Soviet History - General & Miscellaneous, Great Britain - Espionage, Soviet Union - Espionage, Communism by Region, Russian & Soviet Armed Forces - Biography, 20th Century American History - Cold War, 1917 - 1991 (Soviet Union) - History, Soviet Union - B

The Spy Who Saved the World

Name: The Spy Who Saved the World
Author: Jerrold L. Schecter, Peter S. Deriabin
ISBN: 9780684190686

by Jerrold L. Schecter, Peter S. Deriabin

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Overview

The Spy Who Saved the World tells, for the first time, the complete story of the life and legendary career of the greatest spy of the Cold War, Oleg Penkovsky, the highest-ranking Soviet military official ever to cooperate with the West. At the height of the Cold War, during 1961 and 1962. Oleg Penkovsky provided the CIA and MI6, the British Intelligence Service, with unusually reliable data on Soviet military intentions and nuclear strength. This information, channeled directly to President John E Kennedy on a regular basis, was instrumental in assuring U.S. victory during the Cuban missile crisis. The authors base their startling and historic reappraisal of Oleg Penkovsky's career on thousands of pages of government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Never before has the tradecraft of spying been revealed with such dramatic force. Penkovsky offered himself to the West as a soldier of freedom. His own career in the Soviet military had been stalled by the fact that his father had fought against the Bolsheviks during the 1917 Revolution, and he was obsessed by this legacy, which made him suspect in the U.S.S.R. For the CIA and MI6, Penkovsky was the ultimate inside source; his access to military secrets was unparalleled and his devotion to serving the West was unlimited. No other work has detailed in such spellbinding fashion exactly how the CIA "runs" its agents - or how brutally the KGB hunts down its turncoats. KGB surveillance brought Penkovsky's work to an abrupt end in late 1962. The true story of Penkovsky's trial and execution is told here far the first time. Meticulously documenting the wealth of information that Penkovsky provided, Schecter and Deriabin conclusively refute one of the enduring myths of the Cold War - that Oleg Penkovsky was a KGB plant. Penkovsky's reporting of thirty years ago demonstrates that political and economic failures were already eroding the foundations of the Soviet empire. The Spy Who Saved the World ma

Synopsis

Examines how Oleg Penkovsky provided U.S. intelligence with data on Soviet nuclear capabilities

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

During the Cold War the CIA's premier agent in the Soviet Union was a high-level intelligence officer named Oleg Penkovsky. For two years in the early 1960s he supplied the CIA with highly classified information on Soviet rocket strength and strategic planning, information that assisted President Kennedy in his handling of the world's first nuclear confrontation, the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. In the author's view, no spy in history has provided more useful material or had greater impact. Granted access to transcripts of Penkovsky's debriefings in Paris and London by U.S. and British intelligence, Schecter and Deriabin bring into focus for the first time Penkovsky's character and personality, his motivations for betraying his country, and the dimensions of the risks he took. The book concludes with a gripping account of how Penkovsky was caught by the KGB, his trial and 1963 execution. The authors call Penkovsky a fearless prophet whose heroism saved the world from nuclear war. A thoroughly good read, the book is rich in details of intelligence fieldcraft and specifics on how the CIA ``ran'' its operatives. Schecter is a former Time-Life bureau chief in Moscow; Deriabin, a former KGB official, defected to the West in 1954. Photos. (Mar.)

Library Journal

The most dangerous time of the recently concluded Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis. This book claims that the secret information transmitted by Oleg Penkovsky of Soviet Military Intelligence was vital in allowing the United States to prevail in October 1962. The possibility of global conflict was very real, and Penkovsky was even plotting to blow up the Soviet General Staff in case of war. The research for this book seems fairly solid; Schecter describes how he interviewed KGB officials in Moscow, and there is a chapter on the publication of The Penkovskiy Papers ( LJ 12/1/65), which coauthor Deriapin, himself a KGB defector, translated. The tale of Penkovsky, executed in 1963, reinforces the belief that the human factor is more important than the technological factor in espionage. This is a famous case, and there are many published sources to corroborate parts of this book. A well-organized story that is sure to fascinate those interested in intelligence activities and U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union. Recommended.-- Daniel K. Blewett, Loyola Univ. Lib., Chicago.

Booknews

In a text as hyperbolic as its title, Schecter, a former Time-Life Moscow Bureau Chief, and Deriabin, a former KGB official who defected to the West in 1954, credit spy-counterspy Oleg Penkovsky with saving the world from nuclear war--twice!--during the Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)