Book description
ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • The definitive history of Russia’s most secret spy program, from the earliest days of the Soviet Union to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a revelatory examination of how that hidden history shaped both Russia and the West.
More than a century…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Illegals as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I loved this book by Shaun Walker.
While not a novel, this tale reads like one and is a marvelous account of the training, development, and deployment of the USSR’s and Russia’s greatest illegals, many of whom could easily inhabit the finest spy novels ever written. Walker writes about the early inter-war illegals, as well as the later World War II and Cold War illegals, and their colorful lives and personalities, as well as those of their ruthless masters.
I appreciated Walker’s ability to explore the psychological and hidden costs of such work, and the toll which it takes upon…
From Kenneth's list on spy thrillers read in one sitting.
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