The billion dollar spy : a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal / David E. Hoffman.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Doubleday, 2015Edition: First editionDescription: 312 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 0385537603 (alkaline paper)
- 9780385537605 (alkaline paper)
- Tolkachev, Adolf, 1927-1986
- United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- History -- 20th century
- Aeronautics -- Research -- Soviet Union -- History
- Cold War
- Engineers -- Soviet Union -- Biography
- Espionage, American -- Soviet Union -- History
- Spies -- Russia (Federation) -- Moscow -- Biography
- Spies -- United States -- Biography
- Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 327.1209 H699 | Available | 33111008192367 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 327.1209 H699 | Available | 33111008024149 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the CIA's Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold War
While driving out of the American embassy in Moscow on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station heard a knock on his car window. A man on the curb handed him an envelope whose contents stunned U.S. intelligence: details of top-secret Soviet research and developments in military technology that were totally unknown to the United States. In the years that followed, the man, Adolf Tolkachev, an engineer in a Soviet military design bureau, used his high-level access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of technical secrets. His revelations allowed America to reshape its weapons systems to defeat Soviet radar on the ground and in the air, giving the United States near total superiority in the skies over Europe.
One of the most valuable spies to work for the United States in the four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet Union, Tolkachev took enormous personal risks--but so did the Americans. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev was a singular breakthrough. Using spy cameras and secret codes as well as face-to-face meetings in parks and on street corners, Tolkachev and his handlers succeeded for years in eluding the feared KGB in its own backyard, until the day came when a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.
Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA and on interviews with participants, David Hoffman has created an unprecedented and poignant portrait of Tolkachev, a man motivated by the depredations of the Soviet state to master the craft of spying against his own country. Stirring, unpredictable, and at times unbearably tense, The Billion Dollar Spy is a brilliant feat of reporting that unfolds like an espionage thriller.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Map -- Prologue -- Out of the Wilderness -- Moscow Station -- A Man Called Sphere -- "Finally I have reached you" -- "A dissident at heart" -- Six Figures -- Spy Camera -- Windfalls and Hazards -- The Billion Dollar Spy -- Flight of Utopia -- Going Black -- Devices and Desires -- Tormented by the Past -- "Everything is dangerous" -- Not Caught Alive -- Seeds of Betrayal -- Vanquish -- Selling Out -- Without Warning -- On the Run -- "For freedom" -- Epilogue -- A Note on the Intelligence.
"While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States. From 1979 to 1985, Adolf Tolkachev, an engineer at a military research center, cracked open the secret Soviet military research establishment, using his access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of material about the latest advances in aviation technology, alerting the Americans to possible developments years in the future. He was one of the most productive and valuable spies ever to work for the United States in the four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet Union. Tolkachev took enormous personal risks, but so did his CIA handlers. Moscow station was a dangerous posting to the KGB's backyard. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev became a singular breakthrough. With hidden cameras and secret codes, and in face-to-face meetings with CIA case officers in parks and on street corners, Tolkachev and the CIA worked to elude the feared KGB. Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA, as well as interviews with participants, Hoffman reveals how the depredations of the Soviet state motivated one man to master the craft of spying against his own nation until he was betrayed to the KGB by a disgruntled former CIA trainee. No one has ever told this story before in such detail, and Hoffman's deep knowledge of spycraft, the Cold War, and military technology makes him uniquely qualified to bring readers this real-life espionage thriller"--Provided by publisher.