KGB Spy Museum Opens Its Doors In Chelsea

CHELSEA, NY — A museum that traces the history of the soviet secret service through some 3,500 espionage artifacts opened its doors on Friday.

The KGB Spy Museum at 245 W. 14th St. in Chelsea was created by a father-daughter duo from Lithuania as an offshoot from a military museum the pair run out of a nuclear bunker in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Historian Julius Urbaitis, 55, and his daughter Agne Urbaityte, 29, have spent years amassing objects used in Soviet spycraft for the installation.

The museum's collection showcases the history of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, commonly known as the KGB, with a unique lineup of gadgets including a hairbrush with a built-in radio, a Cold War cipher machine and the infamous concealed gun umbrella used to assassinate Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov in 1978 by firing a ricin pellet into his leg, according to Urbaityte, who says the museum's goal is to pull back the curtain on Soviet espionage.

"You can touch, see and you can understand people and how they had to be really creative in that period to spy and how that technology was more high-tech than we imagine," Urbaityte previously told Patch.

Visitors can peruse the museum's artifacts to delve into the KGB's evolution or partake in interactive exhibits such as learning how to use morse code and telephone switchboards, or even strapping into an interrogation chair for a lesson on the KGB's brutal tactics.

Check out our feature for more on the KGB Spy Museum and how it got started.

The KGB Spy Museum in Chelsea at 245 W. 14 St. is open Monday through Sunday 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tickets for adults go for $28; children 7-17, students and seniors pay $20; children under 6 get in free. Guided tours with at least five people can also be booked for $43.99.

Photo courtesy of the KGB Spy Museum