Jack Barsky (2017)

They thought I was about to die anyway (this is what they told my German wife). After all, I told them that I had gotten sick with AIDS, and that was a death sentence in those days.

You made me check under the bed

Red Herring! They try to cause trouble where they can, but I have yet to see one shred of proof that they attempted or much less succeeded in manipulating the election.

They did not look - they were too busy trying to figure out what to do with their lives after the SU collapsed.
Nostalgia for the cold war? That is crazy! I am rather not quite united against a common enemy than die in a nuclear blast while holding hands and singing kumbaya

I truly thought that the US was evil through and through (except, of course for Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Chubby Checker, etc.). Well, that opinion did not hold very long. I had a hard time finding the evil Americans. And when I was hired by one of those terribly evil insurance companies I found out that they were just the opposite. The "evil empire" speech scared the hell out of all of us. Some of that straight (and well thought out, I might add) communication may be what we need today.

I messed up many times with regard to fitting in. I was essentially not trained in matters of culture. It was just dumb luck that my first job was that of a messenger. I interacted with folks who were not very curious, so I could watch and learn in a rather safe environment.

"Gut feelings" are fundamentally subconscious assessments by your brain of recurring patterns. Therefore, the more experience you have, the more valid your "gut". I came to that conclusion at age 50 when I had an opportunity to fire a guy who my gut hated but my conscious brain could not find anything wrong with. My gut was right - this guy eventually succeeded in destroying the department I had built.

Beer - but only German beer. Vanilla almond milk

Actually, a good question. The Russians make the best bread, period! Stoli is pretty good too, but all the other stuff is rather crappy

The shooting, the stuffing of corpses into suitcases, the picking of locks, and the wigs - pure entertainment. No agent who did that kind of stuff would survive more than a week. Having said that, they do a very good job with the psychology of being an undercover agent. That part is very much like me.

Partially, but not with regard to all the blood and adventure. The life of a spy is mostly rather boring. You would not want to see that in a movie.

It makes the spies lazier. Sort of like when you are looking for a new job and all you do is post your resume on the internet instead of making contact with human beings. Humint (that is the professional term for human intelligence) is still the most valuable intelligence and the hardest to get. This will stay that way as long as people make decisions and brains cannot be hacked

Only my wife. My mother and brother were in the dark, and I had no contact to my father any more. All others (uncles, etc.) knew just the same lie I told my mother (I was in a stop secret location in Kazakhstan to do space research - that eventually led to the rumor that I had died in a rocket accident).

First question: That is part of the human condition. If you can convince your boss that you did a good job when you did not you come out ahead, and (unfortunately) vice versa. This is how really good people often get the shaft because they are their own worst advocate.
Second question: A lot of them believed that it could work. Gorbachev (and he is a very smart man) thought all that was needed was some tweaks here and there to right the ship
Third question: They are not the same. In a communist society there is nothing to RE distribute. Things are rather evenly distributed from the get go. That takes the incentive to be productive out the equation and the economic system goes into a tailspin. Some redistribution of wealth in a capitalistic system is not only just but also good for the economy. What the heck is Bill Gates going to do with all his money? I am glad he is giving some away. That way it re-enters the economy which in turn creates more opportunity and wealth. Caveat - I am not an economist, I don't even play one on TV

I trust God because it makes no sense to not trust the most powerful being there is. And I still trust my 6 year old because she is still rather innocent. With that said - I am generally a trust extender to every new person I meet. I assume that you are good and you have to prove to me that you are not (I will be watching you, though). The opposite type, a trust denier is incredibly difficult to deal with.

Retirement from the "game" sure! But I have not retired from life, and in many respects I am working harder than I have during my career in corporate. And you can call me Mr. Comrade, or Genosse (that is German)

Very good!

There could be a handful. The last one I disabused of that notion was my first girl friend who almost had a heart attack when I called her out of the blue............

None. I had only two things you could not buy in a store. One was a one time pad that contained a sequence of numbers to decipher messages (the numbers had to be developed with an iodine solution) and a writing pad that contained pages of contact paper to be used for secret writing. I was purposely low tech to avoid having evidence on me if I got caught

First shock: First TV program I ever saw was "Gilligans Island". Second shock: I spent my second night in a fleabag hotel in the Southside of Chicago - that was scary

Lots of funny stuff (mistakes I made as a spy that are only funny in hindsight, also how I almost killed myself in the chemistry lab), what it was like to grow up behind the iron curtain, and lots and lots of unusual idiotic things that happened in my life. Look at the reviews on Amazon and Goodreads - you can't fill 350 pages with boring crap and get those reviews

I will definitely try that - I also hear that Almond milk takes 10 years off your age - I can use some of that....

I watched the fall of the Wall from my apartment in Queens with emotional detachment - I was not part of that equation any more. The fall of the Soviet Union was a big surprise, but at that point I tried to be apolitical, and I did not give a hoot. But, given my past, it was impossible to stay apolitical, and to everybody who has romantic notions about communism, the Soviet Union, etc. I say "wake up!" a) it does not work, and b) there has never been a communist country, they were all dictatorships, and some more murderous than others

1. Certainly, and he has enough nukes to destroy the planet. My biggest fear is a nuclear "accident". We need to lower the high pitch of our rhetoric. This is just like screaming at your kids, which often achieve the opposite, when calm strength is what is required
2. Not too much, thank God
3. Amateur, and not even that good looking. If they had been brought to trial I would have been an expert witness (not a joke)

I have a web site which can be reached at jackbarsky.com. In a week or so, I will add a blog which will allow me to interact with folks (to the extent I can handle the volume). As to your question: A month ago I met Oleg Kalugin. He was the head of counterintelligence of the KGB in the 80s (essentially #2). He had a falling out with Putin and wound up in the United States. He is a bit too old to have a conversation with, but he produced some highly interesting monologues.

Sorry, as horrible as terrorism is, it does not rise to the threat level of a nuclear war, or even WWII for that matter

I would not do it again - it messes up your mind in a big way and most people do not recover from that. What would I do different? Well - getting married to two women at that same time was really not a good idea

My son has a doctorate in chemistry and runs a drug store. He speaks fluent English and calls me "dada" (same as my six year old). I am finally a grandfather - Marlena just turned one. So, we really have a good relationship now - it is a miracle.

Okay, so I was a mouse for over ten years. It was important for me to figure out if I had a cat following me. Thus signs in my apartment to see if it was searched, periodic surveillance detection runs, and even letters mailed to self to see if they were opened. This is a rather frustrating exercise, because it is the same as trying to prove a negative, you can't! This becomes only "glamorous" for Hollywood, when there is a cat, but it is just as intense when there is none.

Not really. The only reason I was found out is that somebody smuggled top secret documents out of the KGB archives. Otherwise, I would be living a quiet life in retirement rather than talking to you.

Right at the beginning. I was on a trip in Canada and was trying to get a birth certificate of an American boy who had passed away at the age of four. Except, the authorities knew that this person did not live any more. Law enforcement was on my butt, but I managed to be one step ahead of them.

Training was all one on one - it took altogether five years to get me ready. For more details you need to go to the book. You did not volunteer for the KGB, they recruited you.

Nope, they thought that I was about to die from AIDS (I told them that I had caught that deadly disease)

There may have been at very high levels, but I believe that the various countries walled off their intelligence from their "friends". The strongest indication for that guess is that there was not a trace of me found in the Stasi (East German Secrete Police) records. Highly unusual - everybody had a record with the Stasi

There is both, but most of the work is mundane most of the time. My time as an undercover agent was 95% waiting and 5% action. And the action was never violent.

Enjoy - I get a lot of compliments concerning readability of this thing

Nope!

Any consumer goods from the west with Blue Jeans, cigarettes, and rock music at the top of the list.

I did not even have weapons training. I bet you that they had killers in the ranks of the KGB, but they tried to keep those tasks separate.

Nope - "Disposal of bodies 101" was not in my curriculum

At first I got scared - but now we are getting a big laugh out of it. Just another bizarre moment in my life. I am really getting used to not being quite "normal". That is why I stated before that becoming a secret agent is not a good idea.

Initially, the Russians sustained me with cash. But even as a lowly bike messenger I made enough money to fend for myself. This led to a situation where the salary they paid me ($600 a month plus the rent) added up to a substantial savings. This money, by the way, they handed to my German wife (because did believed that I was truly dying from AIDS) and my son recently used it for a down payment on a house. Yeah! Hobby: I became an avid runner, not much time for anything else. Also, I really LOVED programming, it developed some stuff at home, but never managed to sell it.

Not sure what you mean by "trunk line", but I will be an extra on the Americans show that airs on May 9th on FX at 10PM

Of course it does - I would be stupid not to put that in there. Some of it is rather tense, but it is in no way the same as depicted in movies and on TV. No car chases and no shootout, but quite a bit of cat and mouse games.

Actually, it is the other way around. A good intelligence agent typically succeeds in perfecting skills that make people successful in "normal" life. For the most part, success in life depends how well you deal with others. Thus it is important to watch, listen, analyze, categorize. Over time you will build a database, both at the conscious and unconscious level, that will allow you to read people quickly and operate accordingly (and I do not mean manipulate for your own gain but influence to make both of you better). I guess that is not the answer you wanted to hear, but there is nothing extraordinary they teach you in "intelligence school" that you cannot learn in regular psychology classes

Good catch. The litmus test is when I talk about Germany and the USA and use "us" for the United States and "you" or "them" for Germany. People have noticed this often enough to prove that I am a bona fide first generation American. The only German thing I truly miss is the food I grew up with.

a) YES
b) None - whatever remnant existed of the Russian Orthodox Church was controlled by the KGB (I have that from the horse's mouth)

Sorry, have not followed this story

We need to give them a strong and consistent message. Ronald Reagan was very good at that. The Presidents after him, not so. We need to openly recognize that they are adversaries but do everything possible to avoid for them to become enemies. We do have some interests in common, and the most important one is survival.