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, dustjacket, brand new. 1 copy only.
A frank look at the bloody history of Russian espionage, where Russian émigrés have found themselves continually at the center of the mayhem. Russians began leaving the country in big numbers in the late nineteenth century, fleeing pogroms, tsarist secret police persecution, and the Revolution, then Stalin and the KGB--and creating the third-largest diaspora in the world. The exodus created a rare opportunity for the Kremlin. Moscow's masters and spymasters fostered networks of spies, many of whom were emigrants 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.
