Spymaster: Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief
Cold War reminiscences from the Soviet side are generally best read with caution—they add to autobiography a fundamental unverifiability that makes them dubious as historical documents. That said, Sergey Kondrashev&'s memoirs, as told to friend and former CIA officer Bagley (Spy Wars), are a vivid mosaic of the Soviet intelligence apparatus in its heyday. Kondrashev was recruited to the KGB during WWII as an interpreter; in 1947 his English skills led to an assignment targeting the American embassy. Stalin&'s purge of the security apparatus brought Kondrashev promotion; that it was a recurring nightmare led him to transfer to the less visible Foreign Intelligence section. Handling British mole George Blake, then moving to the Austro/German Department, Kondrashev built simultaneous reputations as a loyal apparatchik and a sophisticated operative. The combination eventually returned him to Moscow and the KGB&'s active measures department, responsible for disinformation operations in the West. Kondrashev&'s discussions of their genesis and implementation comprise the book&'s most valuable element. There are no startling revelations—Bagley regularly refers to drama still largely hidden—but the details flesh out still-unfamiliar aspects of the espionage war while illuminating a man who made internal peace with the system he served so well. (Nov.)