Professor Dr. Guido Knopp has been head of the contemporary history editorial office of the Second German Television ZDF since 1984. He is the author of numerous documentaries, some of which have received special awards. Guido Knopp spoke with the still living super-spies of the Cold War, their colleagues and their opponents, their relatives and famous contemporaries who witnessed the events that went down in the history of the merciless intelligence war that East and West led with all their skill and all kinds of tricks. In his research, Knopp found a lot of explosive material that sheds light on the darkness of this secret war. Who were these people - actors on the stage of history? What prompted them to betray their country? And how did they manage to transmit their materials through the Iron Curtain? The book consists of six essays dedicated to outstanding intelligence officers during the confrontation between East and West: Oleg Gordievsky, Klaus Fuchs, George Blake, Gunther Guillaume, John Walker and Werner Stiller.