bild
In this image provided by Stanford University, thirty-one years ago Basil Maklakoff, last pre-Communist Russian ambassador to Paris, shipped 16 wooded packing cases to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. They contained the files of the Imperial secret police office in the Paris embassy and they were supposed to go back to Russia. Maklakoff then signed a statement that he had burned the entire file. Because of the possible danger to his life, he carried out the shipment in greatest secrecy and he signed a contract shown at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., on Oct. 30, 1957 with the Hoover Institution that the boxes were not to be opened until after his death. He bound the boxes with wire and fastened the ends of the wire with lead seals imprinted with his initials on one side and “Tagil” on the other. The latter is the name of a small Siberian village which Maklakoff used as a code name for the shipment (AP Photo/Stanford University) NO SALES (KEYSTONE/AP Stanford University/)