Moscow Rules: Secret Police, Spies, Sleepers, Assassins

After the guns fell silent in May 1945, Stalin installed secret police services in the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Trained by his NKVD—a predecessor of the KGB—officers of the Polish UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVO, Romania’s Securitate, Bulgaria’s KDS, Albania’s Sigurimi, and the Stasi of the German Democratic Republic ruthlessly repressed their fellow citizens. These state terror organizations were also designed for espionage in the West, to conceal the real case officers in Moscow. Specially trained operatives undertook "wet jobs," including assassination of anti-Soviet figures. Perhaps the most menacing were the sleepers who settled in the West. Douglas Boyd explores the relationship between the KGB and its ghastly brood.