A very interesting read for those interested in Russian or Cold War history or espionage. This book is very thorough, so be prepared for a long read. The writing style is consistent, so my flagging interest at the midway point in the book was a result of my general lack of interest of the post-Stalin Cold War period.



The notes secreted away from the archives and published in the West reveal some very important historical facts. In a broad context, it is clear that the Soviet system was never abl

A very interesting read for those interested in Russian or Cold War history or espionage. This book is very thorough, so be prepared for a long read. The writing style is consistent, so my flagging interest at the midway point in the book was a result of my general lack of interest of the post-Stalin Cold War period.



The notes secreted away from the archives and published in the West reveal some very important historical facts. In a broad context, it is clear that the Soviet system was never able to become a sustainable reality, terror and deception allowed the system to propagate itself. That is not to say that there weren't some great achievements in the USSR. But inhumanity, impracticality, and the inefficiencies of the system are obvious to anyone who can objectively observe historical facts. Only utopians and revisionists believe that it was not the Soviet system and ideology that were flawed, but rather the practical policies of the USSR and particularly the horrors of Stalinism.



Yet to dismiss the KGB (in any of its incarnations) as propagandists of a dying state would be too simplistic. There are a number of areas that KGB actions did enormous harm to the West, including propagating the belief that the JFK assassination was a plot by American intelligence agencies or that the CIA created the AIDS virus in a lab and intentionally infected blacks. These among other operations fuel the conspiracy theory thinking so prevalent with many people today and propagate mistrust in our government and our fellow citizens.



But these actions are the natural consequence of an agency born of suspicion, by men who lived the shadowy lives of underground revolutionaries. I believe the paranoia endemic of the Soviet regime, though partially a natural result of the Russian character, was primarily a result of the revolutionary character. That years of clandestine meetings, arrests, informing on friends, exile, and criminal conspiracy created the impetus to use the secret services (Cheka, KGB, ect.) as a primary tool of the state to monitor and protect political doctrine. The numerous examples of the great resources that went into discrediting expatriate Soviet artists and writers, who were critical of the USSR, are a perfect example of how diseased the Soviet system was. Plotting to maim a defected ballerina is not a sign of strong state or a successful culture.



Finally, I think this book is a great companion to our present conflict with Russia. Mr. Putin was a KGB man and his thinking is much rooted in the culture of the KGB. I think a review of this book and the history of KGB operations in it provide a valuable insight into how Russia operates today. Before I read this book, I thought reports that the FSB bombed a Russian apartment complex to create a casus belli were the stuff of conspiracy. After reading this book, and getting a unique insight into the KGB culture this book provides, I now believe it entirely possible that the FSB was responsible for bombing civilians as a pretext for the Chechen war in an effort to reestablish the greatness of the Russian state by disaffected members of Russia's security services. If so, that conspiracy would be entirely in accord with the actions taken by the KGB so often in Soviet history, using cynical and manipulative means to suppress the human spirit.