Mikhail Gorbachev was instrumental in the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war.


"The Anti Fascist Protection Barrier".


The Berlin wall was used as a canvas for many artists.

Spies in the Cold War

During the cold war, both sides the Russians and the western allies, incorporated a large amount of espionage and counter espionage techniques to keep track on each other.

The counterespionage or counterintelligence activity were techniques used to prevent the enemy getting secret information. The counter intelligence systems were directed against an enemy spy, for example recruiting agents of foreign intelligence agencies to avoid at all costs the enemy getting information, such as classification and careful control of sensitive information and create misinformation. The counter intelligence system was directed against enemy spies during the cold war.

The counter espionage was one of the most popular activities during the War Cold , this was the confrontation that took place from 1945 until the end of the USSR and the fall of communism that occurred between 1989 (Fall of the Wall of Berlin ) and 1991 (breakup of the USSR ), between the Western-capitalist blocs, led by the United States, and Eastern-communist, led by the Soviet Union. This confrontation took place at the political, ideological, economic, technological, military and informative levels. None of the two blocks never took direct action against the other, why the conflict was called "cold war". These two powers were limited to act as influential "axes" of power in the international context and the economic and military cooperation with allies or satellites of one of the blocks against the other.



During the Cold War both blocks used espionage and counterespionage as the main weapon to get information or where applicable, to misinform the opponent.

The two blocks were agencies that responded to this activity by the communist bloc, the KGB , and Stasi , and by the capitalist blocs, the US had the CIA , while the UK had the MI6.

KGB : was the name of the intelligence agency and the agency prin cipal of police secret of the Soviet Union March 13, 1954 6 November 1991. The domain of the KGB was about the same as that of the CIA or the division of counterintelligence of the FBI in the United States. The KGB was responsible for obtaining and analyzing all the intelligence of the nation, but became an agency of repression throughout the Soviet Union. It disappeared when that Union was dissolved. From there came the Foreign Intelligence Service, which went on to direct espionage activities abroad and reports directly to the Prime Minister.

- CIA : The CIA was created on December 18, 1947 by the President of the United States Harry S. Truman replacing the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) of the II World War, using many procedures and agents of the Organization Special Services created during the war with missions of espionage and support to the resistance behind German lines. In 1949 he was granted powers to investigate without judicial authorization, administrative and tax records. Causes of creation: There were two key factors that led the government to create this powerful institution - First, the withering attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 (eight warships were sunk, nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed and about 3,000 men were killed or wounded) The Japanese attack on the American fleet in the Pacific it was held in an amazing conditions. At least three of the offices dedicated to spying knew the secret preparations for the operation. But the lack of coordination was such that the military was not aware of the guidelines of the State Department and diplomats, meanwhile, had no access to intelligence material Army and Navy. This event convinced the ruling circles that they must urgently unite all intelligence agencies. - There was a second factor of greater relief that made necessary the creation of an organization of centralized intelligence and a 'global' perception of their duties. The elites ruling the country believed that "the world's greatest power" required a service in line with future international influence. This prediction was correct, America’s intervention in World War II as the great hegemonic power on the planet. Also they were in the best position to become the great country creditor, architect of the economic recovery in Europe. The philosophy of the organization was to give the President a second view made by civilians against contributed by military the National Security Agency .

For the large number of former students of Yale which was codenamed "Campus". Two of the three creative belonged to Yale and one at Harvard managing data only from Yale . Even the data storage system was the same as that of the Library of Yale . Some of the people of Yale began to have moral qualms, because they believed that such a body was an affront to American democracy in peacetime.

Another of the most important counterintelligence agencies and had relavanca in the Cold War was the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 is the foreign intelligence agency of the United Kingdom.

MI6: During the postwar period and the 20s, the SIS was worried about communism and the Soviet Union. Under the direction of Hugh "Quex" Sinclair, a wide range of new functions were developed. These included a section circulating central foreign counterintelligence (Section V) of which he contacted MI5, he combined the information gathered.

MI6 operations against the USSR were engaged extensively by the fact that the section of the postwar counterintelligence, was directed by two years by the double agent Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell. MI6 had several turbulent events and began to recover in the 60s as a result of review and enhanced security, and a series of successful penetrations, one of the Polish security establishment codenamed NODDY and the other the Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (which spoken in the section of spies) , this work for two years with great success, providing photographed documents, including US Army manuals Rockets Red Army that allowed the US Analysts national photographic center of interpretation (NPIC) recognize the pattern of deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962 .

MI6 operations against the USSR continued to gain pace with the rest of the cold war, thanks to the 70 recruitment Sergeivich Oleg Gordievsky as conisguieron successfully infiltrate the USSR through the Finnish border in 1985 . The true scale and impact of the activities of the MI6 during the second half of the Cold War is still unknown.
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Spies, espionage and counterespionage.

Spies and "moles" who worked in the service of espionage and counterintelligence during the Cold War era were recruited and trained by their own nations government the most famous spies were:

Heinz Felfe, working as an official of the Nazi assault troops, in 1950 Alcan Zó a great position in the intelligence service of West Germany, the NKVD, which later became known as the KGB. For ten years he worked as a double agent, providing "misinformation" about the KGB, however, the Russians sent valuable data on German espionage network. Their activities caused the loss of 94 German contacts after the Iron Curtain. The West German counterintelligence activities discovered in 1961, was arrested and jailed.

John Walker , work in the US Navy, the USSR was paid for running a family spy ring, formed by him, his brother and his son. When the FBI learned of the activities that "Walker" (as they are well known) performed were arrested. Hundreds of documents that related to these activities, but the spies themselves FBI acknowledged that they would never know exactly how much "classified" information that's Walker had transferred to the USSR. It found Oleg Penkovsky , was Russian colonel, in 1960 he offered their services to the British. He was trained in the use of message encryption systems. One of its actions, was best known for the "Cuban Missile Crisis" as Penkovski was commissioned d and provide drawings and descriptions of the sites launched AND ENVIRONMENT missiles in Cuba, from this intelligence information American could identify the position of the missiles. His career as a double agent was not very long, the KGB arrested him in 1962 and sentenced to death.