Spy Museum Tampere Finland Exhibition

If a wrist watch is in a stand still, it might be time to start being suspicious. It might just be a radio device sending your conversationto a third person. CIA operatives of old see this kind of gadget as every day equipment. You might want to keep an eye on pens and tie pins... What kind of equipment to use when one want´s to counter eavesdropping? And what did an ash tray do in a conference room of a Belgian industrial company?
Classic cipher machines look like this. So it´s not a surprise that the Finns were accused of cheating when the army presented the Wormbox as primary cipher after the war. Despite the rediculous name and appearance, the cipher turned out to be a very working piece of equipment. How about the ciphers from 80´s and later? What do they look like...
Spy Museum has the equipment for visitors to legally test how easy it is to capture an e-mail. An object not larger than a regular memory stick hidden into your computer recorded everything you typed on your keyboard. Today the object is obsolete and the actual spy gadget is hidden in your software.
Covert missions are essential in espionage. Sometimes a spy needs forged passports, ID-cards, work permits... sometimes you just need a different nose.
The most famous spy in the world, Margaretha Zelle, was infact a "dead drop". History holds many female spies that have had much more influence to the world. But has the golden ring that was brought from Germany by an SS-man been on the finger of Mata Hari? This beautiful artifact from early 1900´s has an engraving "MZ" on it.
There are many innovative ways to deliver instructions and payments in espionage. When your standard mailbox just doesn´t feel safe enough, you should use a dead drop. If a hollow brick isn´t quite you, there are many different ones to choose from.
Microfilming is the single most important post WW2 method in preserving and smuggling information. Large prints or massive archives can be fitted onto a film not bigger than a postal stamp. Transporting that from a country to another can easily happen inside a hollow coin.
KGB´s infamous PhotoSniper camera with it´s SubMachineGun stock and trigger looks like and almost works like one. But why? The air reconnaisance camera in the museum is the only one currently presented in Finland. Perhaps the same thing can be said about the KGB´s Yelka...
Both of the museums lie detectors are stress analyzers. The older model is concealed in a briefcase and usable via telephone. The newer is designed for terrorist hunt by Mossad and can be used with many different readers.
Although radio was relatively new invention, the Finnish commandos got a small but effective Kyynel (tear drop) radio transmitter to use on their dangerous missions behind the lines. But where did it get it´s name? Luckily for the commandos the Aki-Veera radio station used only in the HQ. It weights about 220 lbs.
The rise of Finnish communication technology started from a huge war secret; development of the Tear. Ground surveillance device became an essential tool, although it was invented by accident. Hell-teleprinter kept the Axis powers in contact at the time of it´s name describes.
SOE (Special Operations Executive) was born when Winston Churchill made his legendary statement: "Set Europe ablaze". What did that mean? In any case, a highly efficient multi-national group of 2000 agents was born and flown into occupied countries. What equipment did the SOE-agents use when they were dropped into their home countries to destroy infrastructure hence harming the plans of the Nazi's.
A simple walking cane can carry inside a sword. An umberella or a pen can actually fire poison pellets. The roll measuring tape in the hand of a construction man can be an assassins revolver.
Spy Museum's profile gallery is filled with hard core agents, such as Kim Philby, Robert Hanssen, Stig Bergling, Arne Treholt, Stig Wennerström, Oleg Gordievsky and Richard Sorge. Hundreds of Russian commandos were dropped into Finland by parachutes for reconnaisance and demolition work. They often worked in disguise, but due to it´s fatal nature many carried a normal uniform as underwear.

The colorful and exciting twists in history and the underground activity of espionage should be brought into light

Even though small items and individuals have been able to set the course of development, normal school’s history books don’t tell about the likes of Richard Sorge, who’s intel made it possible to stop Hitler’s winning streak. Or the decryption of Enigma machine’s codes that saved Europe. The main exhibition of the Spy Museum is based on essential themes of worldwide espionage.

In the Spy Museum you meet
dozens of top spies and get
to know their fascinating stories

One’s motive is simply money, the other just happened to fall in love with the wrong person. Someone is driven to be an agent by a cause, another is just bitter, disillusioned and vengeful.

James Bond, agent 007, is a hero from spy novels, however he does have role models from real life. One of them was a real dandy who made his most interesting missions from Finland. In this case we are not talking about the author of the novels, Ian Fleming, even though he is present in the world map of spies – along with many other authors and journalists…

The colorful and exciting twists in history and the underground activity of espionage should be brought into light

In the Spy Museum you meet dozens of top spies and get to know their fascinating stories

In the Spy Museum you meet
dozens of top spies and get
to know their fascinating stories