my mom called me and said our dad passed away. she was weeping over the phone. i didn't understand my father was young. i said, what do you mean? our dad joseph passed away. i went to the class. i said josef stalin -- it was over the radio within a half an hour. everyone cried, it was such a shock. and what a shock it was. much worse in 1956 when khrushchev in his infamous secret speech at the party congress revealed the atrocities and brutality of josef stalin. for all of us, it was really short. the soviet system, we cannot build a paradise on earth on the bones of millions of people. that was the novel thing about my own system. and from that moment on -- of course, i came to the united states. i was a -- i finished intelligence school and everything else.

i came as a scholar. my first impressions of the united states were based on my education, upbringing. i came to times square, i was just totally revolted by the vulgarity. i thought, this is the united states. next day i went to bowery, new york poverty. i said, this is the country. a symbol of human -- future, no way. and i became even more dedicated communist than ever. later i would have a good career as a radio consultant. i recruited seven americans, one would have access to information that would make a historic film -- access to solid fuel for missiles.

the chemical corporation, you may have heard of that company. but that was years ago. later as a correspondent to radio moscow, i recruited someone who had no access to anything classified. at some point, he was a member of the united states communist party, but when stalin and hitler made a pact of friendship, he quit. i met his young son who worked at a nuclear lab for columbia university. he professed to be a socialist. i said, okay, why don't you write a piece for me about life of american students who have to work and study. he said okay. i thought good. when we met a week later, he came empty-handed. i said, what's wrong. he said, well, you're a soviet i'm an american. i said, what's wrong, you said you're a socialist, you're a fake. i said, i'm sorry. he walked away.

a week later i walk somewhere near columbia university campus. and i'm approached by a man in his late 40s or early 50s, i thought it was a p.i., he said, you are mr. kalugin. i said, yeah, what can i do for you. he said, listen don't touch my son. you tried to recruit my son. i said what are you talking about? i said, come on, leave me alone. i'll work with you. i said what do you mean? i will work for you, i know what you want. i said, okay, what can you do for us? i was young, inexperienced and later when i reported to moscow they said it was a fake, he was an fbi plant. i said, well, he looked sincere. he never had access to anything classified. but he was one of the most

trusted agents in my time. he would do a lot of things. he would travel out of the country as an american. he would establish contact with lost sources, but he had a more important mission. in case the war was imminent between the united states and the ussr, one of his missions was to blow up lines in washington, d.c., or new york area and poison water supplies. not to kill people. just to make people uneasy. simple things, but that was part of the mission. fortunately, thank god he never had to do that. but that was the old days, when we really thrived on ideology, when i -- one of the guys interesting to you, was a high schoolkid, a graduate.

and he was fingered by one of the old members one of the united states communist party. he said, why don't you meet this young man, he wants to become a member of the communist party, talk to him. i meet this young man. you want to become a member of the united states communist party? are you sure? he said oh, yeah. i said, okay, do you know that the communist party is totally infiltrated and controlled by the fbi? oh, no, come on, who said -- well, i know what i tell you. if you do really want to become a member, why don't you fill out the form, you know, application. give it to me, i'll pass it to moscow, they'll keep it in a safe, good place. and you'll be a secret member of the communist party. is that all right? that's great. he was a graduate of high school, but later would develop a good working relationship when he grew up. he became a mature man. i'm talking about these small things, they are important for

intelligence business. but let me tell you, khrushchev's speech delivered a mortal blow. when i came to washington as deputy chief of the kgb. and later acting chief of station, and we really felt pressures which would be later picked up by great president reagan. by the way, it was mr. gorbachev who called president kennedy a great president. that doesn't happen often, when a soviet leader would call an american president a great leader. well, anyway, i came to washington, and there were no ideological spies any more. illusions were all just destroyed.

and we were just capitalize on those who wanted to make money. i will just mention one case, because it may be interesting how you treat intelligence and what may happen. john walker was one of the guys i admired. he was a totally money-motivated guy, he was a volunteer, and we befriended him. he would work for the next 20 years, and recruited his son and brother. anyway, in 1968 i'm acting chief of kgb station in washington. and august 21st, i believe, the soviet troops are about to move into czechoslovakia to crush the you know, anti-socialist elements. and i receive a cable from moscow saying they informed the

ambassador -- at that time, for many years, 20 years or, so never became minister, because he was distressed with the united states -- so i come to ambassador to show him the cable that tomorrow the troops of the warsaw treaty will enter into czechoslovakia to crush the anti-soviet cia-sponsored revolt. well, that was really a moment. i have access to this information classified from all over the intelligence community of the united states. except j. edgar hoover kept the organization in good shape. but not in the fbi at that time. there was one attempt, but that was years before. so i give this cable to the ambassador, he reads it, look at me, i look at him. silence.

and then for the first time in my life, i say fools, the embassador's response, idiots. that's how we became friends. can you imagine, the acting chief of station of the kgb calls them fools and idiots. that did not prevent me from my career, because no one knew we were good friends. and well what happened on the way to success. when i became chief of foreign counter intelligence which is a major branch of the soviet kgb and remains for today we had 160 foreign assets, primary -- our job was penetration of world security organizations of the world, the cia, fbi, number one.

everyone else, well, in fact, let me tell you. as i mentioned in the united states, we had over 300 agents. i mean, total numbers, soviet sources. the next country was france, 160. the third country was india, 150. and the fourth was the united kingdom, over 50. some of the guys came to me and said, i supervise them, not in london, but moscow. i'm familiar, but that part of the work of treating former employees or officials of the foreign secret, keep them happy. some of them were not quite happy. some would drink a lot and commit suicide. so in moscow, i became chief of

counter foreign intelligence. and we managed to increase our agents -- i mean, sources, network to more than 500. two thirds of them were members of foreign intelligence and counter intelligence organizations. and radio-free europe. radio liberty. creations of the cia, we tried to penetrate and to redirect them and get some information from the inside. one of the chief of the russian section of radio liberty which also broadcast into eastern europe which would become a soviet agent. chief of the russian section of radio liberty. when i became a public figure at some point in my life, that guy was already in -- back in russia, because he was to be arrested. and he denounced me public as a

traitor. you were working for the kgb for so many years, i'm not surprised you call me a traitor. i worked more than you did. foreign counter intelligence. four major functions. penetration of foreign intelligence organizations. the penetration of all organizations, russian ukrainian, baltic states, wherever. one of the best penetrations we made at the time and it's still going on. the russian orthodox church. you must understand, the russian entrusted itself to the post soviet regime because they collaborated. i'll give you one simple example, because it will take too long.

many years later when i became a public figure, and i said, this russian church association. with the security and the kgb and i publicly called the moscow patriarch. his response was interesting. he invited me to dinner at his home and two of us, just a servant provide -- he would tell me, he said, listen i was an informer, that's correct. you know what, you're a young man. i tell you something. the russian orthodox church, after the communist revolution, one third had to immigrate, the other third were jailed and executed. the third, they had to adjust to realities, i had to survive, i had to -- and this is how we promote.

i'm just talking about that because in the old days, the soviet system was built on three pillars. number one, the communist party, kgb number two, and the industrial military complex number three. today there's a difference. on top of the state and everything stands the kgb. that never happened in the . the organization with the reputation of the kgb is now running the country. nearly 1,000 employees of the kremlin administration, including mr. putin himself, who was one of my subordinates, they are former kgb officers or informers. the 1,000 -- and what would you expect from the country which is of that kind of penetration? some of the guys would say

publically i was rather cautious in my public pronouncements. one of them died of poisoning in london, that was his personal attack. mr. putin, i'm talking about one man poisoned. another lady who raised her voice against the russians in chechnya. by the way, i was also against an intervention. let them go. where would they go? south to armenia? they would have to deal with russia anyway. stop that war. that was one of the major clashes with the current regime and no wonder, at some point called mr. putin a traitor. he will face -- like mr. milosevic would end as a war criminal because of what he did in kosovo. back to the old days, gorbachev when he came to power, he

revived and resurrected hopes in the development of russia on a different path. all before that, i suspect you're being a cia agent of influence. i'm proud it was released later on. i was recruited by the cia in 1958, i believe, that's correct. together with another guy. who was also, a student of world war ii veteran. he was also at colombia, we were recruited by the cia. and from that moment on, we would try to push them out of the way and provide free road to the cia. in that sense, and i'm going back to president reagan. played a tremendous role. he would never -- he would

when he -- i remember that so well, tear down that wall, mr. gorbachev. despite their friendly, open relationship he was really attached in a human way. was su some point he was too friendly with the united states, and would later be denounced gorbachev as a traitor. he's called sometimes a traitor. no one knows. but that's the thing which happened, but before gorbachev would fall in that category of traitors, when i spoke openly for reforms inside the kgb and my experience in the united states was not a waste of time,y you have to have several organizations dealing with security and intelligence. you cannot combine them in one fist because that one fist is a road to dictatorship. that's exactly what happened in russia, only kgb, no one else. the giu military intelligence

was all infested with kgb informants. and the defense department.they freely. we were in charge. well, in the united states these five different organizations and that was my idea. i offered it to these when i became vocal. i said, we have to split the kgb in two. i'm veryy that. it did happen. we now have -- russian intelligence service. fsb russian domestic. half a million all together, smaller organization. well, of course the -- an security agency. all these decoding foreign intelligence. i mean, all sorts of diplomatic traffic.

and, of course, border guards and security -- the presidential security service in the united states. but in the former ussr, it was overblown out of proportions, and i offered to make it squeeze out a -- i was called a traitor and charged with treason. i was stripped of my rank and decorations, i was summoned to the military prosecutor and a miracle happened on the day i tofs appear, i was registered to a candidate to the russian parliament and i obtained immunity from prosecution. from that moment on i would become more vocal and travel around the world, the united states and europe and say what

i'm saying to you now. that was years ago. in the end gorbachev was hated by the kgb. as y gbachev was hated, because he produced some of those liberal reforms. wand country without losing the, you know, great -- communist ideals. he did not understand what i said earlier, you cannot build a paradise on earth. and he wanted to change, but he would bump into great opposition from the military, the kgb. and, well, when i spoke openly about that, later on, after the august events of 1991, gorbachev came back to power fully reinstated,

happy. i was invited to the kremlin reception. by gorbachev personally, and he just apologized, shook my hand, and i was so happy, back to everything. i tell you honestly, i did not understand -- i did not realize that six weeks later, it would exist no more. he would emerge as the russian federation, all other republics ukraine, central asia, they all became independent. that was the beginning of the and i was really appalled. i did not really mean that. i thought, the more solidarity naturalists we have, whatever relief, that's good for -- well, for the whole world. and the solution of the soviet

system was in fact -- well, now, my former support whom i mentioned, mr. putin, work in intelligence one day. a major misconception primarily made by soviet propaganda. the only place it worked in dresden was germany. the russian can kgb and in dres but he came back to, where i was born, actually, in the same bloc, mr. putin and i. was he was accepted back to work. well, the reasons are generally known. i said, again, if you read the files, and the fact that he was poisoned, he revealed only, on the internet made it public. some of the ugly things from mr. putin's personal life.

i'm not going to say about that. that's after all not the point. what is the point that gorbachev when he emerged from and he made first time an opening to the west. and he found a common i mean a friend and probably kind of a mental or soul with president reagan. that was really something of a, well, of a great event in the history of the two countries, and probably worldwide. and i recall in the early 80s when president reagan publicly mentioned the so-called star war program. that's what it was called. the soviets were in dismay. this is a warmonger here. we have to do everything to get rid of him. well, as it turns out president reagan was practical. i mean really pragmatic guy who had his own ideas and who wanted

to finish with the system of -- whatever it waist russian system without a single shot. that's how margaret thatcher said that. the soviet system fell apart without a single shot. and president reagan played a tremendous role in bringing down the soviet system. well, as i mentioned earlier, there is a growing restoration of the soviets. i mean, not in the worst ways. system in current russia. and this is what you have to to bear in mind. the soviet intelligences have been revived. and as i said earlier about the three pillars of the old days, the three pillars are kgb as i said number one, russian church number two, russian business people who are willing to collaborate. if they do not they are in london like mr. berizovski, godfather of mr. putin by the way. well-known billionaire and i met

in washington one day years ago. and he told me how he picked up putin. he thought that he would be his kind of sort of a player and he would manipulate. but he was wrong. putin had his own pride and human dignity. and that would not work. well, another guy who would raise the voice was mr. hunter gobsky now in jail serving five or ten or seven. they always increase the number of years he's going to be in prison. another guy, mr. guzinski who established russian relatively independent television who now lives in israel. because well, that's the best way to effect. so russia is facing difficult problems. it's thanks to some people like mr. gorbachev and president reagan who did move things

forward and found a way to collaborate despite our ideological, national, ethnic differences. and that's why we are paying here great tribute to president reagan at his library. thank you. this weekend on the presidency on american history tv. >> i think that the fdr memorial, it wasn't just three redesigns. it was three-plus designs before they got to a final, a final plan. and so i think that we shouldn't be afraid of looking at this issue, because we are building something for the sentr centuri want to get it right. >> designed by frank gary opposed by the family, a house subcommittee discussed the

planned memorial to our 34th president. this weekend on c-span3. in a city whose public is dominateed by generals on einstein., this stands up, a even if it does stand 12 feet tall, weigh approximately four ton. he and robert berks, distinctive style, labeled him and give s n genium. he holds in his left hand, his significant theories. einstein had a wavering belief in tolerance, equality towards law and the duty of any troops

to reveal his finding no matter where they lead. the circular for the memorial features an astronomical map showing much of the universe as it appeared on the date of its dedication in april 1979 which also coincided with einstein's 100th birthday. 30 years later visitors of all ages are drawn to the iconic figure on the grounds of the national academy of science. children especially enjoy climbing into the lap of the scientific genius with the smile of a grandfather. >> the genetic scientist who finally, for the hiv epidemic starts describes tinderboxes and -- most parts of the world, there's not that much hiv, yet some some places, there's a ton, and it's incredibly destructive. understanding that these two

categories exist and allows you to think, okay. what are those factors that keep this virus moving and what can we do as a world to end it? >> on "afterwards," author tracking the history of aids sunday night at 9:00. part of a book tv weekend on c-span2. in march of 1979, c-span began televising the u.s. house of representatives to households nationwide, and today our content of politics and public affairs, nonfiction books and american history is available on tv, radio and online. >> when we put that force together to go to "desert storm" i viewed every one of those youngsters as somebody i had a personal responsibility for. i know that generschwarzkopf fee same way. we knew they were going into a dangerous conflict, perhaps and we wanted