Loyal Comrades, Ruthless Killers: The Secret Services of the USSR 1917-1991

by Slava Katamidze

Book Overview

The secret services of the Soviet Union were intimately involved in all the great conflicts of the 20th century from 1970-1991; and even since the break up of the Soviet Empire; their inheritors in Russia have played a key role, and continue to do so into the fight against international terror in the early 21st century. No other institution in modern history has had such a deep involvement in international affairs. Loyal Comrades, Ruthless Killers...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0760787069
• ISBN13: 9780760787069
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Nice Collection of Facts, Good Narrative, Great Photos

A disclaimer of bias first: the book - at length - mentions the OMSBON (Separate Motorized Rifle Bridage of Special Designation or, in Katamidze's translation: Special Purpose Motorized Brigade), a military alma mater of my own ('87-'89, Leningrad), although in the late 80s, in my experience Leningrad OMSBON was a total joke. But I certainly enjoyed reading about the elite history of a unit that - in my own late-80s experience - was anything but... The book is clearly organized and spans from the early post-revolutionary days to the very last days of the Soviet empire. The book offers a wealth of photographic material and intriguing vignettes. Whereas the title entices with the coverage of the "ruthless killers" (the sublimated card-carrying socipaths), the bulk of the coverage is, however, more so on the "cunning spies," which - to a NKVD/KGB/FSB buff would be, perhaps, all too familiar. The book offers a particularly nice coverage of Vympel unit's demonstrative seizure of Arzamas-16 nuclear warheads storage facility - as part of highlighting the inherent liabilities of the dissolution of the USSR and the risks of inadvertant nuclear proliferation. Katamidze does a good job of covering the Afganistan invasion prep work performed by the Soviet specials ops (the anti-terrorist Alpha unit, the Zenith group, with the support of a volunteer Muslim Battalion of the Soviet Army). These forces, reports Katamidze, "took the presidential palace of Taj-Bek in 43 minutes" (p. 198). Katamidze - in my opinion - does a nice job of covering the history of OMSBON (in his translation: Special Purpose Motorized Brigade), describing this initially rag-tag "shadow army" of "crack shots, martial artists, boxers, archers" and "about 10,000 of the best Soviet athletes," along with foreigners (Spaniards, Germans, Poles, Chinese, Bulgarians, and others), recruited for diversionary tactics (p. 99). While the book does seem to have a bit of a political slant (which in and of itself is intriguing given its date of publication), it well satisfies its mandate and offers a good deal of gory detail. With the exception of the most pedantic Soviet history buff, a general reader is likely to much enjoy this production. I can't wait for a second edition - if there is going to be one - that would offer a much needed post-Soviet update. Thank you, Slava! Pavel Somov, Ph.D. Author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, Nov. 2008)

Great book

The secret services history is a most interesting theme, one that is often overriden by conspiracy theories and the like. The subject is also undermined by it's own complexity. Slava Katamidze does a great job in presenting it in a simple manner, without losing the connections, and without losing sight of the man on the front. The whole facts presented, I found it astonishing, and extremely revealing in the many things that allowed the extension of the cold war. It also serves to present the facts behind the communist regime of terror. In the whole, this book serves not only to understand secret services of the USSR, but the whole history of the Soviet Union. The whole book is written in chronological order, which serves to keep the reader in track of everything happening at the time onthe global scene. The hardcover edition, with high quality paper, and the picture filled pages make it worth buying. I, however, disliked the unattention to several facts of history underlying the development of the cold war. The book centers itself on the history of the secret services, and somehow misses part of the international big picture.