Soviet War

A thin, balding, and reclusive middle-aged Russian by the name of Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was one of the Soviet Union's most renowned spies during the Cold War of the 1950s . . . . until his cover was blown by an incompetent colleague who wanted to defect to the United States. This is the full account of Abel's espionage work, his dramatic apprehension, his eventual conviction and its affirmation by the United States Supreme Court, and finally, his surprising release back to Russia.

In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes listeners from the heart of Putin's Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine. In a disturbing exposé of Putin's sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting - from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 - to understand the true extent of Putin's long war.

1989 heralded a unique prospect for an enduring global peace, as harsh ideological divisions and conflicts began to be resolved. Now, three decades on, that peace has been lost. With war in Ukraine and increasing tensions between China, Russia, and the West, great power politics once again dominates the world stage. But could it have been different? Richard Sakwa shows how the years before the first mass invasion of Ukraine represented a hiatus in conflict rather than a lasting accord—and how, since then, we have been in a 'Second Cold War'.

Life after the State Department was supposed to be a peaceful respite for Mike Lacondeguy, but an unlikely friend and the Russian mob surfaced with other plans. In FISHING WITH TOLSTOY, the exhilarating introduction to The New Americans trilogy, ex-diplomat Mike Lacondeguy snaps out of his retirement blues and into a world of deception and betrayal. This time, the fight is on his turf. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine draws two Cold War adversaries back into the game to stop the hostilities from escalating. Mike worked with the State Department for three decades in and around Russia, while ...

No one can predict the future. Julian certainly couldn’t. Still, as Paul “PC” Roman sees his grandmother unexpectedly at an Antwerp hotel, he can’t help but think this is what she wished for. He’s well-connected, happy, and wealthy, and his entire family shares in his success. Julian has every right to be proud of her grandson. It turns out that PC doesn’t know his grandmother at all. First, he sees her having dinner with a mysterious man. She brushes off the encounter, but PC begins to feel that something has brought Julian to Antwerp—something important. His instincts prove ...

The Cold War dominated international life from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But how did the conflict begin? Why did it move from its initial origins in Postwar Europe to encompass virtually every corner of the globe? And why, after lasting so long, did the war end so suddenly and unexpectedly? Robert McMahon considers these questions and more, as well as looking at the legacy of the Cold War and its impact on international relations today.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. In the time since the end of the war, the world has become familiar with the number of deaths sustained by the Soviet Union (also known as the USSR) during the conflict - 20 million. And that’s likely low, given the size of the country, census-taking at the time, and the damage done to the bureaucracy of the country.

Volume I Battle Fatigue It's hell on Earth in the explosive battlefields of the former North Korea. Two Corps, Chinese and Korean/American, are slugging it out to decide the fate of the Korean Peninsula as World War Three rages on. SSG Denise Ware is in the thick of the battle with her four ground combat drones, screening the Corps from attack from a Chinese Armored Regiment. The action comes quickly to the drone drivers as they fight to keep the massed Chinese armor from attacking the flank of IV Corps. Will the drones win or lose, or will the Chinese overrun IV Corps and destroy Korea’s...

In the warm predawn darkness of June 22, 1941, three million men waited along a front hundreds of miles long, stretching from the Baltic coast of Poland to the Balkans. Ahead of them in the darkness lay the Soviet Union, its border guarded by millions of Red Army troops echeloned deep throughout the huge spaces of Russia.

A German mountain unit is teamed with a Finnish soldier and Olympic champion to capture Murmansk and cut off Allied supplies to the Russians. Partially based on a true story, Operation Silver Fox, involved Finnish 111 Corps collaborating with German units to capture Salla, and then Murmansk. A war story set against searing cold and old and bitter antagonisms.

The Cold War is usually thought of in terms of fear, potential nuclear war, and espionage. While these were elements of the years between the end of World War II and the 1990s, the competition between the US and the USSR had some real benefits. Perhaps, the best and most impressive accomplishments during this time resulted from the Space Race.

Hans Wette Heinrich's world turns upside down when Nazi Germany promulgates the Nuremberg Laws and he is compelled to seek sanctuary in Africa. His father, new African family, and childhood friend help him turn his haven into a new home. However, he quickly learns that his role as the first son of an African legend comes at a price as he tames his impulses and comes to terms with the reality of his new world beyond his family. Even as he fosters a noble dream that is haunted by nightmares, and even as he tries to live with the ghosts lurking around a legacy that is too big to inherit, he ...

This second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir of his Great Patriotic War begins with the Battle of Kursk. Don't be put off by the first chapter. Moskalenko's Fortieth Army played a relatively minor role in the battle, and I believe he added a bit of unnecessary detail. There is a fairly good and cursory exposition on Voronezh Front operations during the battle in a verbatim report from General Vatutin, commander of Voronezh Front and Moskalenko's immediate superior. Moskalenko's small role at Kursk was not a function of Soviet Supreme Command's opinion of his abilities. The Germans ...

Russian meddling: These are two words that just about everyone has come to know very well in the last few years. Only a fool - or someone with an agenda of a sinister kind - would deny that such meddling occurred. But how many know that, for decades, the Russians secretly used the UFO phenomenon as a means to try and destabilize the West?

The seeds of the Cold War were sown toward the end of World War II. During the war, the US and the Soviet Union were reluctant partners. But as is often the case in history, despite their differences, America and Soviet Russia had a common enemy that brought them together - Nazi Germany. But soon after Truman was elected president, American and Soviet relations began to go south. Before the war was over, disagreements arose over how the postwar world should be administered.

To understand the significance of the parts played by Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher in East-West relations in the second half of the 1980s, Brown addresses several specific questions: What were the values and assumptions of these leaders, and how did their perceptions evolve? What were the major influences on them? To what extent were they reflecting the views of their own political establishment or challenging them? How important for ending the East-West standoff were their interrelations?

War in Korea! November 1950... Red China launches a full-scale attack to help North Korea crush South Korea and conquer the peninsula. Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union joins the fight by creating a “false flag” event to shift world opinion about America’s “police action,” alienate her allies, and ultimately trigger World War Three. But when Mao Tse-tung’s trusted interpreter, Marya Zhōu-Rostov, discovers her hometown on the Yalu River is ground zero for the “event,” she teams up with Flyboy and a CIA paramilitary team, risking life and limb to keep Stalin’s false flag from ...

John Cairncross was among the most damaging spies of the 20th century. A member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring, he leaked highly sensitive documents from Bletchley Park, MI6, and the Treasury to the Soviet Union...Based on newly released archival materials, this biography will be the first to cover the life and espionage of this singularly important spy.

When the Communist Party Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR halted mass operations in repression in November 1938, large numbers of mainly Communist purge victims whose cases remained incomplete were released. At the same time, hundreds of NKVD operatives who had carried out the Great Terror were scapegoated and arrested. Drawing on materials from the largely closed archives of the Soviet security police, this collection of essays by an international team of researchers illuminates the previously opaque world of the NKVD perpetrator.

On September 23, 1949, President Harry S. Truman announced that an atomic explosion had occurred in the Soviet Union. Over the next few days, The New York Times and Washington Post ran articles discussing the timing of the explosion, its impact on military aid to Europe, and subsequent calls for international atomic control.