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Books : Comrade JIn association with Amazon.comRating:  - Russia: Still not new, not improved, and still not our friendComrade J is an interesting, straightforward biography of one of the highest level KGB spies to defect to the US, and one who did so after the fall of the Berlin Wall, bringing insider perspective into both the defunct Soviet Union and current state of Russia under Putin with him. As such this is a very timely and topical book, and one that shines a light on a underappreciated area most Americans have cast in the shadow of apathy after the end of the Cold War. The most striking imports of the book are that, according to Sergei Tretyakov (the defector), little has changed in Russia since the dissolution of the USSR, that America, NATO and China remain the number 1 through 3 stated enemies of Russia, respectively, and the astonishing level of thugocracy/kleptocracy of the post Soviet "democratic" regimes, with Putin being the worst so far. Sergei was born into a KGB family and thus much of his life was pre-determined. Growing up in the Soviet Union as one of the "lucky" several million who were Communist Party members (and thus slightly more privileged in a bifurcated, repressed, and politicized society) he bore witness to the corruption and depravity that ultimate, totalitarian state power unleashes. The largest lesson was to never question the communist party, and to always blindly support it. This went to the point of, Orwell 1984-like, being intentionally ignorant of the party's evident lies and blunders. Sergei relates a story of a woman typist for a senior politburo member, of literally several dozen. When the politburo member asked all the assembled typists if any remembered a report which one of them had typed up and if she could recite the details to him as he had already delivered it and forgot all the important points due to a night of heavy drinking this woman stepped forward and, thinking she was a good worker, debriefed the politburo member in full from her memory. She was taken out of the room and never seen or heard from again. The politburo member had not forgotten anything about the report nor had he been drinking the night before. The message was clear: do your job, don't ask questions, don't remember any details that can show contradictions in party actions or failures. The party brutally enforced this backwards standard since it was clear even to those within the Soviet Union how poorly they were faring and how the party's only interest was maintaining its own power. Nonetheless Sergei was a patriot and was genuinely committed to defending his homeland. He briefly grew up in Iran as part of the KGB mission there which his parents were attached to and where he was able to contrast life outside the Soviet Union. But at the time it had little effect on him despite his father's wishes to have him grow up abroad as much as possible so he could enjoy some greater freedom than he would in the USSR. When the time came he joined the KGB eagerly, following in his mother's and grandmother's footsteps, and his intelligence and hard work ethic allowed him to raise through the ranks. The sections on his training as a KGB operative, and the frankly cruel power games his superiors played on him and his fellow classmates, is a fascinating looking into how the KGB groomed its agents. With so much unbridled power in the Soviet Government one had to be politically nimble and astute to survive and climb its slippery ladder. Toiling through menial jobs at first Sergei finally received assignment to Ottawa in Canada, a testing ground for agents to eventually go spy in America. Soviet spies were not James Bond like agents who snuck around in wetsuits with camera watches to snap photos of secret documents. They had diplomatic covers and tried to recruit, slowly, carefully and with a very false but exuberantly faked friendship, contacts who would give them verbal information and secret documents hopefully later in the relationship. Most contacts didn't even know they were spying for the KGB. Those that did, and started providing the most useful information, eventually just fell into it, because they knew they could be blackmailed if they stopped spying. They were also paid for their information, but usually a pittance relative to the information's worth. All the time KGB agents had to avoid counterintelligence operatives, who tried to ferret out the under cover diplomats from the real ones, and thus snuff out the flow of information back to Moscow. After glowing success in Ottawa, Sergei was eventually given a high level position in Manhattan, and was able to move his wife and daughter to New York with him. The type of contacts the KGB was able to recruit is an interesting mix. Largely they were ideologically sympathetic people (leftists) from academia, non-government organizations in particular, and government bureaucracies. The KGB not only received information but fed propaganda to its contacts. The most successful KGB propaganda operation according to Sergei was the seeding of the scientifically untenable concept of Nuclear Winter, most notably to Carl Sagan. Sergei also claims that the KGB was so sly about how they did this that the people receiving propaganda either didn't know its origin (i.e. KGB political intelligence head-quarters in Moscow), or legitimately believed outright fabrications and thus passed them along with whole-hearted earnestness. The KGB also successfully recruited a small handful of desperate conservative politicians, bribing them for the most part. Sergei also claims that the KGB recruited several high ranking Clinton officials who gave them information and who received propaganda. The chapters on exactly what were happening inside Russia as the USSR collapsed are also fascinating and have a rare clarity relative to popular accounts. The result was a casting off of one form of oppression, but the ushering in of thuggish, corrupt, drunken oligarchs who rule Russia greedily and irresponsibly. But the nature of Russian intelligence operations didn't change. America was still the number one enemy, and Sergei's marching orders remained essentially unchanged. After visiting Russia on a trip from Manhattan, post-USSR, Sergei witnessed a descent into chaos. He and his family made up their mind. Disgusted by men like Yeltsin, and especially Putin whom he paints as a complete megalomaniac, he wanted to offer his family the chance for a free and prosperous life in America. This book is very anecdotal by nature and not an overview of politics between Russia and the US, but it has a lot of important information on Russian intelligence methods and objectives and the current state of Russia, which have a direct bearing on this issue. Highly recommended, especially in light of Russia's recent invasion of Georgia and the "Return of History." Rating: - True Stories of a Modern Russian SpyIn its genre, this book is one of the best, and it is so good because of the subject. In "Comrade J", the author tells the story of Sergei Tretyakov, a Russian SVR officer who reached the rank of deputy rezident in New York City. This book recounts Sergei's career, stories of individuals recruited to spy for the Russians, and gives an interesting insiders account of how Russian spies actually operate. Apparently, the Russians still view the U.S. as the "Main Enemy", followed by NATO, and then China. Sergei claims the Russian intelligence threat is greater today than during the Cold War. With Russia asserting itself on the world stage once more, this book makes for even more timely reading. Rating:  - freybabyWas satisfied with product but had to get in touch with them to have book sent as we did not receive after a month of waiting. My husband really enjoyed the book. Rating:  - InterestingThis gives a very interesting insight into the "post Cold-War" intelligence operations of the Soviet/Russian intelligence community. There's nothing truly earth-shattering as far as named sources go, but an interesting read nonetheless. Rating: - Somewhat over simplisticA somewhat over simplistic overview of Russian Intelligence operations of the time. To me this book was interesting but seemed to gloss over a lot of issues in order to keep the page count down. What the book did say was interesting and somewhat infuriating that we let this go on. But it offers insight however simple the author offered. |
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