Alexander Orlov: The FBI's KGB General - Hardcover

Gazur, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786709715 ISBN 13: 9780786709717

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

Executions, kidnappings, the assassination of Leon Trotsky, the plunder of gold from the Spanish treasury, Joseph Stalin's "terrible secret"—historical events and classified matters like these are cast in startling new light by KGB General Alexander Orlov, the subject of this riveting and unprecedented memoir by FBI Special Agent Edward Gazur. A veteran in East European counterespionage investigations, Gazur was the final agent assigned to one of the FBI's most fascinating cases when in 1971 he met the highest-ranking KGB defector of all time, General Orlov. Gazur not only debriefed Orlov, he also befriended him, becoming Orlov's literary executor and the sole possessor of his uncensored memoir "The March of Time." Over the course of their sessions, Gazur learned the story of Orlov's spectacular disappearance from Soviet intelligence at the height of the Spanish Civil War and the astonishing range of information he had amassed about his superiors. In 1938 Orlov fled to the United States and lived undercover for fifteen years, hiding from both the KGB and the FBI. In 1953, he came in from the Cold War with a treasure of revelations in his FBI debriefings and later in his bestselling book The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes and a special issue of LIFE magazine. Orlov, however, left other, deeper secrets for his own memoir, which Gazur reveals here for the first time. Although the FBI forbids its counterintelligence experts to write memoirs, Secret Assignment provides an authentic account not only of Stalin's brutal regime and KGB operations in the Cold War and FBI's campaign to uncover vital intelligence, but also the life and mysterious death of the agent even Stalin feared. 16 pages of black-and-white photographs add to this never-before-revealed story.

About this title

From Library Journal

Alexander Orlov has been justly recognized as the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer ever to defect to the West, and his lengthy story is here presented by Gazur, the FBI "minder" assigned to Orlov during the last two years of his life. Gazur acknowledges that this is not a biography but rather a narrative of Orlov's life drawn from his memoirs and personal recollections. Every detail and anecdote of the general's life in the USSR, in Western Europe, and, most minutely, in the United States (a 35-year sojourn) is included. Much of this detail could safely have been omitted. Gazur's account of Orlov's work in Civil War Spain is particularly interesting, as are the details of his 1938 defection and warning to Stalin to leave his Soviet family alone or risk embarrassing revelations. The KGB eventually caught up with him in Cleveland, but he survived unscathed. Gazur also incorporates Orlov-supplied details of famous Soviet intelligence exploits from the first quarter-century of Soviet rule. The book provides some good stories and copious evidence of a brave man with nerves of steel. For the general reader. Robert Johnston, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ont.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Defecting from the Soviet Union in 1938, General Alexander Orlov, a KGB intelligence officer and master spy, successfully lived undercover in the U.S. for 15 years. Coming in from the cold in 1953, he published his best-selling blockbuster, The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes. Gazur, the final FBI agent assigned to his case, developed a unique relationship with Orlov, rooted in friendship and mutual respect. From 1971 until his death in 1973, Orlov relayed his experiences and shared his remarkable story with Gazur. In order to counter the unflattering portrait author John Costello painted of Orlov as a cunning double operative in Deadly Illusions, Gazur decided to pen his own chronicle of Orlov's extraordinary life. Though Orlov remains a controversial figure, Gazur offers a fascinating, personalized account of a Stalinist-era agent. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786709715
• ISBN 13: 9780786709717
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608