The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West [Hardcover]

Oleg Kalugin (Author), Fen Montaigne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

An experienced KGB agent, who broke from the Communist Party to advocate democratic reform in Russia, chronicles his career in intelligence and espionage, offering a candid and revealing look into the inner workings of the Soviet spy machine. National ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this credible and compelling memoir written with Montaigne, former head of the Philadelphia Inquirer 's Moscow bureau, Kalugin recalls how, in 1958, while a Fulbright exchange student in America, he recruited his first spy--a coup for a KGB novice. Later, in Washington, with a cover job as Soviet press attache, he cultivated "moles" and other intelligence assets, and helped handle American spy John Walker ("a huge catch"). Stationed in Moscow, Kalugin became a protege of KGB chief Yuri Andropov and eventually was appointed head of the Foreign Counterintelligence Directorate. His detailed account of the use of sexual entrapment includes the revelation that the KGB virtually controlled the Russian Orthodox Church through the blackmail of its many gay priests. By 1990, concluding that the organization he helped to build was "rotten beyond salvation," Kalugin threw in his lot with the democratic reformers. He is the highest-ranking KGB officer to expose its inner workings. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The First Directorate was the KGB section in charge of foreign espionage. Kalugin first spied against the United States as a student at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1959, when he helped recruit a rocket scientist. He eventually rose to be head of Foreign Counter-Intelligence for the KGB before running afoul of bureaucratic infighting, which stopped his career in 1979. (Dumped from the KGB, he became a member of Soviet Parliament.) Kalugin worked with John Walker and the legendary Kim Philby, and he helped plan the famous poison-pellet-in-the-umbrella assassination of Georgi Markov in London. Noting that it was not easy to recruit spies in the American government, he comments that the best people simply walked in off the streets; money was their main desire, since the USSR had long since lost its ideological attraction by 1969. This is an interesting and easy-to-read story of intelligence operations during the Cold War. Recommended for the espionage collections of public and academic libraries. (Photos and index not seen.)-Daniel K. Blewett, Loyola Univ. Lib., Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312114265
• ISBN-13: 978-0312114268
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE DEFINITIVE ONE VOLUME WORK ON THE KGB IN THE COLD WAR, June 21, 2003

By 

Sherman A. Thompson (Brady, TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West (Hardcover)

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In my profession I attended a number of C.I.A. classified briefings during the cold war years and became a close friend of at least one high profile Soviet defector. Kalugin's book rings absolutely true to what I and many others already knew with respect to the bumbling and decay of the entire Soviet socialist system. We could have given them all of our classified secrets and they would have found a way to screw it up.

Kalugin's book fleshed out the KGB skeleton as we understood it. He filled in the details. Written in an easy to read style, layman and professional alike will find it fascinating. It is not filled with the statistics, tables, graphs, and charts that many technical researchers are so fond of. Instead, The First Directorate reads like both a fascinating novel and a biography. It takes the reader through the gradual disillusionment of an avid believer in the Communist system to one who gradually began seeing it for what it really was.

Oleg Kalugin is a genuine hero of both the Soviet Union and its succeeding Russian Republic. He never defected and served both governments with distinction because he was a patriot first and a KGB officer and politician second. He wanted what was best for his country and his people and was for reform, not revolution.

This book shows the KGB for what it once was and how it degenerated into a bumbling state sponsored Mafia that in the end attempted to devour the state itself. At their worst the CIA and FBI could never have been as incompetent as the KGB. Kalugin shows how the KGB had a mixture of competent men with a sense of justice and others who were stupid cold hearted psychopaths. He relates how attempts at reform by the good agents were squashed by others in the system who were both corrupt and incompetent, and how they protected each other from prosecution.

"The First Directorate" presents specific cold war events as they were seen from the other side of the looking glass. Kalugin handled spies and defectors like Burgess and Walker. He noted that he had more respect for someone who turned against their country for idealistic reasons than one who betrayed their country for money.

Much, much, more could be said in praise of "The First Directorate." It isn't about Kalugin as much as it is an expose of the inherent weaknesses of Socialism and especially the KGB whose job it was to protect the Socialist form of government from internal corruption and external infiltration.

Kalugin clarifies many events that changed the world during the 70 years of the USSR's experiment with Communism. He could speak with authority because he was on a first name basis with the top players in both the KGB and the Soviet government.

This book should send chills up the spine of any American wanting to socialize the government and put big government in control of all aspects of our lives, from taxes that redistribute wealth, to control of our schools and businesses.

Buy "The First Directorate" and read it, and you won't be so hard on our guys.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding reading, a "must have" for history buffs!, November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down. I keep saying to myself, "so this is why it happened", and "why didn't CNN fill us in on the background just a bit more. Oleg Kalugin was in the cold war while I was growing up and following the news, however, his book fills in so many of the blanks the news never explained or possibly never understood. The writing is as riviting as any great fiction novel, but better and true. This is a "must have" for any history buff. I just wish the general could run for office in the U.S., we could use a reformer of his qualities. Outstanding book!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE KGB (KALUGIN'S GREAT BOOK), November 25, 1999

By 

Wachkatze (Central Illinois) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West (Hardcover)

As an amateur Cold War historian, (I have to use the word amateur as I possess no initials behind my name, at least not in the field of history), I highly recommend this fascinating book to anyone seeking an experience far beyond that of other books on this subject. Although retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin reveals nothing new about the Cold War itself, he offers the reader something much more significant and unique. Through the frank, non-apologetic words of this extremely intelligent man, a man groomed for a top slot in the corporation by KGB chairman Andropov, we journey not only through KGB counterintelligence operations of the Cold War but through the stark realities of the internal workings of the KGB itself, as well as those of Soviet life. General Kalugin actually gives us a book within a book, as he takes us inside himself to reveal his thoughts, feelings, motives and perceptions. Those who wish to learn about the complete man will find this aspect priceless, as he was no ordinary KGB operative. Here is a man who spent 32 years in the Soviet KGB, reaching the powerful rank of major general and chief of foreign counterintelligence. Here, also, is a serving KGB general who, while physically in Russia, publicly spoke out in favor of social reforms, in addition to reforms within the KGB itself, and lived to tell about it. General Kalugin's book is not for everyone. If you are looking for a politically-correct and superficial account of the Cold War, which would be right at home at any modern public school, this book is not for you. If, on the other hand, you desire an in-depth and deeply personal tour of the Soviet KGB conducted by one who lived it for 32 years, then this book is an absolute "must."