Constitutions and bills of rights. Exactly and exactly. That is what makes this country GREAT. NOT baseball or football guys. You can ask that questions to all immigrants and especially the educated ones. Fascinating story this guy has.
The constitution and bill of rights is what made the collective in this country complacent for so long. When you think about it the Constitution and bill of rights is the gift that keeps on giving to our parasitic leaders all because "no one would ever bypass that important paperwork written 200 years ago!" Also theirs a guy named Patrick Henry that talks about his concerns about a newly proposed formed of government which would eventually be implemented in 1789... Oh and those concerns created a situation where a significant portion of the population was strongly opposed to this newly formed government and as this government often does they put in a place holder to put the public at ease (the constitution) with our newly centralized form of government and more importantly centralized form of power over the people.
I just finished his book and I could not put it down. I couldn't SLEEP until the book was finished. I highly recommend it. I read tons of autobiographies and biographies, but this one really stood out as a story that is just not typical of this world, as only a former KGB spy could tell it. He reveals everything and nothing. You feel his heart beating, yet he does not share many words from the reports on which he worked so hard. Then again, if he had relinquished those reports in his book, it would not have been such a passionate read. One day, I am sure I shall read it once again. I still, however, feel badly for Gerlinde, the woman he loved but ultimately left behind for his life in America. She received his pay, exotic trinkets and after his fake "death" from AIDS, the $60,000 he had in his account, and his son. However, all she wanted was his love and his time and in the end, she's the one with the broken heart.
His accent is very slight , but he could probably pass as being Dutch Pennsylvanian or something. Yes there are places in the US german is still spoken.
That's what I as a german will never understand about Americans. The crazy amount of actual feelings you have for the symbols of your nation, eg. the constitution, the flag or the anthem. It's so absurd, but also fascinating. It clearly has to do with the historical background that we have, but I couldn't be further away from shedding tears if some foreigner praised the constitution of Germany.
There is so much content about him, i just can't fathom the idea that nothing is even planned. So many books, so many podcasts, so many talkshows (both german and english) WE NEED A DAMN MOVIE
Yes, and I was trained to look for exits, and people who won't make eye contact etc.. Covid freaked me out. Everywhere we went were masks. Scary to me. I would love to pick Jack's brain. He is not to far from me now. Lol.
the part where the American Intelligence officer and jack barsky start talking about a situation they both knew about and had different perspective of is crazy. Even Barksy is surprised when the American intelligence officer starts to explain his knowledge of the situation.
In 1981 I climbed some wooden stairs to a public platform which looked over the Berlin Wall into East Berlin. The “green belt” just over the wall was barren ground covered with barbed wire, ditches, etc. Then the street running parallel to the wall was completely empty. Then every building across the street was boarded up so that no one could live or work there. There was nothing of color whatsoever. No people. No advertisements. No curtains or shutters. No painted front doors. No business signs. No tree or flowers or grass or even weeds. No street names. As far as I could see it was completely devoid of humanity. Except for the East German soldiers standing watch over their fellow citizens from their crows nest, one with a 35mm camera with huge telephoto lens. All the others held rifles at ready with their fingers near the trigger.
I emigrated to the US at 13 with my parents from Uruguay, I knew extremely basic English with okay pronunciation when I arrived, within a year and a half I learned to speak fluently because of being in contact with the language all the time, and also TV and music (I already listened to music in English since I was around 7), was "upgraded" from ESL (English as a second language) to regular classes in English in freshman year because I learned really fast, I was congratulated by many teachers because I "didn't have an accent", some people are just fast learners when it comes to languages, and English is a pretty easy language to learn and pick up, especially with its mass exposition.
MoonOvIce I find it funny how Americans find others accents in english funny and weird even though their accents are not native even and funnier than some others
My dad cane to California from Puerto Rico when he was 14, he only knew the words "Chicken" and "Fork". He's totally fluent in English now without an accent. I even know Spanish because he taught me. Real cool Spanish from the island ^^
His English is great, far better than my German or Russian, but to claim that he has no accent, you'd have to be near deaf, or an extremely careless listener. It's not just a few words here or there, it's almost everything being slightly off. He sounds like a German who was really committed to learning English, which he was, and major props to him, but you can't pass that off as a flawless American accent, and even his backstory doesn't really justify it. I know a lot of Americans who spoke a language other than English at home, but they speak English with an American accent, because you don't pick up your accent from your parents, you get it from your peers. My dad has a very thick southern accent, but I grew up all over the place because he was in the army, and my accent just kind of turned out like an amalgam of the most reduced accents possible in American English to the point that northerners only occasionally think I have a slight southern accent, and Southerners think I have a slight northern accent, or maybe I'm from out west. Anyway, my point is saying that you picked up a slight but easily noticable accent because you spoke German with your mom is not exactly believable. Regardless, I just got on Amazon, and bought the book, so excited! This is a badass guy!
I am a native German speaker and I hear his German accent very clearly. I am not an intelligence officer though, 😁 but I would have sniffed him out in less than three minutes. There is more than just an accent. His sentence structure is still not entirely authentically English, his choice of words resonated German. German is very logic, a language of grammar, wheras English is a language of words. Barsky speaks a very logic, but almost sparse English. And then there is his demeanour, his stiffnes, his lack of a natural self-confidence which is so common in Americans. Characterwise, you clearly see an American sitting on the left and a German sitting on the right and you could make them out even if they were both speaking Russing with each other.
I never realised how similar East Germany was to the UK. The Cambridge Five: mostly sent away to boarding school, joined the KGB. Jack Barsky: sent away to boarding school, joined the KGB. Actually, I know somebody who went to a boarding school in the former East Germany... Dun-dun-duuuuuun!
I went into East Germany within months of wall coming down. My initial reaction was everything is a shade of gray. I kept looking for color. I also was shocked at empty shelves in stores. Jack and I both reacted to same thing.
@13:00 I went to East Berlin as a sophomore exchange student, everything in East Berlin was grey, dreary and lifeless. Back in West Berlin we danced and partied at discos until morning.
20:23 In another interview, I think he even gave it in German, he said that he was almost captured once because he wanted to apply for something or to apply for a job, I don't remember what it was, and he should give the name of his high school or his middle school. And he didn't know the answer to that because the KGB supposedly hadn't given him a name for his schools, where he should have been. Here he tells a different story. So I don't know what to believe him now and what not.
I would like to here him speak about the 60 million plus Russian, Ukrainian, and other various peoples who were slaughtered by stalin, trotsky, and the other butcher that America politicians and the west just looked the other way while tens of millions were being slaughtered.
Dang, no need to flatter the guy! Barsky does speak with a pronounced German accent. His story is fascinating enough without fawning all over him, Mr. Moderator.
@@tomk.ink.8373 It's a micro expression... Usually, when individuals; mainly men but also seen in women, are covering their genitals its usually taken as a defensive motion. As in he's always on edge and feels vulnerable and is uncomfortable, or he has acquired the clap.
@@dakota2842 u have hrd someone on this matter now ur expressing it as if u know about it. Listen, although there is truth in ur statement to a degree u clearly know nothing about it. A base must always be assertained over a period of time before a micro exspression can be accredited to an intention of behaviour. You see him here in one setting only there could be 101 reasons he is doin it in this video. Until you get a base on his mannerisms and behviour in certain situations then u cannot assume u know why he is doin anything. Peace.
One cannot hold three flags. He knew the difference from right and wrong and was clearly loyal to the KGB for 10 years! Clearly an opportunist and a dubious character at best
For god sake he was trained to be a deep cover spy...Of course you are going to be dubious and opportunist... Without these two characteristics you won't survive long in deep cover for very long especially in a foreign country.
Wouldn’t that have to be the case for anyone who chose a lifetime of living a lie? Enjoying fooling people says bad things about one’s character. And, he certainly has a trace of German accent. Occasionally I will hear a resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger
23:06 By the way, very interesting, because many think the series the Americans is not realistic, they don't spend their passports there either and I asked myself why they don't. They just buried the passports in a very remote place. And now I hear here and have heard elsewhere that passports cannot be burned. Well, the series is just brilliant and extremely realistic, of course they do a lot of things that are a bit exaggerated, but what they do is extremely realistic, I think he also said himself
23:14 Well, I've lived in West Germany for 38 years, and so have my parents and grandparents, and not once have I heard that we in Germany have beers with a screw cap. I first saw the American sitcoms that there was such a thing. This is now here, I think, but definitely not in the 90s or 80s or before.
He does have a German accent. It isn't thick, but it's there. Listen to 21:56 , 21:16 on the "try" very noticeable, 26:27 on the "what" German through and through. If German-born speakers met him on the street, in a matter of minutes would they notice he is from Germany. I came to America when I was a four year old, still have a slight accent.
He also missed a couple of idioms/cliches. The one I remember is in the tale about teaching English to the fellow from Hong Kong. Mr Barsky says "I took him under my wingS [emphasis added]"
Nadine I 100% agree. It feels like the interviewer & Barsky are both trying to pull a joke on the audience-gaslighting? I kept expecting Barsky to jump up and say, “Just kidding! My accent is definitely ESL.” This could have been a demonstration of how easy it is to convince people that what they are hearing is not actually what they are hearing. Because both the interviewer & Barsky speak about his language prowess as being practically heroic, how many listeners believe that he does not have an accent? Scary.
To my ears Barsky has a very definite foreign accent. There's no way that I'd accept that he was born in the USA and that English is his mother's tongue. No way at all.
Dude sounds and acts like he’s Central/Eastern European. Just a seriousness and look to him that seems not quite American, plus an accent that is no way New York. If I met him cold I’d ask where he was from. No way I’d peg him as native born and raised American
39:36 The Americans is definitely a great show, but what I missed are the little things. How did they get the different cars, how did they get the different license plates, how was it discovered that this person could possibly have useful information? How did they get their weapons, whigs, and so on and so forth. In the series Patriot it is much better portrayed, the everyday life of a secret service employee who has to travel abroad (it is on Amazon Prime) and there are shown in great detail How to get weapons, how to get documents, and so on, very detailed and more detailed than "The Americans" . Both series are extremely recommendable!
@@RWBHere As I said at the beginning of my comment, it is or is great broadcasts. Of course not everything is shown, but what was shown should supposedly be extremely realistic, and there are also a lot of video clips on UA-cam, Hollywood Insider or whatever they are called, who then invite experts to watch Hollywood films, which we then also evaluate realistically who are the movies. And I wouldn't say that is still true today. Have a look at the film the report, it is about the CIA's advanced methods that they have developed to torture the people like in Guantanamo Bay. And it is also shown very drastically and also shown what is happening, and that's exactly how it happened.
34:23 I believe that he will never return to Russia or even close to it in his life. I know that he has now been back to Germany because he gave interviews in Germany, which I find amazing, although of course quite a few Decades ago. I can imagine that the KGB or the FSB is still out to take revenge for not keeping to the order at the time.
At 49:48 Jack Barsky explains being overwhelmed by material wealth and goes on to explain his feelings in detail, which I found fascinating for the reason that follows: I visited the Soviet Union at the period of Peristroika and Gorbachev etc., I went there to try to get to obtain diamond dust, which was a waste by product of diamond polishing for a friend of mine who funded my journey there because he was a diamond merchant in Antwerp and had a market for it. I made a stopover in Moscow and was invited to a dinner hosted by a doctor and his wife, and a group of their friends including two ballerinas and a dentist The dinner conversation was in French, mostly. The wife, from what I understood was a physiotherapist and during the dinner proceeded to tell me how she was able to make a fleeting visit to the west via Warsaw connected to a sporting event and how in Warsaw itself she was overwhelmed (incredible to me) by what she saw as apparently freely available luxuries and how on her return could not get to sleep for several nights thinking of what she had seen. And then she made a very curious statement that although all of it made a deep impression on her at the same time she found herself hating and despising herself for having such feelings. I did the prudent thing and did not pursue the matter with her and always wondered why she felt so confused. Now at last after many years the solution to this ( essentially communist) riddle is provided. Many thanks. I now understand at last.
So he was told to leave on 1988. Got caught ten years later let’s say 1998. And we found out about him now. Seems to me there’s about a decade missing. Was he in prison?
Putin was the head of the Federal Security Services which was the successor of the KGB, the equivalent of our CIA. In his younger years he was a LtCol in the former KGB.
It's hard to imagine that he was ever a KGB agent, Hollywood always makes Russian spies look like heavy vodka drinking muscle heads with thick Russian accents, Jack Barsky is very articulate & likable.
You’re impression comes from movies but isn’t accurate...some are extremely smooth, cultured, artistically dressed, fluent with typical generational idiomatic usage, and very well educated.
Good story. And his English is excellent. But his mannerisms and accent scream “Central/Eastern European”. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I remember somewhere else he said his backstory was his mother spoke German at home. Because he does not sound or act like a born and raised American.
Seems like a super cool guy and I’m just starting debate that’s probably false. But what if he’s still part of the KGB and is using all of this as a master coverup?
This is so awesome, this is proof that you don't have to be born as a native English to speak native English. if you're a former KGB guy of course. but it's possible, you can speak like them, seem like them, kick some ass and they don't even know.
He has a German "R" still because if you do not learn hard R while a child it is almost impossible to do as adult but you can pass that as a speech impediment!
What means: "the longest-surviving known member of the KGB" in the description? English is not my first language, so... i think there are others, like President Vladimir Putin... what i understand wrong? Please help me... thank you
Adrian the others did not survive - Others either died or were returned to USSR in exchange for one of ours the Russians were holding; held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow and tortured for information. Barsky was undercover for nearly 10 years. Able was next longest Russian spy who worked for CIA! It was a huge win for US to finally nab him but it took a lot to collect evidence against him to take him in with prison time for life ( he died in prison I think). It was shocking that he hid in CIA and photographed top secret documents without being suspected.
Adrian KGB ‘illegals’ when we say illegals these are the people who are given false identification and cover story and are sent in to a target country to pretend that they are a citizen of it and slowly work themselves up in organizations that they can gather information on then report it back to their bosses.
@13:29 Barsky’s English: fluent, yes; ESL, distinctly; native, ‘fraid not. What an odd premise to assert in the context of interviewing a spy whose accent is clearly identifiable as ESL. At first, I thought he was ribbing Barsky about his accent!
Constitutions and bills of rights. Exactly and exactly. That is what makes this country GREAT. NOT baseball or football guys. You can ask that questions to all immigrants and especially the educated ones. Fascinating story this guy has.
Half a million Americans every year are bankrupted due to medical bills - 'great'...dear god...
The constitution and bill of rights is what made the collective in this country complacent for so long.
When you think about it the Constitution and bill of rights is the gift that keeps on giving to our parasitic leaders all because "no one would ever bypass that important paperwork written 200 years ago!"
Also theirs a guy named Patrick Henry that talks about his concerns about a newly proposed formed of government which would eventually be implemented in 1789...
Oh and those concerns created a situation where a significant portion of the population was strongly opposed to this newly formed government and as this government often does they put in a place holder to put the public at ease (the constitution) with our newly centralized form of government and more importantly centralized form of power over the people.
I could listen to this guy talk all day. Fascinating. And he's super sharp.
👍same..
same!
Yesss
Hear his book on Audible, has a lot of interviews in UA-cam.
UA-cam channel valuetainment interviewed Jack.
Thank you for mentioning how important and wonderful our United States Constitution is!! I agree!
I just finished his book and I could not put it down. I couldn't SLEEP until the book was finished. I highly recommend it. I read tons of autobiographies and biographies, but this one really stood out as a story that is just not typical of this world, as only a former KGB spy could tell it. He reveals everything and nothing. You feel his heart beating, yet he does not share many words from the reports on which he worked so hard. Then again, if he had relinquished those reports in his book, it would not have been such a passionate read. One day, I am sure I shall read it once again. I still, however, feel badly for Gerlinde, the woman he loved but ultimately left behind for his life in America. She received his pay, exotic trinkets and after his fake "death" from AIDS, the $60,000 he had in his account, and his son. However, all she wanted was his love and his time and in the end, she's the one with the broken heart.
The art of not telling the complete story..ahha
Aa
instablaster...
Agree, heard all 7 hours on 2x speed on Audible.
Eva’s Ivy May I ask? What do you mean by, “He reveals everything and nothing”?
His accent is very slight , but he could probably pass as being Dutch Pennsylvanian or something. Yes there are places in the US german is still spoken.
I feel like since he was living in New York most people took his accent as being that of a New Yorker. It's in there.
From Cincinnati, yes there's plenty of German familes here still. I grew up with several friends from Western Germany, one from the East.
I almost cried when he said that the best part about America was its constitution. 41:56
Time?
41:56
Tysm
That's what I as a german will never understand about Americans. The crazy amount of actual feelings you have for the symbols of your nation, eg. the constitution, the flag or the anthem. It's so absurd, but also fascinating. It clearly has to do with the historical background that we have, but I couldn't be further away from shedding tears if some foreigner praised the constitution of Germany.
The constitution doesn’t mean shit anymore. Too many brainwashed idiots like yourself who think it does. You’re all the propaganda-makers wet dream.
There needs to be a film on this guy
Average Commenter noted
A movie!
There is so much content about him, i just can't fathom the idea that nothing is even planned. So many books, so many podcasts, so many talkshows (both german and english) WE NEED A DAMN MOVIE
@@domi3821 He's working on one. I speak with him daily.
@@jackt.2516 can you confirm that?
The way he constantly scans the room. awesome.
Dakota Ellsworth old habits die hard lol
My husband wasn't a spy but he was a sniper in the USAF, he scans rooms all the time when there is over 10 people. I love how observing Jack is.
@@vivek-zo2yy lmao 🤣 scanning means (throughly) quickly looking every single area in the room.
And such obvious concentration
Yes, and I was trained to look for exits, and people who won't make eye contact etc.. Covid freaked me out. Everywhere we went were masks. Scary to me. I would love to pick Jack's brain. He is not to far from me now. Lol.
the part where the American Intelligence officer and jack barsky start talking about a situation they both knew about and had different perspective of is crazy. Even Barksy is surprised when the American intelligence officer starts to explain his knowledge of the situation.
He choosed the good side!
Really cool story!!
Thanks for showing it!
neither is a good side
Jack's natural self had played a very important roll in every situation of his life.
I myself had a cat who was brought out of east Germany. That cat is still alive today!
In 1981 I climbed some wooden stairs to a public platform which looked over the Berlin Wall into East Berlin. The “green belt” just over the wall was barren ground covered with barbed wire, ditches, etc. Then the street running parallel to the wall was completely empty. Then every building across the street was boarded up so that no one could live or work there. There was nothing of color whatsoever. No people. No advertisements. No curtains or shutters. No painted front doors. No business signs. No tree or flowers or grass or even weeds. No street names. As far as I could see it was completely devoid of humanity. Except for the East German soldiers standing watch over their fellow citizens from their crows nest, one with a 35mm camera with huge telephoto lens. All the others held rifles at ready with their fingers near the trigger.
I emigrated to the US at 13 with my parents from Uruguay, I knew extremely basic English with okay pronunciation when I arrived, within a year and a half I learned to speak fluently because of being in contact with the language all the time, and also TV and music (I already listened to music in English since I was around 7), was "upgraded" from ESL (English as a second language) to regular classes in English in freshman year because I learned really fast, I was congratulated by many teachers because I "didn't have an accent", some people are just fast learners when it comes to languages, and English is a pretty easy language to learn and pick up, especially with its mass exposition.
MoonOvIce people who love music absorb other languages easier, since they hear the right linguistic intonations. You lucky.
MoonOvIce I find it funny how Americans find others accents in english funny and weird even though their accents are not native even and funnier than some others
hello there when your in their land they dound funny when they are in yours, you sound funny. Like how all those Canadians sound so damn weird.
Wow very proud of you, the same thing happen to my gf, and she is constantly asking me about her accent.
My dad cane to California from Puerto Rico when he was 14, he only knew the words "Chicken" and "Fork". He's totally fluent in English now without an accent. I even know Spanish because he taught me. Real cool Spanish from the island ^^
The Americans tv series was fantastic! And thanks for posting
Very nice !
The way he Chuckled when you said “he didn’t kill a bunch of people” lmaooo boi I’m rolllin 😂😂🤣
JACK IS A WHOLE CARRER
LIFETIME HARDEN SAVAGE!
That killer stare pierced right through my soul 9:33
His English is great, far better than my German or Russian, but to claim that he has no accent, you'd have to be near deaf, or an extremely careless listener. It's not just a few words here or there, it's almost everything being slightly off. He sounds like a German who was really committed to learning English, which he was, and major props to him, but you can't pass that off as a flawless American accent, and even his backstory doesn't really justify it. I know a lot of Americans who spoke a language other than English at home, but they speak English with an American accent, because you don't pick up your accent from your parents, you get it from your peers. My dad has a very thick southern accent, but I grew up all over the place because he was in the army, and my accent just kind of turned out like an amalgam of the most reduced accents possible in American English to the point that northerners only occasionally think I have a slight southern accent, and Southerners think I have a slight northern accent, or maybe I'm from out west. Anyway, my point is saying that you picked up a slight but easily noticable accent because you spoke German with your mom is not exactly believable. Regardless, I just got on Amazon, and bought the book, so excited! This is a badass guy!
I think they gave him a background of having a German mother and speakinh German at his home to justify his accent.
I am a native German speaker and I hear his German accent very clearly. I am not an intelligence officer though, 😁 but I would have sniffed him out in less than three minutes. There is more than just an accent. His sentence structure is still not entirely authentically English, his choice of words resonated German. German is very logic, a language of grammar, wheras English is a language of words. Barsky speaks a very logic, but almost sparse English. And then there is his demeanour, his stiffnes, his lack of a natural self-confidence which is so common in Americans. Characterwise, you clearly see an American sitting on the left and a German sitting on the right and you could make them out even if they were both speaking Russing with each other.
sounds russian to me. lol. Not too bad tho...
-in the beginning he used forced instead of coerced. Nothing else stuck out.
I never realised how similar East Germany was to the UK. The Cambridge Five: mostly sent away to boarding school, joined the KGB. Jack Barsky: sent away to boarding school, joined the KGB. Actually, I know somebody who went to a boarding school in the former East Germany... Dun-dun-duuuuuun!
Many middle upper and upper class kids were and still are sent to boarding school in the UK. Very common.
I went into East Germany within months of wall coming down. My initial reaction was everything is a shade of gray. I kept looking for color. I also was shocked at empty shelves in stores. Jack and I both reacted to same thing.
Jack is a good friend and a brother in Christ. You rock, Jack.
@13:00 I went to East Berlin as a sophomore exchange student, everything in East Berlin was grey, dreary and lifeless. Back in West Berlin we danced and partied at discos until morning.
Great channel:interesting times for sure, thanks for posting
Liam Neeson vibes, anyone?
傷みPain that’s what I was thinking off! I knew there was something about him!
Yeah, I agree.
No no no neesom sucks anyone cruise hanks even freeman yes the black one could do better job
Or maybe Neeson picked up things from this man
This guy is what Liam Neeson wishes he was.
Mr Brasky is fully switched on even now. Maintain safe distance.
Wow, this was an amazing video!
The book was absolutely amazing!!!
It is the most fascinating story that I have ever heard.
20:23 In another interview, I think he even gave it in German, he said that he was almost captured once because he wanted to apply for something or to apply for a job, I don't remember what it was, and he should give the name of his high school or his middle school.
And he didn't know the answer to that because the KGB supposedly hadn't given him a name for his schools, where he should have been.
Here he tells a different story. So I don't know what to believe him now and what not.
this is a great podcast!
I would like to here him speak about the 60 million plus Russian, Ukrainian, and other various peoples who were slaughtered by stalin, trotsky, and the other butcher that America politicians and the west just looked the other way while tens of millions were being slaughtered.
Dang, no need to flatter the guy! Barsky does speak with a pronounced German accent. His story is fascinating enough without fawning all over him, Mr. Moderator.
After about 6 years of age, one adopts the accent of the environment one has brought up in
The interviewer's shadow looks like Stan Beeman
Interesting body language as he holds onto the fold in his lap in his lap.
Pozthinker Pozthinker can you explain better?
@@tomk.ink.8373 It's a micro expression... Usually, when individuals; mainly men but also seen in women, are covering their genitals its usually taken as a defensive motion. As in he's always on edge and feels vulnerable and is uncomfortable, or he has acquired the clap.
He actually was holding on to his belt.
maybe he had to pee real bad
@@dakota2842 u have hrd someone on this matter now ur expressing it as if u know about it. Listen, although there is truth in ur statement to a degree u clearly know nothing about it. A base must always be assertained over a period of time before a micro exspression can be accredited to an intention of behaviour. You see him here in one setting only there could be 101 reasons he is doin it in this video. Until you get a base on his mannerisms and behviour in certain situations then u cannot assume u know why he is doin anything. Peace.
51:00 the beer question at the end got the spy real bad- holy shit
35:19 "Your Story Shifts Pretty Dramatically...." NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why must you leave me hanging computer!
love this guy. very real down to earth.
He still does have a slight foreign accent. For example the "what" at 26:27. Impressive nonetheless
Yes. If you listen closely, the vowels are a bit off.
This is common in New York for people his age. It is the immigrant influence on NYC English.
One cannot hold three flags. He knew the difference from right and wrong and was clearly loyal to the KGB for 10 years! Clearly an opportunist and a dubious character at best
For god sake he was trained to be a deep cover spy...Of course you are going to be dubious and opportunist... Without these two characteristics you won't survive long in deep cover for very long especially in a foreign country.
Wouldn’t that have to be the case for anyone who chose a lifetime of living a lie? Enjoying fooling people says bad things about one’s character. And, he certainly has a trace of German accent. Occasionally I will hear a resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger
The intelligence of this man is exquisite.
All the former kgb ones have been turned into museum peices... Nice one
26:48 A Future Government Agent was probably in that crowd. (I wonder if any other undercover agents were there.)
I've always thought he was Russian, not German. He looks as Russian as a man can look.
He said he's got Czech and Polish background, hence the Slavic look.
He looks like Russian
23:06 By the way, very interesting, because many think the series the Americans is not realistic, they don't spend their passports there either and I asked myself why they don't. They just buried the passports in a very remote place. And now I hear here and have heard elsewhere that passports cannot be burned. Well, the series is just brilliant and extremely realistic, of course they do a lot of things that are a bit exaggerated, but what they do is extremely realistic, I think he also said himself
Never thought to look up a UA-cam channel... I’ve missed a lot by just listening to the audio show.
23:14 Well, I've lived in West Germany for 38 years, and so have my parents and grandparents, and not once have I heard that we in Germany have beers with a screw cap. I first saw the American sitcoms that there was such a thing. This is now here, I think, but definitely not in the 90s or 80s or before.
He does have a German accent. It isn't thick, but it's there. Listen to 21:56 , 21:16 on the "try" very noticeable, 26:27 on the "what" German through and through. If German-born speakers met him on the street, in a matter of minutes would they notice he is from Germany. I came to America when I was a four year old, still have a slight accent.
He also missed a couple of idioms/cliches. The one I remember is in the tale about teaching English to the fellow from Hong Kong. Mr Barsky says "I took him under my wingS [emphasis added]"
@@professorsogol5824 Good observation.
Nadine I 100% agree. It feels like the interviewer & Barsky are both trying to pull a joke on the audience-gaslighting? I kept expecting Barsky to jump up and say, “Just kidding! My accent is definitely ESL.” This could have been a demonstration of how easy it is to convince people that what they are hearing is not actually what they are hearing. Because both the interviewer & Barsky speak about his language prowess as being practically heroic, how many listeners believe that he does not have an accent? Scary.
That 'try' is definitely in the same league as 'zwei'
To my ears Barsky has a very definite foreign accent. There's no way that I'd accept that he was born in the USA and that English is his mother's tongue. No way at all.
The US being the country it was had lot of immigrants even then so it wasn't that hard to believe
He may have a slight speech impediment
Certain words he pronounce I can depict German ever so slightly.
Dude sounds and acts like he’s Central/Eastern European. Just a seriousness and look to him that seems not quite American, plus an accent that is no way New York. If I met him cold I’d ask where he was from. No way I’d peg him as native born and raised American
Certainly sounds like a German accent to me. I was also suspicious of the beer bottle cap anecdote as well.
DAMN WE HAVE A FORMER KGB OPERATIVE IN MY CITY OF ATLANTA
!!!!!!!!
What a beautiful soul.
God that bottle story, "only funny in hindsight," that's so real
39:36 The Americans is definitely a great show, but what I missed are the little things.
How did they get the different cars, how did they get the different license plates, how was it discovered that this person could possibly have useful information?
How did they get their weapons, whigs, and so on and so forth.
In the series Patriot it is much better portrayed, the everyday life of a secret service employee who has to travel abroad (it is on Amazon Prime) and there are shown in great detail
How to get weapons, how to get documents, and so on, very detailed and more detailed than "The Americans" .
Both series are extremely recommendable!
Don't forget that we are usually only told (or allowed to discover) what people want us to know, whether it be a truth or a lie.
@@RWBHere As I said at the beginning of my comment, it is or is great broadcasts. Of course not everything is shown, but what was shown should supposedly be extremely realistic, and there are also a lot of video clips on UA-cam, Hollywood Insider or whatever they are called, who then invite experts to watch Hollywood films, which we then also evaluate realistically who are the movies.
And I wouldn't say that is still true today. Have a look at the film the report, it is about the CIA's advanced methods that they have developed to torture the people like in Guantanamo Bay. And it is also shown very drastically and also shown what is happening, and that's exactly how it happened.
Awesome!
Wonder what he thinks about the Kennedy asassination
Audience had better questions than Moderator
34:23 I believe that he will never return to Russia or even close to it in his life. I know that he has now been back to Germany because he gave interviews in Germany, which I find amazing, although of course quite a few Decades ago. I can imagine that the KGB or the FSB is still out to take revenge for not keeping to the order at the time.
At 49:48 Jack Barsky explains being overwhelmed by material wealth and goes on to explain his feelings in detail, which I found fascinating for the reason that follows: I visited the Soviet Union at the period of Peristroika and Gorbachev etc., I went there to try to get to obtain diamond dust, which was a waste by product of diamond polishing for a friend of mine who funded my journey there because he was a diamond merchant in Antwerp and had a market for it. I made a stopover in Moscow and was invited to a dinner hosted by a doctor and his wife, and a group of their friends including two ballerinas and a dentist The dinner conversation was in French, mostly. The wife, from what I understood was a physiotherapist and during the dinner proceeded to tell me how she was able to make a fleeting visit to the west via Warsaw connected to a sporting event and how in Warsaw itself she was overwhelmed (incredible to me) by what she saw as apparently freely available luxuries and how on her return could not get to sleep for several nights thinking of what she had seen. And then she made a very curious statement that although all of it made a deep impression on her at the same time she found herself hating and despising herself for having such feelings. I did the prudent thing and did not pursue the matter with her and always wondered why she felt so confused. Now at last after many years the solution to this ( essentially communist) riddle is provided. Many thanks. I now understand at last.
His book on Audible, more info with his sense of humor. I recommend it.
I love discussion of America with American people, so few of them have read their founding documents. Pearls before swine.
So he was told to leave on 1988. Got caught ten years later let’s say 1998. And we found out about him now. Seems to me there’s about a decade missing. Was he in prison?
Wasn't Putin also KGB?
Jup
Terminal Love yes n the president who passed the power onto him realized he messed up giving Putin power. Putin, I think, is plotting revenge on US.
Putin was the head of the Federal Security Services which was the successor of the KGB, the equivalent of our CIA. In his younger years he was a LtCol in the former KGB.
Still is.
Yes.
It's hard to imagine that he was ever a KGB agent, Hollywood always makes Russian spies look like heavy vodka drinking muscle heads with thick Russian accents, Jack Barsky is very articulate & likable.
That's because he's actually German
Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!!! 😂😂😆😆
You’re impression comes from movies but isn’t accurate...some are extremely smooth, cultured, artistically dressed, fluent with typical generational idiomatic usage, and very well educated.
Hollywood made me believe that God is old and white.
Good story. And his English is excellent. But his mannerisms and accent scream “Central/Eastern European”. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I remember somewhere else he said his backstory was his mother spoke German at home. Because he does not sound or act like a born and raised American.
will read it
SALIM KHAN me too!!
Seems like a super cool guy and I’m just starting debate that’s probably false. But what if he’s still part of the KGB and is using all of this as a master coverup?
Andrew Rice there’s no way he’s still KGB. The KGB no longer exists. Instead, it split off into 3 new agencies-GRU, SVR, and FSB
Glory to Arstotzka!
This is so awesome, this is proof that you don't have to be born as a native English to speak native English. if you're a former KGB guy of course. but it's possible, you can speak like them, seem like them, kick some ass and they don't even know.
Vince is a wonderful interviewer.
How come he keeps his head down and eyes up at the crowd? Does he think somebody is gonna try to harm him?
Hope all is well safe travels
KGB have no idea who this person is, they have never seen him ever!
Jack you do know you have a very unique German accent well join the club 🍀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
this is more like it.
Heck yeah man, LETS DOO IT!
Esᴘɪᴏɴᴀɢᴇ Uɴɪᴛᴇᴅ u
That’s odd. I speak Spanish and I do my math in Spanish. Doing it in English takes me longer.
I still do my maths in French.
Always faster to count in your mother tongue
Have a movie too ?
I like this guy.
47:00 Peters questions _JC
42:00 Absolutely, sir!
No doubt the relationship between the KGB and Stasi was as cordial and cooperative as that between the FBI and the CIA.
Amazing man! Kinda looks like the dude from Jurassic Park
With a pinch of Liam Neeson vibes
I Draw 4FUN lol so true
We need a film about this gay. I just bought his book for my son and my son love it very much
Did u mean guy, you put gay
Ain't no way he's letting his phone drop at 42:35
Amen 🙏 God bless you Sir. Would had love to be trained by you.
He has a German "R" still because if you do not learn hard R while a child it is almost impossible to do as adult but you can pass that as a speech impediment!
Geneticists would love to study this guys genes, the man Is super human. Just finished hes lex freedman interview, extraordinary.
6:20. Name of org
What means: "the longest-surviving known member of the KGB" in the description? English is not my first language, so... i think there are others, like President Vladimir Putin... what i understand wrong? Please help me... thank you
Adrian it means the longest surviving undercover KGB agent, Colonel Abel was one and Jack Barsky is the other
Adrian the others did not survive - Others either died or were returned to USSR in exchange for one of ours the Russians were holding; held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow and tortured for information. Barsky was undercover for nearly 10 years. Able was next longest Russian spy who worked for CIA! It was a huge win for US to finally nab him but it took a lot to collect evidence against him to take him in with prison time for life ( he died in prison I think). It was shocking that he hid in CIA and photographed top secret documents without being suspected.
Adrian KGB ‘illegals’ when we say illegals these are the people who are given false identification and cover story and are sent in to a target country to pretend that they are a citizen of it and slowly work themselves up in organizations that they can gather information on then report it back to their bosses.
Did he speak differently when he was undercover? He definitely sounds like a foreigner in this interview.
His English may be excellent, but the accent is clearly German, not American (to the English ear).
What's Barsky's real name? Wolfgang Kraut?
There is beer you can twist-open, in germany as well!
He said they didn’t have it in East Germany
Still uncommon in Germany
I'd believe he was from New York and his parents elsewhere
Why is jack barsky divulging all of this information
@13:29 Barsky’s English: fluent, yes; ESL, distinctly; native, ‘fraid not. What an odd premise to assert in the context of interviewing a spy whose accent is clearly identifiable as ESL. At first, I thought he was ribbing Barsky about his accent!
REMARKABLE GUY. HE IS MORE AMERICAN THAN NATIVE AMERICAN. HATS OFF TO JACK BARSKY.
I had never heard of this guy,
Ok
How many Americans died because of him?
Seeing what’s going on with Putin Barsky chose the right side.