SNAFU with Ed Helms Former KGB Spy Jack Barsky
8 snips
Feb 11, 2026 
Jack Barsky, a former KGB illegal who infiltrated the U.S. in 1978 and later defected, shares his undercover life. He recounts tradecraft training, assuming a false identity, and clandestine communications. He also describes the slow ideological shift, falling in love, and the risky choice to stay in America.
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Brains Over Guns In Tradecraft
- KGB tradecraft emphasized brains over violence, teaching Morse, secret writing, and surveillance detection routes.
- Jack practiced surveillance detection repeatedly and won tests by identifying tails and patterns of following.
Identity Theft To Enter America
- Jack Barsky entered the U.S. using the birth certificate of a deceased child named Jack Barsky and multiple forged passports.
- He traveled via Belgrade, Vienna, Rome, and Mexico City before deplaning in Chicago O'Hare on a Canadian passport.
Finding A Defector On Campus
- One KGB task sent Jack to find a defected ex-KGB assassin teaching at the University of California, San Bernardino.
- He discovered the man, Nikolai Kokloff, at his office door but neither recognized the other's background then.
