A museum in New York claims to be the only collection focusing on the KGB’s espionage operations in the world. The newly opened exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to 3,500 original period objects, which the designer of the museum, Julius Urbaitis, has gathered after 30 years of research around the world.

Check them out for more information and start to see our world through photos!

A lipstick gun

The Kiss of Death was charged with a 4.5mm cartridge and designed to deliver one fatal shot

A shoe brush with concealed camera and shoes

The collection also includes subminiature cameras, concealable cameras and copy cameras. Agents in the field took photos of documents, passports, stamps, people, places, inventions, military installations, aircraft fields and nuclear weapons

A miniature wire recorder

The KGB used recording devices to covertly record conversations, tap telephone lines, bug rooms and collect incriminating evidence from suspects or enemies

A reconstructed KGB office

An Oriol spy radio set

The suitcase radio was designed to be small enough to be transported into the field and operated covertly. Almost every suitcase rig operated on the high-frequency bands between 3MHz and 30MHz. All KGB equipment was also constructed for use on the shortwave band

A Fialka cipher machine

Like the Enigma machine used by German armed forces during the second world war, this used electromechanical cipher wheels to scramble the letters typed on to a keyboard

Protection from eavesdropping

Special telephones used in the Soviet Union could guarantee confidential connections

Identity papers on display at the museum

A KGB prison door

Visitors can watch a video of a typical day in prison through the hatch and see KGB interrogation techniques first-hand

KGB responsibilities

These included the protection of the country’s political leadership, the supervision of border troops, and the general surveillance of the population. The KGB was also in charge of gathering intelligence in other countries, conducting counterintelligence, maintaining the secret police, suppressing internal resistance and conducting electronic espionage