A KGB assassin walks into a West Berlin police station and says the quiet part out loud: “I killed them.” That confession detonates a Cold War secret, because the murders weren’t messy shootouts or Hollywood spy scenes. They were up-close, clinical assassinations carried out with a disguised cyanide spray weapon meant to make death look natural in the middle of Munich.
We trace the final mission of Bohdan Stashynsky, the Soviet intelligence operative sent to kill Stepan Bandera after successfully eliminating Lev Rebet. Bandera isn’t an easy target: he lives under an alias, moves carefully, and carries decades of political baggage that leaves him with enemies in every direction. When Stashynsky finally strikes in a stairwell in 1959, the KGB gets the result it wanted, but a double-dose “poison gun” leaves behind what the earlier killing didn’t: detectable cyanide and a real murder investigation in West Germany.
Then the story swerves from tradecraft to humanity. Stashynsky’s relationship with Inge Pohl, the KGB’s tightening control, a family tragedy, and a split-second escape window push him toward defection. His testimony forces investigators to confront what a state-directed assassination program looks like on the ground, and his 1962 West German trial raises the question that still won’t go away: when a government orders murder, who is responsible, the architect or the trigger?
If you’re into Cold War history, KGB operations, political assassination, and the moral gray zone of “just following orders,” this one is for you. Subscribe for more History Buffoons, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review. Where do you think guilt belongs in a chain of command?
Wikipedia- Bohdan Stashynsky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohdan_Stashynsky
Bohdan Stashynsky: The Internally Torn Assassin of Stepan Bandera and Lev Rebet
By Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe
How a KGB Assassin Used the Death of His Child to Defect By SERHII PLOKHY
The Man with the Poison Gun: Q&A with Serhii Plokhii
https://www.huri.harvard.edu/news/man-poison-gun-qa-serhii-plokhii
The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story by Serhii Plokhy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465035906?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
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