ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Concealment DevicesConcealed weapons that fell into western hands through the defection of Russian Intelligence Captain Nikolai E. Khokhlov in 1954 included cases of cigarettesthat fired hollowpoint bullets and miniature pistols that fired while making a sound less than the snap of a finger. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.items. When West German operatives of the counterintelligenceservice BfV apprehended one East German spy,they found in his apartment a decorative wooden carvingof an elk. Inside the base, however, was a compartment forholding a Minox camera, a favorite piece of photographicequipment on both sides of the iron curtain.One reason for the Minox’s popularity was its size andshape, which was oblong and flat, and therefore made foreasy concealment. Another East German favorite was amen’s clothing brush or shoe brush, which could easilyhold a Minox in the handle. Locking pins kept the compartmentfrom opening when the operative was using thebrush for its intended purpose, as he would most certainlyhave done so as not to arouse suspicion.A particularly inventive East German device madeuse of a portable chessboard whose surface had socketsto secure the playing pieces. One of the 64 sockets, when apaper clip was inserted into it, opened the back of thechessboard to reveal a microdot camera. The chessboard—which, like many of these items, was probably one of akind, created in a special East German workshop for espionageequipment. Security of intelligence operations requiredthat no device become standard equipment; if oneoperative were detected, this could potentially blow thecover of other comrades using a similar item.Film and other items. Cylindrical objects make a logicalhiding place for rolls of film, and agencies of the Communistworld used a number of such objects. One was a D-sized battery, about as large as a typical photographic filmcanister. So as to avoid suspicions arising from a nonworkingbattery, inside the fake one was a much smallerbattery, about the size of an AA, which provided voltage.This left the remainder of the inner compartment free toconceal any item small enough to fit.For the same reason that the fake battery was made towork like a real one, a shaving-cream can device used byWestern intelligence contained a small amount of shavingcream, with the remainder of the compartment set aside266 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security