Someone (Spiny, i think it was) mentioned The Thing here the other day.

The gift given to US ambassador to Russia, Averell Harriman, in 1946 by Russian children.

Which contained a listening device which went undetected for quite some years.

I remembered something about it. I expect that most people here know what a ‘theremin’ is. That non-contact electronic musical instrument which makes all those sci-fi movie type sounds.

Well, Leon Theremin went back to Russia in the late 1930s. Whether or not this was voluntary is not clear. He may well have wound up in a sharashka camp.

Anyway, it’s widely suspected that it was Theremin who came up with the ingenious design for The Thing.