A book review of The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth about a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker by Daniel J. Mahoney (2014) I agree with the tenets of this important book on the life and philosophy of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, an insightful intellectual profile as recounted by the author Daniel J. Mahoney, a political scientist at Assumption […]
The Widow Spy is a real-life thriller that begins with a seemingly typical American housewife, Martha (“Marti”) D. Peterson, who in an unusual gesture invites her two teenage children out to lunch. This is twenty years after the main events subsequently depicted in the book. She had remarried and was living what appeared to be
From courageous widow to avenging spy! A book review of The Widow Spy (2012) Read More »
Stalin: Breaker of Nations by Robert Conquest (1991) covers the life of Joseph Stalin, from his childhood in Gori to his death at his Nearer dacha (Kuntsevo) near Moscow on March 5, 1953. This book is 346 pages, including bibliographical notes and index. The book is easy to read, well-organized, and ideal for the beginning
Stalin: Breaker of Nations Read More »
KGB: The Secret Work of the Soviet Secret Agents by John Barron (Reader’s Digest Press, 1974) is a classic KGB espionage saga set during the Cold War! This is a seminal book and monumental work on the history, the (then) current methods, organization, goals, of Soviet espionage — i.e., KGB foreign intelligence with its First
KGB — The Secret Work of the Soviet Secret Agents Read More »
Young Stalin by Simon Montefiore is a well-researched, well-written, absorbing, and authoritative biography of Joseph Stalin’s early years. Following the usual formalities, the book begins with a tantalizing “Prologue,” the audacious robbery and bloody bombing at the festive Yerevan Square in the center of the town of Tiflis (now Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia). The
Young Stalin — from Georgia Bandit to Red Tsar! Read More »
Stalin’s Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 by Jonathan Brent and Vladimir P. Naumov is an in-depth study in psychological survival in a nightmarish police state — Stalin’s Russia, circa 1948-1953. The untangling of this Gordian knot of conspiracies and plots is the convincing achievement of the authors of this suspenseful, historical
The Jewish Doctors’ Plot — The Aborted Holocaust in Stalin’s Russia! Read More »
