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Moscow, the beating heart of the Soviet Union, was the most dangerous place for a CIA agent to be stationed during the Cold War.

One night in 1977, the head of the CIA's Moscow office Robert Fulton was filling up his car with gas when a Russian stranger approached and left a note on the seat of his car. The note said the man had valuable secret information he wished to share with an appropriate American authority. Believing it could be a KGB trap, Fulton ignored the note as per his instructions from CIA headquarters.

However, the man was determined and tried to make contact with the CIA four more times before finally succeeding and giving them an envelope that contained information that shocked American intelligence. The CIA finally realised that the stranger had access to some of the most secret Russian information on weapon systems and radar technology. This was enough to convince the CIA to greenlight a meeting with the man who would later be codenamed CKSPHERE.

The man, Adolf Tolkachev, went on to become one of the most valuable spies for the US, handing to the CIA hundreds of secret documents, blueprints and circuit boards for analysis. To avoid detection by the KGB, Tolkachev and his American handlers held secret meetings in public places and used spy cameras, disguises, and codes. They managed to evade the KGB for 6 years, doing enormous damage to the Soviet Union’s weapons development programme.

But one day, a devastating betrayal from within the CIA put them all in mortal danger.

This is the thrilling story of Adolf Tolkachev - the CIA’s most valuable spy.

Sources and further reading 📚: (affiliate links) 🛒:

📕 Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman - https://amzn.to/3jVGMhQ

Other spy books you may enjoy 📚: (affiliate links) 🛒
📕 Next Stop Execution by Oleg Gordievsky - https://amzn.to/3oQPA7U
📘 The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre - https://amzn.to/3SniRVh
📕 Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century - https://amzn.to/3J1u1wC
📘 The Widow Spy by Martha Peterson - https://amzn.to/3GY0lh5
📕 Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda - https://amzn.to/3ZVT1LO
📘 Wolves at the Door: The True Story Of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith Pearson - https://amzn.to/3KpP9NQ
📕 A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell - https://amzn.to/3xJ7M7y
📘 S.O.E.: An outline history of the special operations executive 1940 - 46 by M.R.D Foot - https://amzn.to/3IjrhIO

#spystories #espionage #coldwar