<p>John Barron's work details the history of the 
KGB and tradecraft employed running agents in intelligence operations. 
The KGB is the commonly used acronym for the Russian Komitet 
gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti or Committee for State Security. It was the
 national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and 
was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police 
organization during that time. The The details how it operated legal and
 illegal espionage residencies in target countries where a legal 
resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet Embassy or 
Consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic 
immunity. At best, the compromised spy either returned to the Soviet 
Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government 
of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by 
diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and 
trade missions. In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more 
than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with 
greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) 
political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) 
disinformation. The false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born 
illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a "live double" 
(participant to the fabrication) or a "dead double" (whose identity is 
tailored to the spy). The agent then substantiated his or her legend by 
living it in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country,
 thus the sending of US-bound illegal residents via the Soviet embassy 
in Ottawa, Canada. Tradecraft included stealing and photographing 
documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes, and 
working as a "friend of the cause" or agents provocateur, who would 
infiltrate the target group to sow dissension, influence policy, and 
arrange kidnappings and assassinations.</p>

KGB: The Secret Work of the Soviet Secret Agents PDF

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