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And lastly, from unprepossessing Svetly in Kaliningrad Province: 'Dear Anatoly Mikhailovich, heartfelt congratulations. So glad to hear your success. Kiss you always. Jelena Storozhenko.'

So glad. However, according to the correspondence that comes next, the man Storozhenko perceived as a friend and a servant of the state was already its agent.

The file goes back to the 1970S. A bundle of letters, all of them penned by a comrade, G. S. Fors, and sent to Kuchumov's home address. We recognize the name: G. S. Fors. He was the KGB chief at the Ministry of Culture in Moscow to whom Jelena Storozhenko was required to report her findings about the Amber Room.

The earliest letter is dated 5 July 1970, one year after the Kaliningrad Geological-Archaeological Expedition (KGA) was established:

Dorogoy Anatoly Mikhailovich. In Kaliningrad our affairs are multiplying and becoming more interesting. The investigation has developed its own technique and we are digging without any help. I write to you with the intention of knowing confidentially when you are coming to Kaliningrad. The affair demands your presence and it would be good if you could come for ten days in August. G. S. Fors.3

The KGB was reporting to Kuchumov about the new Amber Room investigation, although it is not clear who was in charge.

The next letter Kuchumov kept was sent eighteen months later, on 27 December 1971:

Dorogoy Anatoly Mikhailovich! Heartfelt congratulations to you and your respected wife on the occasion of New Year's Eve. Long years of heart-beating to come, as there are many affairs to be done. I ask you to come to Kaliningrad at the start of 1972 for eight to ten days. We must discuss the state of affairs and manage the researches. We would like to scale down the digging... With a bow, I leave you, G. S. Fors.

They had only been excavating for two years and already the KGB was keen to curtail the work. Perhaps Moscow was concerned that too much money was being spent in Kaliningrad. Maybe the KGA was getting dangerously close to that which the Ministry of Defence wanted to keep secret. Since there are no replies here, we do not know whether Kuchumov agreed.

There is gap of three and a half years before the next letter:

2 May 1975, Dorogoy Anatoly Mikhailovich! I am passing you letters (attached) that have been registered with my department. They might help your work [on the Amber Room]. But I must ask you, remember these are confidential documents. Keep them safe! Anything you glean from them must be held as a separate affair. And all of these letters must be returned to me before 1 July personally or via a trusted person. G. S. Fors.

The documents Fors sent are no longer attached but what this letter tells us is that the KGB man trusted Kuchumov sufficiently to quietly share intelligence with him. We wonder if the letters concerned the activities of the Soviet trophy brigades or witness statements that Kuchumov was being asked to vet.

The final letter Kuchumov kept was sent on 29 August 1978:

Dorogoy Anatoly Mikhailovich! The Lord is my witness. I have received your letter and I am immediately answering. Our affair continues... in meetings with eyewitnesses from different periods of time... I feel uncomfortable because we are wasting state funds... I am on holiday until 4 October and after that we must think of a very good reason for calling you to Moscow. Think of a reason. I embrace you heartily. G. S. Fors.

Whatever they were doing in the province, the KGB was conscious that it was not cost-efficient. One thing we can think of that would not be cost-efficient would be digging pointlessly for something that the KGB knew did not exist. But the letters do not confirm this.

We have only a fragment of the correspondence, but from the tone and language of these letters Fors and Kuchumov enjoyed a close relationship at a time when most citizens lived in fear of the security services. 'Dorogoy Anatoly