| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting Roller Coaster Ride of a Story!,
By
This review is from: Defiance: Or How to Succeed in Business Despite Being Hounded by the FBI, the KGB, the INS, the Department of Homeland Security, (Hardcover)
Alex Konanykhin's story of his phenomenal success against overwhelming odds in becoming one of Russia's first entrepreneurs and the steep price he paid as a result, is one that rivals and even tops any novel by James Patterson,Carol Higgins Clark, or Frederick Forsyth. The sad part is how the U.S. goverment was a willing party in Russia's attempt to suppress and kill Konanykhin.
The most amazing part is that this is ALL verifiably true!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Story,
This review is from: Defiance: Or How to Succeed in Business Despite Being Hounded by the FBI, the KGB, the INS, the Department of Homeland Security, (Hardcover)
Defiance By Alex Konanykhin How to succeed in business despite being hounded by the FBI, INS, Homeland Scurity, Interpol, Department of Justice, and Mafia hit men. This is the amazing true story of Alex Konanykhin, a young man who made millions in Russia during and immediately after the ending of the Soviet Union's Communist dictatorship. He was an entrepreneur in business even before citizens were allowed to pursue capitalistic ventures and before he had completed college. His wealth was seized by the KGB and he had to flee Russia to keep from being killed or thrown into political prison. He continued to pursue business ventures within Russia even from his exile in Hungary and later the United States. In a difficult to fathom true account he describes how the United States government sold him out to the KGB and Russian mafia who wanted him returned to Russia so they could kill him. The biographical account reads like a Clancey novel. His determination and courage are amazing, and what was done to him by trusted government entities of several countries is horrifying. An interesting read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DEFIANT BUT FREE,
This review is from: Defiance: Or How to Succeed in Business Despite Being Hounded by the FBI, the KGB, the INS, the Department of Homeland Security, (Hardcover)
Defiance by Alex Konanykhin (pronounced ko-nen-ee-kin) is a story of survivability, magnified to its ultimate limit. That someone could live through this story, much less write it- boggles the imagination. Alex Konanykhin must be the world's most tenacious advocate for human liberty and personal economic freedom. Defiance is sub-titled "How to Succeed in Business While Being Targeted by the FBI, the KGB, the Department of Homeland Security, the INS and the Mafia Hit Men" and is literally about his empire-building in the face of intransigent opposition by U.S. government agencies, powerful criminal organizations, and highly-placed officials in Russia.
The story is gripping, though difficult to verify, filled as it is with contentions of high level maneuvering on very secret levels of government- all with the purpose of stripping Konanykhin and his wife of all of their assets, dignity and liberty. Still, Konanykhin's claims are buoyed up by the ultimate decision of the U. S. Courts to allow him to remain and work in the United States. Konanykhin was never a quiet, unassuming pawn of any government or any economic regime. In the 1980's, as he grew to young manhood in the former Soviet Union, he acted fearlessly to protect his right to grow and prosper economically in a regime that radically constrained individual economic development unless masked sufficiently by the hierarchy of the Communist Party, whose patronage of its own membership created a hypocritical and self-nurturing protected upper class in most Communist countries. Indeed, in the face of strong government oppositions, large fines and possible prison, Konanykhin conducted a successful construction business, even as a student. Eventually, he was forced to go into a kind of hiding when the government had targeted him to go to Afghanistan as part of their military adventurism of the times. Konanykhin adjusted to the new political climates in the Soviet Union as fast as they developed and was one of the first to legalize his construction business, when it was possible. So, in a subtle way, he rode the early waves of Russian capitalism under the regime of perestroika. But these early successes were simply the foundations for another remarkable twist of his story. Ultimately, Konanykhin did not only win his right to pursue his entrepreneurial instincts in Russia, he won his own private Russian lottery. According to Defiance, this was not the result of any kind strategic political planning, but quite the opposite. It was the result of financially backing, gambling on an unpopular and unlikely dark horse, the brave, but tempestuous Boris Yeltsin. Backing Yeltsin's political moves despite furious political opposition, at the time, was just another Konanykhin form of rebellion. He didn't believe Yeltsin could win, but he liked his spirit- and he enjoyed funding the opposition. But when Yeltsin won, it opened the door to real estate and commodities opportunities that provided him with the prospects of almost unlimited wealth and power. But the new Russian economic freedom did not function perfectly. And the forces of power were transferred from the Communist Government and the KGB to the Russian Mafioso, which gained some of their strength from the remnants of the old KGB. It was through these type of illegitimate predators that this linkage was spread throughout the higher levels in Konanykhin's own business organizations, threatening not only his economic well-being, but his life itself. He now faces a Russian Mafioso, whose popular signature is a hot iron sitting besides him, used traditionally to extract agreement from his overly-contentious victims. Through the mechanics of a remarkable tie to a cosmic lifeline, transcending the ordinary wave of events. Once in the United States, Konanykhin is not quiet. He pursues legal and publicity channels to make his story know. Although Konanykhin has made it to the United States, it is no safe haven for himself and his wife. It is just another venue where his enemies relentlessly pursue him. According to Konaykhin, he becomes a pawn in a game to consolidate the power of the FBI in Moscow, partially through the United States acceding to certain officials' demands to return the pesky Konanykin to Russia. Now, directly and indirectly, the INS, the FBI and Homeland Security become pawns of a game to finally silence the intractable entrepreneur. As events in the U.S. approach an end game, Konanykhin and his wife are arrested by Homeland Security agents, brandishing machine guns, just before trying to cross the Canadian border. This was 2003 and Konanykhin was to begin this book in prison. The rest of the story is a remarkable tale of Konanykhin and his wife's vindication by the U. S. Justice System. It is the story of Konanykhin first prayer to a God he never knew. It is the story of, again, planning his fortune in the midst of incredibly adverse conditions. Konanykhin, born and raised in the autocratic Soviet Union, Konanykhin was certainly not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But, curiously enough, he was born with something even more important. Konanykhin, a Russian born slave of the early Soviet communist regime, was born with the American Dream. It was an unquenchable fire inside of him that drew him to these shores of liberty. He may not have known the words of Jefferson, Paine, Franklin or Washington, but he knew the warmth that fueled their words. Defiance chronicles one man's belief in those sentiments and his courageous defense of his own freedom- not only for justice, freedom of speech and for life itself, but also to enjoy the fruits of liberty- to prosper and do well in the new world of freedom.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
|
|
