Stalin's agent
Subtitle: the life and death of Alexander Orlov
By: Boris Volodarsky
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 789
ISBN-13: 9780199656585
Subjects: Spies; Biography; History
Other titles: Life and death of Alexander Orlov
Description: This is the history of an unprecedented deception operation - the biggest KGB deception of all time. It has never been told in full until now. There are almost certainly people who would like it never to be told. It is the story of General Alexander Orlov. Stalin's most loyal and trusted henchman during the Spanish Civil War, Orlov was also the Soviet handler controlling Kim Philby, the British spy, defector, and member of the notorious 'Cambridge Five'. Escaping Stalin's purges, Orlov fled to America in the late 1930s and lived underground. He only dared reveal his identity to the world after Stalin's death, in his 1953 best-seller The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes, after which he became perhaps the best known of all Soviet defectors, much written about, highly praised, and commemorated by the US Congress on his death in 1973. But there is a twist in the Orlov story beyond the dreams of even the most ingenious spy novelist: 'General Alexander Orlov' never actually existed. The man known as 'Orlov' was in fact born Leiba Feldbin. And while he was a loyal servant of Stalin and the controller of Philby, he was never a General in the KGB, never truly defected to the West after his 'flight' from the USSR, and remained a loyal Soviet agent until his death. The 'Orlov' story as it has been accepted until now was largely the invention of the KGB - and one perpetuated long after the end of the Cold War. In this meticulous new biography, Boris Volodarsky, himself a former Soviet intelligence officer, now tells the true story behind 'Orlov' for the first time. An intriguing tale of Russian espionage and deception, stretching from the time of Lenin to the Putin era, it is a story that many people in the world's intelligence agencies would almost definitely prefer you not to know about.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [699]-755) and index.
Table of contents: title: Pt. I FELDBIN, AKA NIKOLSKY, AKA NIKOLAEV, AKA GOLDIN, AKA ORLOV; title: 1. Bobruisk and Moscow; title: 2. Paris: August 1926-December 1927; title: 3. Berlin: January 1928-April 1931; title: Interlude 1 First American Adventure: September-November 1932; title: 4. Vienna: April-July 1933; title: 5. Geneva and Paris: Operation express, July 1933-May 1934; title: 6. Enterprise 'O'; title: 7. Vienna, Copenhagen, and London: 19 June-25 July 1934; title: Interlude 2 London: September-December 1934; title: 8. London: January-March 1935; title: 9. Copenhagen: Early 1935; title: 10. Comrade Resident: June-September 1935; title: 11. Home, Sweet Home: October 1935-September 1936; title: pt. II IN SPAIN; title: 12. The Backdrop: Spilling the Spanish Beans; title: 13. Moscow, Madrid, and Valencia: August 1936-January 1937; title: 14. The Internationals; title: 15. Juzik will be called Artur; title: 16. NKVD and their 'Neighbours', 1937; title: 17. The Secret History of Orlov's Crimes: January 1937-July 1938; title: 18. The POUM Affair: Operation Nikolai; title: 19. Murder in Lausanne; title: 20.1938 and Beyond; title: pt. III THE ORLOV LEGACY; title: Interlude 3 The Letter; title: 21. From Trotsky to Tito; title: 22. True Lies; title: 23. The Affair called 'Agent Mark'; title: 24. M15: Secrets of Personal File 605.075; title: 25. KGB in the Law Quad; title: 26. In and Out of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire; title: 27. Comrade Walter; title: 28. Conclusion: Behind Closed Curtains; title: Appendices; title: I. Dr Arnold Deutsch; title: II. Soviet Agents, Suspected Agents, Collaborators, and Sympathizers; title: III. Documents.