RUSSIA

Defector Literature

Q - Z

Romanov, A.I. [Pseudonym] Nights Are Longest There: A Memoir of the Soviet Security Services. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972. Nights Are Longest There: SMERSH From the Inside. London: Hutchinson, 1972.

Rocca and Dziak see this as a "useful account of 'SMERSH' training and special operational groups and missions during World War II and after in the Ukraine, Poland, Austria, and Hungary. The author defected ... in 1947."

Sakharov, Vladimir, and Umberto Tosi. High Treason. New York: Putnam's, 1980. New York: Ballantine, 1981. [pb]

Pforzheimer: Sakharov defected to U.S. intelligence in 1971 at the age of 26. His career had been in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "as an Arabic language expert and KGB co-optee." He had worked as a CIA agent-in-place before his defection. Sakharov was unhappy with his resettlement handling after he got to the United States.

Shainberg, Maurice. Breaking from the KGB. New York: St. Martin's, 1986. [pb] New York: Berkley, 1986.

Wilcox: "Author was Polish KGB agent during WWII, was imprisoned before escaping to the West."

Shevchenko, Arkady N. Breaking with Moscow. New York: Knopf, 1985.

Pforzheimer notes that Shevchenko defected in 1978 from his position as UN Under Secretary General, after three years as a CIA agent-in-place. This is an "excellent and important book, certainly one of the best of recent defector memoirs." He makes many "valuable comments on the roles of the KGB and GRU.... Beyond this, Shevchenko presents a worthwhile study of Soviet policy and how it is made."

In connection with the Shevchenko defection, see Judy Chavez, Defector's Mistress: The Judy Chavez Story (New York: Dell, 1979).

Shevchenko died at his home in Bethesda, MD, on 28 February 1998. See David Stout, "Arkady N. Shevchenko, 67, A Key Soviet Defector, Dies," New York Times, 11 Mar. 1998, A20 (N).

Sheymov, Victor. Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1993. [pb] New York: HarperSpotlight, 1994.

Clark comment: Sheymov was a senior officer in the Eighth Chief Directorate, which was responsible for the security of KGB cipher communications.

Surveillant 3.4/5 notes that Sheymov was "one of the few, if not the only, 8th CD officer to defect." He presents a "radically different view" of the KGB "from that expressed by Vladimir Kuzuchkin ... and to a lesser extent that of Oleg Gordievsky." This is "splendid reading and a positive contribution to the literature."

To Bates, MI 10.1, Tower of Secrets is "at times amateurish." Nevertheless, it is "a good story, easy to read, and filled with detailed information about the KGB and how it operated."

Kahn, WIR 13.2, sees this defection story as "wonderfully told." An appendix of organizational details of the Eighth Chief Directorate "is useful" but offers only "a few generalities about Soviet cryptology." The lack of footnotes and an index is a negative. Some scholars may object to the book's "remembered conversations," but Sheymov "reports only conversations at which he was present.... [T]his fast-paced, personality-packed book ... evokes [a] vanished world well."

For Prados, I&NS 9.4, Sheymov tells a "story of ... growing disillusion and final break with the Soviet system.... The details of Sheymov's preparations for defection ... are of some interest as examples of tradecraft." The book is "less satisfactory as an espionage memoir than it is as a defector account.... [It] does not provide any comprehensive picture of the KGB or its operations."

Kruh, Cryptologia 18.1, comments that Tower of Secrets "reads like a spy novel with all the elements of intrigue, murder, romance, and clandestine meetings. This one, however, is real, with professional spycraft and intelligence techniques."

See Fred L. Schultz and Scott E. Belliveau, "An Interview with Victor Sheymov, Author of Tower of Secrets," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Oct. 1993, 40-43.

See also Ben Fenton, "Ex-KGB Major Leads US War against Hackers," Electronic Telegraph, 9 Jun. 1999, which reports that Sheymov has founded a "cybersecurity" company and "is patenting a new device to thwart hackers."

Sigl, Rupert. In the Claws of the KGB: Memoirs of a Double Agent. Ardmore, PA: Dorrance, 1978.

Clark comment: Sigl worked as a KGB agent for over 15 years until his defection to U.S. intelligence in 1969.

Pforzheimer views the book as "rich in case details and insights." Constantinides says that intelligence experts "regard this as a useful model of Soviet recruitment and use of agents." Note that Pforzheimer identifies Sigl as an Austrian, while Constantinides says he was a German.

Suvorov, Viktor [Pseud.]

In a comment on Lunev's Through the Eyes of the Enemy, J. Michael Waller, http://www.amazon.com, notes that Suvorov is the pseudonym of "a former GRU officer named Rezun who defected to the United Kingdom." His books "are excellent works but many scholars suspect that they rest heavily on material provided by British intelligence.... Suvorov's books remain valuable, because the GRU has changed little if at all, and its mission remains the same. But being written in the Soviet period, they lack the context of the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War as we knew it."

1. Aquarium: The Career and Defection of a Soviet Military Spy. London, Hamish Hamilton, 1985. Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy. New York: Stein & Day, 1986.

Milivojevi, I&NS 1.2, says that Aquarium is "a vivid, perceptive ... account of Suvorov's career in the GRU.... [T]he three chapters ... he devotes to his time as a Spetsnaz officer are likely to remain the definitive account of the subject for a long time." The author's personal experiences in Vienna "have enabled him to produce a definitive account of how a GRU residency functions."

2. Inside Soviet Military Intelligence. New York: Macmillan, 1984. Soviet Military Intelligence. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1984.

Pforzheimer notes that the book "contains many factual errors, misstatements, and extravagant claims.... The author seems more sure of himself when he writes of the GRU Special Purpose Forces (SPETSNAZ)."

According to Rocca and Dziak, this "is one of the rare works ever to appear on Soviet military intelligence (the GRU)." However, "its value is somewhat marred by error and uncompelling assertions." The author's "insider's insights" on GRU Spetsnaz forces and tactical reconnaissance "make this work a useful addition to the literature."

Milivojevi, I&NS 1.2, calls this book "the most detailed, comprehensive and convincing account to date of the GRU's organizational structure, relations with the KGB and the CPSU(b) and espionage modus operandi in the West." However, the reviewer has reservations about the "absence of footnotes" which "makes it difficult to distinguish between what is based on direct and indirect personal experience, what is generally accepted as being the truth in secondary sources..., and what is just intelligent speculation."

3. Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of Soviet Special Forces. New York: Norton, 1988.

Tumanov, Oleg. Tr., David Floyd. Tumanov: Confessions of a KGB Agent. Chicago, IL: Edition Q, 1994.

Surveillant 3.4/5 notes that from 1966 to 1986, Tumanov worked for Radio Liberty, posing as a Russian dissident. Valcourt, IJI&C 7.4, comments that Kalugin's The First Directorate casts Tumanov as "a defector who offered his services to the KGB as part of a deal to return to the USSR years after deserting the [Soviet] navy." Kalugin also says it was he who directed Tumarov to plant a bomb at Radio Liberty's Munich headquarters in 1981. Tumarov campaigned against Kalugin's candidacy for the Congress of People's Deputies in 1990.

Ushakov, Alexander A. In the Gunsight of the KGB. New York: Knopf, 1989. [Chambers]

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