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The billion dollar spy : a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal  Cover Image Book Book

The billion dollar spy : a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal

Summary: "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.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780345805973 (trade paperback) :
  • Physical Description: print
    xiv, 391 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 21 cm
  • Publisher: New York : Anchor, 2016, 2015.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical reference and index.
Formatted Contents Note: 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.
Subject: Tolkachev, Adolf -- 1927-1986
United States. -- Central Intelligence Agency -- History -- 20th century
Spies -- United States -- Biography
Spies -- Russia (Federation) -- Moscow -- Biography
Engineers -- Soviet Union -- Biography
Aeronautics -- Research -- Soviet Union -- History
Espionage, American -- Soviet Union -- History
Cold War
United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union
Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States
Genre: Biographies.

Available copies

  • 2 of 2 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Nelson Public Library B TOL (Text) 35148002000780 Biography Volume hold Available -
Williams Lake Branch 327.12092 TOL (Text) 33923005738426 Non-fiction Volume hold Available -

Summary: "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.
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