Secret servant

"In Secret Servant, one of the most important Soviet defectors of recent years offers an engrossing firsthand portrait of his four decades in a superpower shrouded in secrecy. Disillusioned--but never a dissident--Ilya Dzhirkvelov lays bare the workings of the KGB, its command structure and operational techniques, the intrigues and corruption, during his 37 years of service to the Soviet Union. As he details his rise through the ranks under Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev, he unflinchingly recounts his undercover activities in Russia, Europe, and Africa--from bugging embassies and recruiting…