Blunders of the Intelligence Service during the Cold War

Abstract

December 20, 1917 was the official day of establishment of the Soviet Intelligence Service and now it is celebrated by the Russian Federation. Since that day the Intelligence Service has done its best to get information about its political opponent, the West. They have had advantages due to efficient operations of the intelligence service, through many secret operations implemented, as well as diplomatic intrigues and conspiracy. As a rule, such activities were planned in details by the special secret services and their staff were trained especially in order to get the basic trust of the opposite parties and to work “in a hidden” way.

The Intelligence Service has changed history and contributed a lot to it, but we have found out about it, only many years later as the information about such operations used to be kept in the secret archives of different military organizations. They are now accessible to media and society since they have lost their importance.

The paper discusses the activities of the Soviet Intelligence Service during the Cold War and, in particular, the mistakes and cases conducted by the intelligence service; which changed the history for the better and which for the worst. At an initial stage we will try to discuss briefly the period we refer in the article and review the key functions of the intelligence service during the Cold War.