Barbara Makuch of Western New York started living a double life at the age of 18, when she was a double agent spy during the Cold War. Serving the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she went undercover to spy on the Soviet government. 

"Their goal was to influence the American people, and it didn’t matter who they were,” Makuch said. “At one point, I was the head of the youth group of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. And I would take groups over to the Soviet Union. Americans. Students. Peace activists. You name it. And they would be targeted by the Soviets for different things.”

She would also bring back instructions and information for the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship and different factions of the peace movement. She would give various groups, including Soviet Union VIPs and members of the KGB, tours of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls area. All the while, she was keeping tabs on them for the FBI. 

"It was my job to prove control and financing by the USSR of the anti-war movement here in the country,” Makuch said. “And I did do that.”

It all started in 1971, when Makuch received information about a possible bombing at the University at Buffalo by the Maoist Communist Party. She called the FBI with the information and they asked her to help them catch the bomber. During anti-war demonstrations, she was given a leaflet by the Communist Party of the USA and told to go to a meeting. Thus began her life as a spy. 

Makuch says she had no idea she’d be living on high alert for the next 22 years. 

"I remember being in Russia, a dark night, walking with friends that were from Russia and thinking to myself, you know, in a second — in a second — they can get rid of me,” she said. “Before I went, and every time I went to Russia, the FBI would say to me, ‘if anybody catches you, if you are ever caught, we will deny any and all knowledge of you.’”

Makuch kept her life a secret. Her late husband, Eugene Makuch, joined her in working in the Soviet Union, but her daughter didn’t know what Barbara really did until she retired.

"She thought it was no big deal,” Makuch said. “I guess she lived it.”

Makuch says she kept on working through the fear. Her motivation was her family. She was born in West Germany. Her father was a concentration camp survivor who was liberated from Dachau. Her mother was a Ukrainian slave laborer in Nazi Germany. 

“What the Soviets did to my family, and the Nazis, has left a mark on me,” she said. “My cousins. My siblings. Everyone. Because it was so horrendous."

Makuch was a spy from around 1970 until 1992. She received the highest civilian award, the Louis E. Peters Memorial Award, from the FBI. Now, watching images of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Makuch says she is angry. She adds she wasn’t surprised when Russia invaded Ukraine, but she was surprised the U.S. didn’t stop them. 

"I don’t think people realize the absolute horrendous implications,” she said. “If he wins, it won’t stop. If he takes Ukraine, what’s next? Latvia? Moldova? Poland? It’s all going to start tumbling down if we don’t stop it. And if we don’t stop it, it will be a long, long drawn-out war.”

Makuch doesn’t think the world would allow another Soviet Union in 2022. 

"I really believe with strength, with enough backbone, we can stop tyrants like him in their tracks,” Makuch said. “We have to stop tyrants like him in their tracks or we lose the freedom we fought so hard for in this country. [It] can be lost so easily.”

And her words to the people of Ukraine?

"I’m an American first, but I’m a Ukrainian as well,” she said, “I was raised by a Ukrainian mother. Please stay strong. Please. Please. Fight the monster. I know it’s easy for me to sit here and say, but I pray I will do everything I can to help Ukraine."

Makuch says the images out of Ukraine make her want to go back, but she can't help like she used to these days. She added she will continue to pray for a peaceful outcome and do everything she can stateside to help.