Standing on a New York City subway platform, en route to work one brisk winter morning in 1988, a stranger whispered in Jack Barsky’s ear: “You must come home or else you’re dead.”
It was just another bizarre moment in the bizarre life of Jack Barsky, whose experiences are like something out of "The Americans" TV show. The Covington resident spent 10 years working as a KGB spy in New York, and later became an informant for the FBI.
Barsky will discuss his memoir, "Deep Under Cover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America," Nov. 12 at the Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta.
That day on the subway platform, Barsky was at a crossroads. Two weeks earlier he had received orders from Russia to leave the U.S. and return home.
“Apparently, [the KGB was] spooked by somebody who could’ve betrayed us,” Barsky said.
Instead, he answered the call of his heart and decided to stay in New York City with his 18-month-old daughter and wife. So he fabricated a story he hoped would lead the Russians to disavow him. The spy told the KGB he had contracted AIDS.
After three months of looking over his shoulder, Barsky realized he was finally free of the KGB. “I said, ‘I’m going to live my life out as a middle-class father,’ which I did,” he recalled.
That was until the FBI nabbed him and, deciding he was no longer a threat to the U.S., turned him into an informant.
“I didn’t have any really solid secrets to give to the FBI, but what they were interested in (was) the training and the (KGB’s) methods of operation. That was pretty valuable,” Barsky said.
He also provided the FBI with the encryption algorithm he created to send coded messages.
Now a U.S. citizen, the 68-year-old former spy is good friends with the retired FBI special agent who arrested him.
“You can’t make this stuff up,” said Pam Morton, director of the book festival. “It’s a timely story with Russia constantly in the news.”
For years, Barsky lived a quiet middle-class life working as director of software development for the company that runs New York's power grid. But he lost his job after his past was revealed in a "60 Minutes" interview in 2015.
With his free time, Barsky started writing his memoir. Seeking a city that would be economically feasible for retirement, he moved to metro Atlanta in 2016 with his family, an 8-year-old daughter and his third wife, Shawna, who had friends living in the area.
Born Albrecht Dittrich in 1949, Barsky grew up in impoverished East Germany. He started college intending to become a chemistry professor. But the lure and excitement of working as a KGB agent eclipsed those plans. By the time he graduated, he had decided on a career with the KGB.
“It’s an opportunity that doesn’t come again. I could travel and do something better for the world. I was a believer in the communist cause. At 25 years old, I was full of myself. I thought I was above the law,” he recalled.
Perhaps that’s why Barsky married in the United States despite, having a wife and son back in East Germany.
Before arriving in the United States, Barsky spent five years training in field operation techniques, ranging from cryptography to surveillance detection to dead drop maneuvers for transferring money or documents. He also studied English language and American mannerisms.
In New York, Barsky was to obtain a library card, a driver’s license, a social security card and a passport.
“With the passport, I was supposed to move to a German-speaking country in Europe. The Russians would’ve set me up with a business and funnel a bunch of money into it,” Barsky said.
The plan was for him to return to New York as a millionaire and make contacts that would inevitably lead to Washington, D.C. The former spy believes the long-term goal was to connect with Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as National Security Advisor for President Jimmy Carter.
Barsky was able to get the first three documents, but not the passport. The application required information that could not be verified. So Barsky earned a bachelor’s degree in computer systems at Baruch College and landed a job at MetLife insurance company as a computer programmer. All the while, he decrypted radiograms from the Soviet Union and wrote secret letters with invisible ink that described the mood of the U.S. and contacts he cultivated. The Russians feared President Ronald Reagan and a nuclear missile attack, Barsky said.
Reflecting on his life, Barsky said his days as a spy gave him permission to be self-centered when it came to personal relationships. His two oldest children grew up without him in their lives. Now Barsky has established bonds with them. And the one-time atheist is now a Christian.
A most interesting self-revelation came when Barsky realized he is a natural extrovert.
“The American side of me was artificially introverted because I couldn’t get too close to too many people,” he said. “When I look back at my childhood and early adulthood, I was always a class clown. I was always a performer. I played the guitar at parties and sang. As you can see, now I am somewhat gregarious. So now I’m sort of back to normal.”
EVENT PREVIEW
Jack Barsky. Discussion of "Deep Under Cover: My Secret Live and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America." 10 a.m. Nov. 12. Free. Book Festival of The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. 678-812-4000, www.atlantajcc.org
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