Inside Russia’s top secret KGB spy school where Soviet spooks honed their deadly skills during the Cold War
The Moscow academy - which counts Vladimir Putin among its alumni - is still shrouded in secrecy even though it closed its doors in 1991
STARTLING Cold War images reveal what life was like inside the top secret KGB school where Russia's spies honed their deadly skills.
The Moscow academy - which counts Vladimir Putin among its alumni - is still shrouded in secrecy even though it closed its doors in 1991.
Today's pictures come just days after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent in the UK.
They remain in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital - as diplomatic relations between London and Moscow hit a new low.
It's all a bit reminiscent on the 60s, 70s, and 80s when wannabe spies were hand-picked from elite Soviet universities and trained to kill.
KGB bosses are even believed to have built an "American town" in the Ukraine so spies could learn how to live secretly in the US.
In the town, the trainee agents apparently drove American cars using American traffic regulations and watched American movies.
The Soviets insisted "Coca Cola City", as it became known, never existed but those that attended the academy say otherwise.
The recruits learned several languages as well as counter-intelligence and investigative skills.
They were also taught how to fight - with shooting, martial arts and hand-to-hand fighting competitions a regular feature on the curriculum.
While in the espionage academy they also learned how to use technology and tricks to get one over on their American rivals.
And - just like fictional spy James Bond - they just loved a gadget.
In their armoury were shoes hiding tiny cameras, a tie containing a lens and a purse with a hidden microphone.
Among the other secretive arts of the world of espionage taught were the arts of seduction - still used today.
Not surprisingly, canny KGB bosses even found a way to disguise a gun as lipstick.
For 74 years, the KGB was much more than a spy agency.
It was like America's CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency all rolled into one.
To the Soviet people it was an instrument of terror that would pluck people from the safety of their homes and send them to some Siberian gulag.
The KGB was truly the Ministry of Fear.
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Its gruesomely named Department of Wet Affairs (Mokriye Dela) assassinated its enemies abroad.
In the 80s, it also succeeded in recruiting an astonishing number of spies in United States intelligence and defence agencies.
When it disbanded in 1991 its intelligence arm split in two.
The SVR is now the successor to the foreign intelligence arm of the KGB, while the FSB looks after domestic affairs.
Both are still very active today.
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