Your go-to person on #KGB (ops, archives, spy fiction). Book: KGB Literati (tinyurl.com/yc5y3hfh). PhD. 25 years university prof in Russia/Balkans/US.
Joined August 2020
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Pinned Tweet
3 Nov 2025
Tomorrow my book #KGBLiterati meets the world & the world meets #KGBLiterati!
amazon.com/KGB-Literati-Fict…
Simon Willmetts: "A must read for anybody interested in intelligence, spy fiction, and the role that culture played during the Cold War." ⬇️ @utpress
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I've just given an interview on #KGB legacy & imprint on the contemporary Russian intelligence & security services for @CTK_news. Use your browser to translate from Czech.
The link: ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/ruske-…
V čem si jsou současné ruské zpravodajské služby podobné se sovětskou KGB? Především svou protizápadní orientací a metodami náboru agentů založenými na penězích a vydírání. V rozhovoru pro @CTK_news to řekl Filip Kovacevic, profesor Univerzity v San Francisku a autor knihy KGB Liberati. Celý rozhovor k přečtění níže: ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/ruske-…
Thank you for your cooperation @ChekistMonitor on this article.
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How did #KGB detect spies?
My new article based on the secret internal correspondence between the Higher School of #KGB in Moscow and the Lithuanian #KGB HQ in Vilnius.
The link: tinyurl.com/yc63sp8b
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One of the largest & longest-lasting #GULAG uprisings took place in the Stepnoi camp in Kazakhstan 72 years ago (May-June 1954).
It's described by Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago.
Here's is a secret 22-page #MVD report on the uprising: kgbveikla.lt/dokumentai/1/pr…
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Researching the papers of #KGB assassin-turned-defector Nikolai Khokhlov at the Hoover Library & Archives.
His MA & PhD theses in experimental psychology are there, but almost nothing on espionage.
In his later life, he appears to have been more interested in "psychic warfare."
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You can read my book #KGBLiterati as outlining the Chekist "informal doctrine" through #KGB spy fiction:
1. acceptable trade-offs (loyalty vs. truth)
2. archetypes (ideal officer, traitor, useful fool)
3. preferred tactics (deception & denial) amazon.com/KGB-Literati-Fict…
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Highly recommend @rolandebrown's The Orwellians podcast interview of a retired #CIA officer Sean Wisswesser (@Wiswesser) about his new book. #spies
youtube.com/watch?v=-jlSVDnA…
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Lithuanian #MVD stats for safehouse keepers in Dec. 1953: Total 473
Party status:
CP candidates & members 322
Komsomol 16
Non-party 141
Nationality:
Lithuanian 143
Russian 254
Ukrainian 28
Jewish 27
Belarusian 16
Polish 5
Latvian 2
Tatar 2
Mordvin 1
Udmurt 1
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Beria's top secret report to Stalin, released by kgbveikla.lt last week, reveals how many anti-Soviet rebels were killed & captured by #NKVD/#NKGB from Feb. to Sept. 1944.
W. Ukraine 38,087 (k) / 31,808 (c)
W. Belarus 444 (k) / 927 (c)
Lithuania 415 (k) / 1,635 (c)
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On June 20, 1978, #KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov issued a secret executive order No. 0330 on the candidate assessment & recruitment for work in the KGB.
This included the requirement that a potential candidate needs to be monitored & assessed for "no less than 1 year."
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Margarita Konenkova: was she a Soviet #spy? Pavel Sudoplatov alleged that, but his memoir is unreliable.
Her love affair with Albert Einstein was discovered in the 1990s.
She & her husband Sergey, a famous sculptor, returned to the USSR in 1945 after 22 years in the US.
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Filip Kovacevic retweeted
May 15
All true and Correct! Many stories of same in Chapter 6 “Dirty Tricks” of the Russian services, in my book! Hope some your followers will check it out, you know I enjoyed yours as well-good work!
a.co/d/01G2iFde
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"Using sexual blackmail as means of recruitment [of foreign visitors] was one of the most frequently used tactics in the repertoire of Soviet counterintelligence during the Cold War." #swallows #ravens
wilsoncenter.org/publication…
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Can't believe it's been 6 months... still as excited as on day one. #KGBLiterati #unboxing
amazon.com/KGB-Literati-Fict…
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If there is a lecture about #JamesBond you should watch, it's this one by @MDRBrown. Highly recommend.
youtube.com/watch?v=vIAMu7_o…
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Original prototype for #KGB literature & film award established by Yuri Andropov's executive order in March 1979.
Want the full story? It's in my book #KGBLiterati. amazon.com/KGB-Literati-Fict…
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