What is certain is that Theremin found himself in prison, then in prison camp, then in prison-type top-secret scientific and research institutes after his return to the Soviet Union. Incredibly, while still in prison, Theremin was granted the most prestigious Soviet scientific award, the First Class Stalin Prize (the Soviet analogue of the Nobel Prize) in 1947. He was rewarded for having created the „Buran“ bugging system, which was designed for tactful, remote, contact-free surveillance of American and French embassies by means of detecting window-glass vibrations from distances of 300–500 m. (Recent reports in Russia have revealed that Beria, former head of the KGB, used Theremin‘s inventions to listen in on Stalin himself. Theremin preserved the results—unique magnetic-tape recordings of Stalin‘s voice—for many years, keeping them in his own home until they finally crumbled to dust with age.)