# Why are Russians such good spies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248 "2014-09-12T00:26:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/21 "2014-09-12T15:24:33Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Well, open societies are more vulnerable to being spied on than totalitarian states that terrify their populace and terrify their own officials\* even more. I think this has a lot to do with it. It’s just easier to make contact with people in an open society, and also easier to blend in to a multi-ethnic one. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Practice? the Soviets did not consider it a matter of diplomacy not to practice espionage techniques on unimportant foreigners. As a result, when my family was there on academic visas while my father was on sabbatical and working openly on a book for use in US universities, we were often followed and spied on by very new and amateurish recruits whom we could spot in a second. They were out of a Austin Powers movie sometimes. I remember one guy who, when we turned around and looked right at him, reached up and pulled tree branches over his face. The cynical explanation is that they planted a few easy ones for you to find, so you would stop looking out for the real ones. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/22 "2014-09-12T15:28:46Z")
Y’know, if I were the director for a national spy apparatus, and someone just walked into my embassy and left a box of classified documents sitting on the counter, I’d assume that it was a very clumsy attempt by my enemies’ intelligence services to plant the information they wanted me to have. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/23 "2014-09-12T15:30:14Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Knowing about your own stolen information is every bit as important as stealing other peoples’. How do you think you catch spies? I’ve heard honey works better than vinegar. Oh! Spies. nm ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/24 "2014-09-12T16:13:20Z")
In Stalin’s day, there were plenty of “idealistic” people in the West ready to help out the Soviet Union. More recently, the biggest traitors in the USA have been driven by more mercenary motives. In the past 50 years, most people who gave secrets to the Russians did so for money. ---
**Author:** ![MrQwertyasd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/25 "2014-09-12T16:46:22Z")
\*\*Why are Russians such good spies? \*\*Have you \*seen \*Anna Chapman ? ---
**Author:** ![Polar\_Iceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Polar\_Iceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polar_Iceman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/26 "2014-09-13T01:04:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Y’know, if I were the director for a national spy apparatus, and someone just walked into my embassy and left a box of classified documents sitting on the counter, I’d assume that it was a very clumsy attempt by my enemies’ intelligence services to plant the information they wanted me to have. A valid point, but according to this Russian it was such a common occurrence that they accepted the documents at face value; and oftentimes they got the same documents from several sources. According to him, the Canadian defense establishment was/is riddled with left wing ideologues who despise the “west” in general, and the USA in particular. As a consequence they saw/see giving information to the Russians as their way of sticking it to their ideological enemies, and as a way of pushing things along to the formation of the ultimate “peoples paradise”. Also according to him, these individuals largely seemed to be narcissistic egotists who thought that they possessed a superior moral view of the world that only they were astute enough to recognize, and their superiority was not appreciated by the intellectual midgets of the capitalist society. Accordingly, in their own minds, their providing information to the Russians reinforced their self image and fed their egos. Of course the Russians were no slouches in feeding these egos. Does anyone remember this book? I would really like to read it again and am feeling really PO’d that I can’t remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/27 "2014-09-13T02:15:40Z")
I’ll admit to not being an expert on this topic, but a few things that I might suggest: 1. The Russians were more interested in infiltration of the US than the US was interested in infiltrating Russia. They wanted our technologies, and there was a financial/prestige-based incentive to gaining them. We didn’t care about their technologies. We understood each others politics well enough to not need spies to tell us. And militaries are big, sprawling creatures, so spy planes accomplish most of what you want to know. 2. American spies really specialized in destabilization and military spycraft. We generally left the softer spywork to the British, with whom we had a pretty open trade policy. 3. Everyone’s paranoid in the USSR. There was no motive for the Russians to provide nice working conditions and everyone expects their neighbor to turn them in for anything they might do. In the US, overly tight security turns off employees, and employees aren’t too fearful of getting thrown in the gulag for talking to a friend about work stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/28 "2014-09-13T02:40:31Z")
> [@Polar\_Iceman](#): > > Does anyone remember this book? I would really like to read it again and am feeling really PO’d that I can’t remember it. I think you’re referring to, "Comrade J: The untold secrets of Russia’s master spy in America after the end of the Cold War. " The guy was Sergei Tretyakov, the SVR deputy chief of station in the U.S., about as high up a spy as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Polar\_Iceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Polar\_Iceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polar_Iceman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/29 "2014-09-13T03:49:16Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I think you’re referring to, "Comrade J: The untold secrets of Russia’s master spy in America after the end of the Cold War. " The guy was Sergei Tretyakov, the SVR deputy chief of station in the U.S., about as high up a spy as you can get. Thanks for that “Grey”. I thought the book I was referring to was an autobiography, while “Comrade J” seems to be a biography written by Pete Earley. Regardless of authorship, from what I have just read on “Amazon”, this one seems to cover the same ground. So I have placed my order. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248/30 "2014-09-14T05:06:58Z")
> [@MrQwertyasd](#): > > \*\*Why are Russians such good spies? > > \*\*Have you \*seen \*Anna Chapman ? FTR, if it came down to official secrets and the safety of the whole US, v. Anna Chapman, I know which one \*I’d \*choose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-russians-such-good-spies/698248.md?page=1)