Review of 'Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov'
Journal: Reviews in History
Year: 2015

Stalin's Agent is a biography of one of Stalin's illegals who was known by the alias of Alexander Orlov . Orlov entered the history of Soviet espionage primarily due to three reasons: First, he was credited with presiding over the shipment of 500 tons of Spainish gold reserve to Moscow in 1936, thus effectively stripping the country of her assets in exchange for limited supplies of military equipment to republican Spain. Second, in fear of being executed by his paranoid bosses, who cannibalized