Eastern Bloc Agents in West Germany
Archaeology of Cold War Revisited with New Discovery of Soviet Spy Radio in Elsdorf-Heppendorf (Rhineland)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13014302 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Grünewald (0009-0005-9199-6548, corresponding author), Florian Schimikowski (Deutsches Museum) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 192-210 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-15 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2051-3429 • E-ISSN: 2051-3437 |
| Publisher | Equinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1558/jca.25281 |
| OpenAlex | W4394821552 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
This paper highlights how contemporary archaeology can contribute to our knowledge of contemporary history, in a case where written sources no longer exist and any surviving protagonists either will not or cannot divulge what they know. Its focus is on a Soviet spy radio from the last years of the Cold War which was discovered during a recent archaeological excavation in Germany’s Rhineland. The radio was probably produced in 1987 and was soon afterwards concealed in woodland, most likely by someone working for Soviet military intelligence, the GRU. The findspot is close to various Cold War military installations involving nuclear weapons, and the radio would have enabled the swift transmission of military information into the Eastern Bloc that would have been useful in the event of war. As rare archaeological evidence of espionage, the radio can also help us to understand continuities between the Cold War and the present time
Archaeological Research and Protection · European history and politics · German History and Society · History
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |