This episode explores how the Baltic region became one of the Cold War’s first testing grounds.
Even during the Second World War, some Baltic nationalists collaborated with occupying German forces. After the war, an anti-Soviet armed underground movement known as the ‘Forest Brothers’ gained momentum in the region.
In 1947, the United States National Security Council adopted NSC 4-A, a secret document tasking the CIA with conducting covert subversive operations against the Soviet Union and its allies.
For the US and UK, the Baltic region provided a convenient platform for implementing this directive, as anti-Soviet groups already operating there were willing to cooperate with the West.
The Soviet Union responded swiftly. State security agencies launched large-scale counterintelligence operations that infiltrated Baltic underground networks, intercepted communication channels with the West, and exploited failed enemy operations to their advantage.
