Spies, Sex, and Balloons

Chapter 8 examines the Russian exiles’ anti-communist activities in divided Germany and particularly Berlin, the city whose penetrable internal border made it the essential base for Cold War human-intelligence activities. The CIA utilized the NTS and another Russian organization, the Central Representation of Postwar Emigrants (TsOPE), in operations devoted to inciting defection among Soviet soldiers and civilians positioned in East Germany. Utilizing documents from the East German Ministry for State Security, the chapter examines the Berlin operations and the Soviet and East German actions to thwart them. It focuses attention on how Russian exile agendas in Germany became reliant on the East German civilians who were recruited to spread propaganda and interact with Soviet soldiers and civilians. In this way, the espionage conflicts in Berlin were a transnational affair involving cross-national contacts and networks.