'I Thought I Was Smarter Than Almost Everybody': My Double Life As A KGB Agent

Jack Barsky, an American citizen, was born in the GDR as Albrecht Dittrich. He lived a normal life, until one day, while studying chemistry at the University of Jena, he was approached by the Stasi (German Democratic Republic intelligence agency), and later the KGB. For years, he was trained as an undercover agent and kept it secret from everyone, including his closest relatives.

Eventually, he was smuggled into the US, and the identity of Jack Barsky was born. He lived the ordinary life, working as a programmer for an insurance company, he got married and had a daughter. But he also led a second life as a Soviet spy. Most of his work consisted of profiling people who could be recruited by the KGB in the future. In 1988, he received a message that he had to leave the US at once. But he chose to defect.

Barsky kept his silence for decades, and this interview is part of his personal journey of reconciliation with his past, an attempt to tell an honest story of a cold-war era spy. The final picture is rather bleak: there was nothing romantic or exciting in his life. Instead, he had to deal with an overwhelming burden of secrecy, and of inability to be fully open with the people he loved.