Product Description
The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad. Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan. NY: Public Affairs, 2019. 384 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket in a clear protective jacket cover, new condition. 1 copy only.
A frank look at the history of Russian espionage, in which Russian émigrés have found themselves continually at the center of mayhem. Russian citizens began leaving the country in big numbers in the late nineteenth century, fleeing pogroms, persecution from the Tsarist secret police, and the Bolshevik Revolution, which preceded the coming of Josef Stalin and the KGB (his version of the secret police), thus creating the third-largest diaspora in the world. This exodus created an opportunity for the Kremlin to foster networks of spies, many of whom were these same émigrés driven from Russia. By the 1930s and 1940s, dozens of spies were in New York City gathering information for Moscow. The story has not ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some émigrés have turned into assets of the resurgent Russian nationalist state, while others have taken up the dissident challenge once more--at their personal peril. Spine-chilling reading!
