The Long Road Home: The True Story of a Resident Agent

In 1968, a two-part feature film “The Mistake of the Resident” was released on the screens of the country. The story of how foreign intelligence recruited the reckless criminal Bekas—who turned out to be a Soviet intelligence officer, Pavel Sinitsyn—was loved by domestic cinema audiences. And only a few knew that the duel between the two intelligence services shown in the film actually happened, but in a somewhat different form. In 1965, a conscript sailor Oleg Tumanov, on orders from the KGB, made a daring escape from the Soviet Union. The mission was something like: settle in one of the Western countries and infiltrate the émigré community. Live there for a couple of years, get used to it, make acquaintances, observe. When you feel you’ve integrated, write a letter to your parents about how you’re living. Through this letter we will find you...

Listen to an exciting account of how, over 20 years, the hero of the book lived and worked in Munich, going from correspondent to senior editor of the Russian service of “Radio Liberty.” During that time he sent Moscow a vast amount of valuable information: from descriptions and results of the work of Department X (monitoring conversations of officers serving in the Soviet Army’s units and formations stationed in Eastern European countries) to detailed details about the activities of American intelligence and counterintelligence personnel. Eventually, the CIA managed to track down the elusive “mole,” but in 1986 Oleg Tumanov succeeded in returning to the Soviet Union.