ABSTRACT
Most of the world never heard of Vadim Fedorovich Goncharov, and he wanted it that way. Goncharov was not just a secret agent for the KGB, but he was also a gadget inventor. He was an expert in cryptology, communications interception, and optics. Wireless sound detection was a totally new technology. The gadget makers at the KGB got busy designing new objects that could hold The Thing. During the 1950s and 1960s, many people smoked cigarettes and ashtrays were in almost every living room and in many public lobbies. The spies would replace the normal ashtray with the KGB ashtray, making them able to listen to any conversation that happened in the room. Goncharov instructed KGB spies to place The Thing in rooms of Soviet hotels where Western visitors stayed. This gave the KGB access to conversations of anyone who visited from other countries.
