Jonathan Haslam, one of the best historians in University of Cambridge, has yet again produced a masterpiece. It is a magnus opus on the Soviet intelligence system. He has written on intelligence in the European state systems before, and the intelligence system of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. While the subject still revolves on the secret intelligence apparatus of the old Soviet Union, he was able to explain the inner belly of the beast with more flair, indeed, with impressive precision on espionage.
Modern Russia, however, has moved from sheer reliance on human intelligence to cyber-espionage; as was seen most clearlyin the hacking of the Democratic National party and the US presidential election. This book, however, shows the seriousness by which Stalin emphasizedthe ruthlessness of espionage. If President Putin had been measured against Stalin’s methods, the former would have looked like a proverbial Boy Scout. This book delves into all the insidious aspects of the Soviet intelligence system, especially the history that paved the way to its crude methods
When the Soviet Communist Party came into power in 1917, it could only secure some cities, not all of Russia and other peripheral lands. Suspicions on counter revolutionaries were at their peak, even before the Nazi invasion or the Cold War.Soviet Union, in other words, rested on brittle ground, and spying became the edifice of itsexistence, not just weaponry and offensive military platforms. “Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence,” is an exceptional work of scholarship. It has breadth, depth, and archival references that runs into reams of pages.