How a Gift from Schoolchildren Let the Soviets Spy on the U.S. for 7 Years | Atlas Obscura

In 1946, a group of Russian children from the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organisation (sort of a Soviet scouting group) presented a carved wooden replica of the Great Seal of the United States to Averell Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

The gift, a gesture of friendship to the USSR’s World War II ally, was hung in the…

Source: How a Gift from Schoolchildren Let the Soviets Spy on the U.S. for 7 Years | Atlas Obscura