KGB Today: The Hidden Hand

In a bold new expose unprecedented in its scope and detailed documentation, an internationally renowned authority lays bare for all to see the most secret subject in the world—the clandestine Soviet apparatus known as the KGB. This important new work combines both scholarship and gripping narrative which will absorb readers from start to finish. To those fascinated by mystery and intrigue, the exhaustively researched book offers vivid portraits and riveting stories of KGB officers and agents in action. To all who seek better understanding of contemporary Soviet behavior, the book provides a wealth of original data that will make it an essential reference work for years to come. In his research, author John Barron gained exclusive access to some of the most important KGB officers and spies ever to flee Russia or be caught in the West. Through intimate firsthand accounts elicited from them and independently corroborated, the author takes readers inside forbidden KGB redoubts, both in Moscow and abroad. There we see just how the KGB daily goes about looting other nations of their most valuable technology and guarded secrets, how it continuously tries to manipulate the public opinion and policies of other societies so that they will undermine themselves. The inner workings along with the ruses and subterfuges employed by the KGB today are revealed through the actual experiences of major characters. A gifted young Russian advances through espionage school and headquarters in Moscow to the KGB outpost in Tokyo. Here, using the same methods the Soviets employ in Washington, London, Paris and all other capitals, he suborns journalists and politicians, manipulates the press and penetrates Japanese intelligence. The author names names, including prominent Japanese who are KGB agents. An intrepid, idealistic Marxist is groomed for 20 years and infiltrated into America to take over the Soviet underground in the United States. The officer gives his wife and ultimately his genius son to the KGB with the expectation that he will ascend to the highest levels of the U.S. government. An adventuresome economist betrays hundreds of NATO secrets, informs the Russians that Israel has the atomic bomb and becomes so important that he dines with Yuri Andropov, then chief of the KGB, now ruler of Russia. The book is the first ever to define, explain and illustrate the current Soviet concept of "Active Measures." In so doing, it details precisely how the Soviets now are endeavoring to foment and guide peace and disarmament movements in their interests. Dramatic cases disclose how the KGB has managed to steal or illicitly buy enough sensitive, embargoed American equipment to build whole factories in the Soviet Union. The author also identifies numerous KGB officers and agents in the United Nations and around the globe. Throughout, he etches poignant psychological profiles showing factors that actuate men and women in the KGB. While demonstrating and dramatizing what a pervasive force the KGB is in world affairs, the book starkly illuminates growing Soviet weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Accompanying the text are valuable appendices—delineating the organization of the KGB and listing Soviets expelled from various countries since 1974—and extensive Chapter Notes detailing sources and bibliographical references.