The Secret History of KGB Spy Cameras: 1945-1995

The Secret History of KGB Spy Cameras: 1945-1995, published by Schiffer Publishing in 2018, traces the development and field use of Soviet subminiature cameras built for espionage. It was written by intelligence historian H. Keith Melton together with Lt. Col. Vladimir Alekseenko, a career KGB technical intelligence officer who worked in Soviet stations across Europe and the United States. Alekseenko provided operational and technical support, including protection against eavesdropping on Soviet missions, and camera collectors Michael M. Hasco and Detlev Vreisleben contributed additional material.

Across 192 pages and more than 400 photographs, the book covers over ninety camera systems used by the KGB and, to a lesser extent, the GRU. These were used for copying documents, conducting surveillance, and compromising targets. A glossary at the end catalogues KGB and GRU photographic and optical systems and equipment terminology. Alekseenko died of cancer as the book was being completed, so the account draws on the direct testimony of an officer who used this equipment operationally.

Melton is an intelligence historian and a founding board member of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. He has written extensively on clandestine technology and Cold War tradecraft, and the same author team followed this book with a companion volume on Stasi spy cameras.