In Stalin's Secret Service: Memoirs of the First Soviet Master Spy to Defect [Hardcover]

Walter G. Krivitsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000

Walter Krivitsky was the first Soviet spymaster to defect to the West in 1937. He sought safety in the United States and found time to write his account of his defection and knowledge of Stalin’s many crimes. A classic text of espionage history last published in 1939.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Enigma Books; 1 edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929631030
• ISBN-13: 978-1929631032
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #883,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First and the Best, November 20, 2001

By 

Raymond W. Leonard (Warrensburg, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Stalin's Secret Service: Memoirs of the First Soviet Master Spy to Defect (Hardcover)

Walter Krivitsky served most of his career not in the OGPU/NKVD but in the Red Army Intelligence directorate, known during most of his tenure there as the "Fourth Department" (i.e., Fourth Departmnent of the Red Army Staff). He only came to the OGPU in the late 1930s, during Stalin's purge of the Red Army. Shortly thereafter, he defected to the West, where he was ignored by British and American counterintelligence until he wrote a series of articles on Stalin's foreign policy in 1938 for the Saturday Evening Post in which he predicted that Stalin and Hitler would negotiate some sort of alliance (this is still when Stalin appeared to much of the world as the leader of the anti-Fascist forces of the "Popular Front"). After that, "experts" in London and Washington finally got around to de-briefing him, and he even testified before the U.S. Congress before his mysterious death. No one really undersood what he had to say, however, and even today there are many (including scholars) who fail to comprehend the diference between Red Army intelligence and the secret state police. Krivistky's information should have been a "wake-up" call for western counterintelligence. Among other things, in the course of his debriefings he provided clues about an OGPU ring in Cambridge (the Blunt-Philby network--in fact, acting on the suspicion that he had tipped MI5 about their most valuable asset in the UK, the NKVD actually launched a full-scale investigation of Krivitsky in 1943--three years after his death!--whom they described as "the traiter from Red Army intelligence"), and offered comprehensive details about Fourth Department and OGPU operations in the U.S., including info. about a Fourth Dept. network with access to the State Department which later was corroborated by Elizbeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers.

Krivitsky got his start in the Comintern and was involved in a wide range of espionage and subversion. The previous reviewer is simply incorrect about this. A careful reading of his memoirs reveals fascinating details about Soviet intelligence operations throughout Europe, including attempts to topple governments in Germany, Bulgaria, and Estonia through outright insurrection. Krivitsky also relates insider information about early Soviet signals intelligence, and top-secret details about Japanese intentions in the Far East. He was privy to Stalin's reaction to Hitler's purge of the SA. Krivitsky offers insights into a wide range of additional topics, including the role of Comintern and Red Army intelligence operatives in the Russian Civil War and war with Poland; the organizational development of Red Army intelligence; key personalities like Yan Berzin and Otto Kuussinen; the infighting between Red Army intelligence and the secret police (Cheka-OGPU-NKVD); the struggle for control of the CPSU leadership after Lenin's death; the role of Soviet intelligence in the Spanish Civil War; the origins of the purges; and even the value of American passports for covert operations.

Krivitsky remains to date the highest ranked publically indentified GRU (as Soviet/Russian military intelligence is known today)defector in history, and he was also one of the first. His insights and details have been confirmed by dozens of other accounts and sources down through the decades.

Familiarity with the historical context of his work enhances its value, but anyone with an interest in Soviet espionage (which in the case of the Soviet Union is inseparable from issues of state policy and politics--indeed, the more "sensational" works which focus exclusively on "spy stories" inevitably miss the larger point) should find Krivitsky's memoirs provocative, entertaining and rewarding.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Little espionage, lots of Stalin, January 18, 2001

By 

"m_peror07" (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Stalin's Secret Service: Memoirs of the First Soviet Master Spy to Defect (Hardcover)

The blurb on the dustjacket would have you believe this is a book about Soviet espionage. Not so. Krivitsky was a spy who worked for the OGPU, but the little he mentions of his job is just to prove a point. Partly it is about Krivitsky's experience during the Great Terror, and what happened to friends and associates. Mostly it is kind of a warning to America that the Soviet Union wasn't the Socialist paradise it seemed. This book was originally published in 1941, and 2 years before it was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post, so the style of the articles smacks more of "current affairs" than a memoir. It was meant as more of a wake up call to Americans who thought that the Soviets were always enemies of Hitler (not true when he wrote it), helped the republicans in Spain, and that the Great Terror was just propaganda.

So, if you liked Robert Conquest's The Great Terror or are interested in Stalinist Russia I would recommend this book to you. If you were like me and are interested in something of a more espionage bent, look elsewhere.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Killed in Washington, July 21, 2003

By 

Dennis Dewall "borwall" (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Stalin's Secret Service: Memoirs of the First Soviet Master Spy to Defect (Hardcover)

Krivitsky's book is an intelligence classic and Raymond W. Leonard wrote a perfect and most comprehensive review, not missing any detail.

Maybe, except one or two. Krivitsky warned many times that the NKVD agents were after him and was still neglected by the FBI who did not stir a finger to protect him. The Bureau oficially refused to conduct an investigation after he was shot at the Bellevue Hotel in Washington and only secretly J.Edgar Hoover gave orders to his agents to look into the matter. That was one of the most shameful cases in his career. Then followed Dusko Popov and Peter Popov.

Concerning "the highest ranked publicly identified GRU", as Mr Leonard notes, Isaac Don Levine, who was ghostwriting Krivitsky's book, dramatically exaggerated his rank: in fact, he was Senior Lieutenant of State Security, which was equal to the Red Army Captain. To date, the highest ranked GRU defector is probably Lt.Col. Alexander Krapiva, who defected in Vienna in 1991. Among those, who worked as agents in place, there were, of course, Oleg Penkovsky and Gen.Polyakov, both GRU.

Again, I want to stress, that the review of Mr Raymond W. Leonard is most brilliant and knowledgeable.