Blowing Up Russia [Hardcover]

a Litvinenko (Author), Yuri Felshtinsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2007

Blowing Up Russia contains the allegations of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko against his former spymasters in Moscow which led to his being murdered in London in November 2006. In the book he and historian Yuri Felshtinsky detail how since 1999 the Russian secret service has been hatching a plot to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the KGB. Vividly written and based on Litvinenko's 20 years of insider knowledge of Russian spy campaigns, Blowing Up Russia describes how the successor of the KGB fabricated terrorist attacks and launched a war. Writing about Litvinenko, the surviving co-author recounts how the banning of the book in Russia led to three earlier deaths.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Yuri Felshinsky studied history at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. In 1978 he immigrated to the US and studied history at Brandeis University and Rutgers, where he received his Ph.D. He was the first citizen of a foreign state to be awarded a doctoral degree in Russia.

His previous books include: "Towards a History of Isolation " (London 1988; Moscow 1991);"The Failure of World Revolution" (London 1991; Moscow 1992); "Big Bosses" (Moscow 1999).

Alexander Litvinenko served in the Russian military for more than 20 years achieving the ranks of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1988 he served in the counterintelligence agencies of the Soviet KGB and from 1991 in the Central Staff of the MB-FSK-FSB, specializing in counter-terrorist activities and organized crime.

He worked in the most secret areas of the KGB, the Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations, as a senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.

In 1988, at a Moscow press conference, he publicly criticized the leadership of the FSB and disclosed a number if illegal orders which he had received. In 1999 he was arrested on trumped-up charges and imprisoned. After winning his case, he was arrested again and charged with added crimes against the state.

He escaped from Russia, and was granted political asylum in May 2001 by Great Britian where he lived until he was poisoned in November 2006. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Gibson Square Books (January 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190393396X
• ISBN-13: 978-1903933961
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,152,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Resurrection of the KGB, July 26, 2004

By 

Joanneva12a (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blowing up Russia : Terror from Within (Paperback)

BOOM! - In late 2003 nearly 4,500 copies of this book were seized and confiscated by the Russian Secret Service (FSB) as they tried to make their way from Latvia printing presses into Moscow. And no wonder. This book focuses on how elements of the old Soviet regime sought to steer Russia away from the liberal reforms since the fall of the old USSR. The multiple apartment bombings which ripped across the country in 1999, killing hundreds, were more than suspicious. The 'terrorists' were condemned and the tragedies quickly used as an excuse to drag Russia into a second wretched war with Chechnya which continues to this day. The book's spotlight on the attempted bombing in Ryazan leaves little doubt as to who the enemy really was.

The book's translation from Russian into English is superb, but the sheer volume of facts and information combined with the never-ending plethora of Russian names makes for a challenging read if you are up to it. The book however is an excellent primer into the "nomenklatura" mindset of corruption, coercion, and intimidation, and should be studied and kept as a grim reminder of what is possible when criminal elements in the state pursue their own political agendas - and how far they will go when the ends justifies the means in the political game of hardball.

Although the book is a study in extremism, there are still some associations to be made on a lesser level. Propaganda, intimidation, and internal investigations which never seem to come to fruition are just a few that come to mind. Despite the collapse of the USSR, Vladamir Putin, has placed many of his former KGB colleagues in positions of authority alongside him.

As Russians celebrate their "freedom" with the shutdown of the independent press, and genocide committed in Chechnya on a daily basis, I have little doubt that the people of Russia are told they are "winning" the war on terror. When the next 9/11 or Madrid like bombings occur, one where all the "evidence" appears overwhelming and points in only one direction, and yet the enemy, elusive as ever and always just out of arms reach, is never caught or convicted, perhaps you will think to read this book.

49 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strenuously denounces the war in Chechnya, November 6, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blowing up Russia : Terror from Within (Paperback)

Alexander Litvinenko is a 20-year veteran of the Russian military, achieving the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and serving in the KGB Department for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations, only to be arrested for disclosing a number of illegal orders he'd received and imprisoned. He escaped from Russia and received political asylum in Britain in May 2001. Yuri Felshtinsky studied history at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and immigrated to America in 1978 where he obtained a doctorate in history from Rutgers. Felshtinsky is a recognized expert on Soviet Affairs and the other of several books on Russian history and politics. In Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within, Litvinenko and Felshtinsky collaborate to reveal a scathing accusation of the Russian special services, holding them responsible for acts of terror, kidnappings, contract killings, and efforts to steer Russia back to being a dictatorship. Blowing Up Russia also strenuously denounces the war in Chechnya for its deleterious toll on human life and freedom. A sobering, persuasively charged account, Blowing Up Russia is an essential text for Soviet Studies academic reference collections, and should be mandatory reading for anyone having political, cultural, or economic dealings with present-day Russia.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is absolutely no substitute for self-government - none., October 17, 2009

By 

R. A. Barricklow "Scaramouche" (Las Vegas NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror (Kindle Edition)

The point both Yuri & Alexander make in there fine investigative journalism, is that Putin had deliberately destroyed the intial shoots of self-government in Russia & he now exercises a transparent form of arbitrary rule known as "bespredel", without limits. This book tells of how Russia's promise of self-government was lost. It is a cautionary tale for all governments and their people; for not only do all goverments lie, they all have secret services, and it was the secret services of Russia, by a masterstroke of brilliance/matched only by brute force, that Putin was crowned President by ends/through ANY means necessary.
I read this primarily to discover Russia's sercret service's modus operandi in its operations to this end and to discern any simularties that the U.S. secret services are using. Where they were alike and where they were different. As everything is secret...your sometimes left with the tip of an iceberg or an event horizon.
In "Blowing Up Russia" Yuri's event horizon was the terrorist apartment bombings, their "9/11". As he got deeper into it he found an inside job done by the FSB, Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. He teamed up with Alexander, who was murdered by Putin, to literally bury his information. Yuri finially managed to publish this information (this book, of course was immediately banned in Russia).
Yuri proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was an inside job, and goes much deeper. How deep?
Peter Dale Scott coined the political, "Deep State", where a shadow government actually is pulling the essential strings of policy that REALLY matter in government. This is the territory that Yuri & Alexander uncover in this book. One can draw simularities with our 9/11 to Russia's apartments bombing/all the way to an insde job. Also striking, is the criminal infiltration of the secret services, to where there is no question of its criminal DNA/right down to the very bones of the services existence. It's in your face criminality, not unlike our U.S. banksters of today.
A very informative, cautionary tale, from which numerous conclusions could be made by many readers. A wide audience is deserved.
Both Jefferson and Madison agreed fervantly on two principles: An educated public was necessary for the survival of the country AND that the powers of government belong ultimately to the people who are governed.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!

P.S. Max Weber memorably remarked that the decisive means for politics is violence. He also added, that the world is governed by demons, and he who lets himself in for...power and force as a means, contracts with diabolical powers, and for his actions it is NOT true that good can follow from only good and evil from only evil, but that the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this, is, indeed, a political infant.

P.P.S. In: Guilt By Association by Jeff Gates the author offers another scenario. Was it the Ashkenazim Crime syndicate(Russain Branch run by Boris Berezovsky) profiled in chapter 5 of the book, who had the means, motive and opportunity to murder Litvinenko in London? Two days after Khodorkovsky lieutenant Leonid Nevzlin arrived in Newark airport on Christmas Eve 2006, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika issued a press release identifying Nevzlin as a murder suspect in the Litvinenko poisoning and seeking his extradition. Litvinenko met with Nevzlin in Israel just weeks before his death.