In the euphoria that followed the collapse of the USSR and the ending of the Cold War, Western countries made the mistake of assuming that one discredited national socialist regime had been swept away and that it would be replaced by the form of democracy favoured in many European countries. That simplistic assessment resulted in lost opportunities and the gradual drift back towards a form of government similar to the old USSR, but in a smaller territory and with greater wealth from more effective exploitation of energy supplies.
NAME: The KGB’s Poison Factory – From Lenin to Litvinenko
CLASSIFICATION: Book Reviews
FILE: R1572
DATE: 201209
AUTHOR: Boris Volodarsky
PUBLISHER: Frontline Books, Pen & Sword Books
BINDING: Hard back
PAGES: 288
PRICE: GB £19.99
GENRE: Non fiction
SUBJECT: Spies, assassins, poison, intelligence services, abduction, political assassination, KGB, GRU, NKVD, OGPU
ISBN: 978-1-84832-542-5
IMAGE: B1572.jpg
LINKS: http://tinyurl.com/
DESCRIPTION: In the euphoria that followed the collapse of the USSR and the ending of the Cold War, Western countries made the mistake of assuming that one discredited national socialist regime had been swept away and that it would be replaced by the form of democracy favoured in many European countries. That simplistic assessment resulted in lost opportunities and the gradual drift back towards a form of government similar to the old USSR, but in a smaller territory and with greater wealth from more effective exploitation of energy supplies. One event shocked the West. When former KGB Colonel Litvinenko was poisoned in London by Russian agents in November 2006 the West was forced to acknowledge that expectations for Russia were misplaced. This has been further reinforced by incursions of Russian military aircraft into NATO airspace, an invasion of Georgia, threats to cut supplies of gas and oil to Europe as political bargaining counters, and a renewed arms race. It really should not have come as the surprise it all did because Russia was only following its long history. Western politicians and intelligence analysts would have been well-advised to spend more time in a study of Russian history. The rule of a strong man goes back to the first Czars. The employment of repressive organs of state goes back as far. Under Ivan The Terrible a terror similar to the Chinese Cultural Revolution was unleashed across Russia to place the Boyars and peasants firmly under central control. That process has been repeated over the centuries. Russia has also long been focussed on expansion. From a small country on the edge of Europe, Russia expanded to the Black Sea and across to North America. Periodically it suffered reverses and contracted, only to expand again. Generations of Russians and their satellites have become accustomed to servitude, establishing a way of life that has seen very little change. When the Soviets came to power in the wake of the 1917 Uprising against Czar Nicholas, they did not create new organs of state but simply took over and renamed those that had flourished under the Czars. The feared secret police changed little in its operations but adopted a series of new names and developed a more active overseas arm. Trotski fled to Mexico and was followed by assassins in much the same way that the killers followed Litvinenko. In many instances poison was the favoured weapon of the assassins. The author was a captain in the GRU Spetnaz and therefore writes with strong insight. The GRU and the KGB may not have loved each other but they were parts of the Soviet intelligence apparatus and used common technology alongside their individual systems. The author has taken 20 cases to illustrate a more widespread and long-lived system of political assassination. This is an important book that should appeal to a wide readership, not least because of the publicity surrounding the Litvinenko case. There is a limited level of illustration confined to a section of b&w plates, but the writing is clear and involving.