Jack Barsky

Jack Barsky was born as Albrecht Dittrich in 1949 in East Germany. He studied at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, and graduated summa cum laude with a master’s degree in chemistry. One year into his employment as assistant professor he was recruited by the KGB, and after five years of training in Berlin and Moscow he was sent to the United States as an undercover illegal agent.

Barsky pretended to be an American by birth and managed to successfully integrate into American society. After graduating as valedictorian from Baruch College with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration he embarked on a career in information technology. He spent 10 years working for MetLife as a programmer and technical specialist. Subsequently he had a highly successful career in management which took him all the way into the executive suite as CIO of a Fortune 500 company.

Ten years after his entry into the US Barsky severed his ties to the KGB, and nine years thereafter he was discovered and detained by the FBI. Having fully co-operated with US law enforcement, Barsky and his family were allowed to stay in the United States. He was awarded US citizenship in 2014. He started as a team lead and made it into the executive suite as a Chief Information Officer.

Barsky’s life story was featured in May of 2015 on CBS 60 Minutes. He was also featured on Japanese, French, German, Polish , Saudi Arabian and Turkish TV. His memoir “Deep Undercover” was released in 2017. It was translated into German, Polish and Swedish. The audio documentary “The Agent”, which is based on Barsky’s life, was released in 2021. In 2022 it received a Webby award for best production in its category.

Because of Barsky’s expertise in the realms of espionage, communism, the Soviet Union and Russia and their intelligence services he has become a sought-after contributor for cable television stations, such as CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, and FOX News. As a public speaker, he has given over 150 presentations about these topics as well as his life story in over half the US states and 6 foreign countries.