The spy next door: Moscow's century-long plot to infiltrate the west
HistoryExtra podcast
08/26/25
•46m
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In 2010, the world was stunned when the United States exposed a covert Russian spy network operating on its soil. Seemingly all-American families living in white-picket-fenced suburbia were in fact deep undercover Russian agents. Many had been living under assumed identities for decades, lying even to their own children. In this episode, journalist Shaun Walker speaks to Danny Bird about Moscow’s longlasting ‘illegals’ programme – perhaps the most audacious chapter in the history of espionage. He reveals how the roots of the operation reached back more than a century to before the Bolshevik Revolution; how the Soviet Union deployed it against supposedly ‘friendly’ states; and how today’s Russia reveres these spies as patriotic heroes.
(Ad) Shaun Walker is the author of The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West (Profile Books, 2025). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-illegals%2Fshaun-walker%2F9781788167772.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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(Ad) Alice Roberts is the author of Domination: The Fall of the Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity (Simon & Schuster, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Domination-Alice-Roberts/dp/1398510084/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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