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Another interesting (non-fiction) book that flies under the radar is "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB" (vol 1
by TheCowboy 5y ago
Another interesting (non-fiction) book that flies under the radar is "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB" (vol 1 of 2).
A disillusioned archivist (Mitrokhin) for the KGB kept notes for years and when the Soviet Union collapsed attempted to defect to the US, but was turned away after being incorrectly judged as not credible. But the Brits realized what they had in their hands and took him up on his offer.
The books are an effort by a historian and Mitrokhin to describe the history as revealed by the notes and corroborate them as best as possible. They do a really good job creating a general history of the Cold War from the inside perspective of the KGB.
- Arrath 5y agoThe book is very dry, as you might expect from the subject matter. It is also incredibly interesting.
- aerostable_slug 5y agoThe book both inspired me to go search for hidden caches of weapons, radios, etc., and to absolutely not go search for these hidden caches. The disarming procedure for the KGB's favored Molniya booby trap was a little too exciting for me. "If you don't hear a 'click', do not disturb the package..."
- mzs 5y agoI also recommend Venona^, it has close to a hundred pages of notes on the decoded cables plus the authors had brief access to Soviet records. ^ Haynes, John Earl & Klehr, Harvey (2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08462-7 https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300084627/venona https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300084627/venona
- Fnoord 5y agoSeems to be available here for free on Archive.org [1] [1] https://archive.org/details/TheSwordAndTheShield-TheMitrokhinArchiveAndTheSecretHistoryOfTheKGB https://archive.org/details/TheSwordAndTheShield-TheMitrokhi...