Editing Leon Theremin (section)

==Espionage==
[[File:Bugged-great-seal-open.jpg|thumb|right|[[Thing (listening device)|"The Thing"]]]]
During his work at the ''sharashka'', where he was put in charge of other workers, Theremin created the Buran eavesdropping system. A precursor to the modern [[laser microphone]], it worked by using a low-power infrared beam from a distance to detect sound vibrations in glass windows.<ref name="galeyev LMJ6"/><ref name="Glinsky 261">[[#G|Glinsky p.&nbsp;261]].</ref> [[Lavrentiy Beria]], the head of the secret police organization [[NKVD]] (the predecessor of the [[KGB]]), used the Buran device to spy on the British, French and US embassies in Moscow.<ref name="Glinsky 261"/> According to Galeyev, Beria also spied on Stalin; Theremin kept some of the tapes in his flat. In 1947, Theremin was awarded the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin prize]] for inventing this advance in Soviet espionage technology.

Theremin invented another listening device called [[The Thing (listening device)|The Thing]], hidden in a replica of the [[Great Seal of the United States]] carved in wood. In 1945, Soviet school children presented the concealed bug to the U.S. [[Ambassador]] as a "gesture of friendship" to the USSR's [[Allies of World War II|World War II ally]]. It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the [[Cold War]], until it was accidentally discovered in 1952.<ref>George F. Kennan, ''Memoirs, 1950–1963'', Volume II (Little, Brown & Co., 1972), pp. 155, 156.</ref><ref>
{{cite news
| first = Tim
| last = Harford
| title = The Cold War spy technology which we all use
| work = BBC News
| url = https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48859331
| date = 21 August 2019
| access-date = 17 February 2020}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
| title = The Thing Great Seal Bug
| publisher = Crypto Museum
| url = https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/thing/index.htm
| access-date = 17 February 2020}}</ref>