How Russian children and the KGB trolled America for years

after six long years of fighting the. allies finally defeated the german war. machine in 1945. in july of that year. the leaders of the allies roosevelt. churchill and stalin met at the potsdam. conference to decide what would become. of germany and how to divide the spoils. of war now publicly the allied leaders. were friendly and respectful but. privately it was a different story when. the cameras were off there was anger. mistrust and hours of arguing stalin. felt that churchill was weak and. deceitful and roosevelt threw a fit when.

he heard stalin's demands for war. reparations that even though the soviet. union and the united states were allies. they weren't friends the potsdam. conference marked the end of the last. war. but it was the beginning of a new one. [Music]. on august 4th 1945 just a few days after. potsdam united states ambassador william. avril harriman received a gift from a. group of soviet children who belong to. the vladimir lenin all union pioneer.

organization the vlada what they were. like uh russian boy scouts and girl. scouts but uh. more patriotic. [Music]. [Music]. [Music].

whoa yeah something tells me these kids. don't sell cookies nope intense the kids. presented the ambassador with an. impressive gift to commemorate the. friendship of the u.s and the soviet. union a hand-carved wooden replica of. the great seal of the united states the. ambassador was so pleased with the. carving that he hung it in his office at. the official ambassador residence in. moscow the spazzo house what harriman. didn't realize is that the wooden. carving was more than just a decoration. now hanging on the wall just behind the.

ambassador's desk was a state-of-the-art. high-frequency listening device that was. completely undetectable ambassador. harriman held private meetings with. military diplomatic and intelligence. officials there he had top secret. conversations with generals the. secretary of state and the president and. the russians they could hear every word. oh boy how long before they found this. bug seven years for crying out loud yep. the intelligence community called the. device the thing you gotta be.

kidding and the thing was on the office. wall of five different ambassadors over. seven years how did they finally find it. well by accident actually and that's. what makes the thing so interesting and. so effective this was an electronic. listening device that didn't require. electricity. diplomats serving at the american. embassy in moscow were very concerned. about soviet spying all staff from the. cooks to the cleaners were background. checked they were constantly sweeping.

for bugs and even people visiting the. embassy were given cards on arrival that. warned them that they should assume all. rooms and even outdoor spaces were being. monitored even with all these security. measures in place the soviet secret. police were somehow able to listen to. the american ambassador's private. conversations for years completely. undetected the thing was created by leon. theremin a russian inventor most famous. for developing one of the world's first. electronic musical instruments which he. called the theremin name checks out it's. all about branding i don't think i've.

ever heard of a theremin oh you have. [Music]. no okay i know that one night bring back. david tennant sorry sorry i get. emotional about dr who i understand in. the 1920s thereiman was touring the. world showing off his invention even. performed with the new york philharmonic. and at carnegie hall now eventually he. set up a lab in new york and developed. one of the first metal detectors for. alcatraz prison he also created an.

electronic burglar alarm and was the. first person to demonstrate interlaced. video now this was advanced stuff for. the 1920s thereiman was churning out. inventions working with thomas edison. and really making a name for himself but. in 1938. he suddenly disappeared. when leon theremin suddenly and. mysteriously disappeared from new york. in 1938 it was reported that he was. executed but eyewitnesses said that they. saw him talking to several tough-talking. russians who um.

encouraged him to return to the soviet. union did he go back well the other. option was a firing squad he went back. he did in russia thereiman was put in a. siberian gulag and given a choice he. could work a gold mine breaking big. rocks into smaller ones or he could work. at a sharashka which is a secret lab for. detained scientists and engineers he. chose the lab he did at the secret lab. thereman was tasked with developing new. surveillance technology to bug the us. embassy and the spazzo house his first. success was an infrared microphone.

called a boron eavesdropping device. which inspired the modern laser. microphone and it worked by emitting a. low-power ir beam to detect vibrations. on glass windows now the boron system. worked well but it required good line of. sight which the russians didn't have at. the spazzo house in moscow they needed. to get something inside. so thurman invented the thing the first. resonant cavity microphone the thing was. light hollow and it was made of wood so. it would vibrate when sound passed into. it now this is a lot like how a guitar.

body generates sound when strings. vibrate but the thing was shaped so that. sound wouldn't amplify outwards like a. guitar but instead sound waves were. focused on an interior membrane that. acted as a microphone and the microphone. was attached to a small antenna which. could broadcast radio waves but radios. need power to broadcast and that's why. the thing is so unique it didn't have. its own power source and wasn't. connected with wires instead it was. activated externally the nsa calls this. technique illuminating a device when the. russians knew an important meeting was.

happening at the embassy they would park. an unmarked van somewhere close by and. then using a strong radio transmitter. agents could activate the things antenna. remotely and listen to conversations at. will once the thing was no longer. illuminated it was completely inert now. this was genius cutting edge and highly. effective that's why it operated for. years undetected. until. in 1951 a full six years after the thing. was installed in the american embassy in.

moscow a british army radio operator was. randomly scanning frequencies coming. from the moscow airport then suddenly he. heard what sounded like an american. conversation now as he tuned the signal. he realized he recognized one of the. voices as the british air attache now. completely by accident he had tuned into. the kgb frequency now he alerted the. embassy who conducted a full bug sweep. but they found nothing then about a year. later another operative was scanning. soviet military radio traffic when he. picked up a conversation in english that.

seemed to be coming from the spazzo. house the new ambassador george kennan. called in a special anti-espionage unit. to perform a sweep but this time they. focused on radio traffic so kenneth went. to his office and pretended to dictate. an important message to his secretary. the american radio tech switched on. their equipment and picked up the signal. almost immediately and it was coming. from something very close by it's coming. from inside the house exactly a few. minutes later they triangulated the.

signal and found the source hanging. right there on the wall. it was the thing so you remember my name. now do you during those seven years the. thing gathered top secret information. from some very high level guests. including general eisenhower white house. staff and a dozen congressmen a member. of the soviet team that monitored the. espazo house later said the thing. allowed the kgb to get specific and very. important information which gave us. certain advantages in the prediction and. performances of world politics in the. difficult period of the cold war that.

night a radio technician slept with the. thing under his pillow just in case the. kgb tried to retrieve it the next day it. was sent to washington to be studied. what did the russians say about this oh. nothing the americans and the british. didn't say a word for years no what did. they do with it they reverse engineered. it to use on the soviets yeah i saw that. coming. whatever information the thing provided. to the russians it eventually came back. to bite them in may 1960 an american u2. spy plane was shot down over soviet.

airspace a few weeks later at a u.n. national security council meeting the. soviets accused the united states of. spying and drafted a resolution that. would have the un officially condemn the. u.s call the violation of soviet. airspace an aggressive act and force. american flights to stop so for three. days the soviets presented arguments. attacking the u.s the united states was. accused of war mongering being an. untrustworthy nation and threatening. world peace the soviets argued that. countries who spied on each other should.

be condemned and espionage and. surveillance are considered acts of. aggression right right right the. americans quietly took the punishment. then on day four when it was finally. time for the u.s to present its rebuttal. it simply brought out the thing. ambassador large counters repeated. denials of soviet spy activities with a. concrete and dramatic example he tells. how the soviet planted a listening. device in america's moscow embassy. concealed inside a wooden carving of the. great seal presented as a gift by the.

russians the thing was top secret for. almost 10 years but now the entire world. was shown spying goes both ways. [Music]. and here is the. here is the clandestine listening device. uh you can see the antenna in the area. and it was right. the un voted against the soviet. resolution 7-2 and now thanks to a. wooden carving delivered by children as. a gift of peace and friendship the cold. war was in full swing and nuclear war.

seemed more likely than ever. [Music]. thank you so much for hanging out with. me today my name is aj that's hecklefish. this has been the white files if you had. fun or learned anything do me a favor. and like comment subscribe share all. that stuff really helps with the. algorithm and until next time be safe be. kind. and know that you are appreciated. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music].

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