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Instead, writes Kessler, Polyakov accepted payment in the form of “Black & Decker power tools, fishing gear, and shotguns.” Instead, he insisted on being paid only $3,000 a year. The spy lived modestly and refused to accept large amounts of money for his work. Polyakov considered himself to be “a Russian patriot,” writes author Ronald Kessler. "He contrasted the horror, the carnage, the things he had fought for, against the duplicity and corruption he saw developing in Moscow," this source told TIME’s Elaine Shannon. One CIA officer who worked with Polyakov believed his motivation to help the Americans stemmed from his service in World War II. So he offered his services to the United States. Though Polyakov was fiercely loyal to the USSR, he was increasingly disgusted by what he saw as the corruption and impending failure of Soviet leaders. At the time, he was stationed at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations in New York. Until Polyakov offered himself to the CIA as a double agent, that is. The United States did the same thing with the USSR, but had a harder time because of the absolute secrecy that ruled Soviet intelligence. But as he rose through the ranks of the agency, following protocol and living a seemingly routine life, he began to work to undermine the USSR itself.Īt the time, the GRU had agents all around the world, and was tasked with learning everything possible about American life, priorities, and military assets. On the surface, he was a dutiful worker and a reliable GRU asset. He wasn’t the type of man anyone would peg as a spy-the son of a bookkeeper, he was an unassuming father who did carpentry projects in his spare time. After serving in World War II, he was recruited by the GRU, the USSR’s military intelligence agency. Polyakov was born in what is now Ukraine in 1921. on an IV drip of false tips and misinformation? And what happened to him after his sudden disappearance? But was Polyakov a double agent…or a triple one who kept the U.S.