Born in 1970 in the Aptekarskiy region of St Petersburg, Russia, Alexandre Tiskin was one of the first Spetsnatz? child agents to be used to infiltrate the Soviet Union's Cold War enemies. The events of Tiskin's life have been mostly covered up and classified by various intelligence agencies. The information present in this article is based on accounts by former Russian intelligence officers and recently declassified documents by the current administration.
Tiskin was recruited by the KGB at the age of 9 from the Selyokovich orphanage, where he had been since 1973. Details of his life between this time and the age of 16 are unclear as all relevant documentation was classified or has since been destroyed when the Soviet Union broke up. It is thought that he moved to a special KGB boarding school where he learnt foreign languages and espionage.
On his 16th birthday he was transferred to the elite 3rd Krasnov division of the Soviet army where he became a senior lieutenant before returning to anonymity at the age of 20. During this time he was instrumental in the development of the Special Assignment Militia Detachments (OMON) which was formally created in 1988. The training and tactics that these units received from Tiskin would be vital during the political instability of the 1990s and particularly in the wars with Chechnya in 1994 and 1999.
When the KGB was abolished in October of 1991, Tiskin was one of the few "sleeper" agents never reined in by the succeeding agencies. With the ensuing administrative chaos of the 1990s, all knowledge of Tiskin's involvment with the Cold War became lost. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that he is acting as a lecturer at various respected universities. The last such siting was at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St Petersburg in 1993. It is thought that he then moved through former [Eastern Bloc]? countries and has settled in England or the United States.
Documents recovered in March 2000 by Russia's current intelligence services indicate that Tiskin is still active and operating in Warwickshire, England.