah. A key feature of the purges was accusing people of having links with foreign intelligence services. So essentially spying for the enemies of the Soviet Union to bring down the Soviet state.

Yeah. I mean so the logic of the purges was such that even the most loyal people were subject to suspicion and everybody was desperate to show they were more loyal than everybody else. Yeah. A key feature of the purges was accusing people of having links with foreign intelligence services. So essentially spying for the enemies of the Soviet Union to bring down the Soviet state.

And of course, the illegals here were kind of first in the firing line because unlike your factory director in Siberia or your train worker in the Urals who might be accused of working for German or Japanese intelligence and it's fanciful, here were people who were traveling all through the world. They were posing as capitalists. They had all kinds of links.

And of course, the illegals here were kind of first in the firing line because unlike your factory director in Siberia or your train worker in the Urals who might be accused of working for German or Japanese intelligence and it's fanciful, here were people who were traveling all through the world. They were posing as capitalists. They had all kinds of links.

And of course, the illegals here were kind of first in the firing line because unlike your factory director in Siberia or your train worker in the Urals who might be accused of working for German or Japanese intelligence and it's fanciful, here were people who were traveling all through the world. They were posing as capitalists. They had all kinds of links.

And so suspicion, when it was so ubiquitous, naturally fell on them very quickly. And so what you see is that these people who, you know, in the case of someone like Dmitry Bistralyotov, he had spent years posing as a Hungarian, as a Brit, as different brands of capitalists, and he hadn't been uncovered in the West yet.

And so suspicion, when it was so ubiquitous, naturally fell on them very quickly. And so what you see is that these people who, you know, in the case of someone like Dmitry Bistralyotov, he had spent years posing as a Hungarian, as a Brit, as different brands of capitalists, and he hadn't been uncovered in the West yet.

And so suspicion, when it was so ubiquitous, naturally fell on them very quickly. And so what you see is that these people who, you know, in the case of someone like Dmitry Bistralyotov, he had spent years posing as a Hungarian, as a Brit, as different brands of capitalists, and he hadn't been uncovered in the West yet.

He comes back to the Soviet Union and he's accused that this whole career when he was working for Moscow was all a sham. He actually there's another layer to his cover. And the whole time he was this secret enemy spy. Now, this is ridiculous. But to get him to admit to this, there are weeks, months of interrogations. violence, torture, until eventually he feels his life slipping away from him.

He comes back to the Soviet Union and he's accused that this whole career when he was working for Moscow was all a sham. He actually there's another layer to his cover. And the whole time he was this secret enemy spy. Now, this is ridiculous. But to get him to admit to this, there are weeks, months of interrogations. violence, torture, until eventually he feels his life slipping away from him.

He comes back to the Soviet Union and he's accused that this whole career when he was working for Moscow was all a sham. He actually there's another layer to his cover. And the whole time he was this secret enemy spy. Now, this is ridiculous. But to get him to admit to this, there are weeks, months of interrogations. violence, torture, until eventually he feels his life slipping away from him.

And he agrees to sign whatever they put in front of him just to make it stop.

And he agrees to sign whatever they put in front of him just to make it stop.

And he agrees to sign whatever they put in front of him just to make it stop.

Yeah, I mean, in some ways, luckily for him, he managed to hold out long enough that by the time he signs the real peak is winding down. He doesn't get shot like many of the other illegals. But he does end up with 20 years in the gulag, which which completely breaks him.