Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer: The True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames

by Gregory Feifer and Victor Cherkashin

Book Overview

Victor Cherkashin's incredible career in the KGB spanned thirty-eight years, from Stalin's death in 1953 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In this riveting memoir, Cherkashin provides a remarkable insider's view of the KGB's prolonged conflict with the United States, from his recruitment through his rising career in counterintelligence to his prime spot as the KGB's number- two man at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Victor Cherkashin's story...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465009697
• ISBN13: 9780465009695
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A Real Life Spy Tale

This book is excellent. It reads like an Ian Flemming story but only better. The better part for me is that it was real. This book almost seems like a movie. The author, Victor Cherkashin is sort of like the Forest Gump of the spy world. I say that only because he seems to be in on every major case of US people spying against US. This guy saw it all, the Ames Case, Richard Hansen of the FBI, and several other cases he writes about in the book. The big and the small cases are covered. He was even in on the Clayton Lonetree case. (Marine Embassy Guard in the 80s). It was spell bounding to hear about those cases from the other side. In the book he does detail some of the information that these US spys gave up. This is information that US sources has not reported on. He goes into detail about what Ames and Hansen did to the United States. After reading the book the reader might be a death penality supporter. Those guys gave up some very, very damaging information. You also get to hear about some of the good things the CIA did in the book. You learn about the vast numbers of spies that they collected in Russia. Also he talks about some of the innovative techniques the CIA employed which the KGB caught. These are things that either the press here in the US doesn't want to talk about or the CIA won't talk about in the interest of secrecy. You also get a good does of background knowledge on how spying is conducted today. It isn't James Bond stuff but it isn't normal duties either. If you read this plan on reading it all at once. You won't be able to put the book down.

One of the best cold war memoirs

There is a large number of books dealing with Ames and Hanssen, and Cherkashin is the latest in a long line of former intelligence officers to write his memoirs. However, of all the accounts I have read, this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. Many of these books are very dry. Here, the writing style is engaging and accessible, and allows Cherkashin's personality to show through. There's a lot of interesting background as to how Cherkashin got started with the KGB, and some of the operations he was involved in to entrap foreign businessmen in Russia during the late 1950s and 1960s, prior to moving into foreign intelligence in Beirut. It seems one of Cherkashin's motives in writing this book was to set the record straight. In another memoir, not available in English, another KGB officer named him as the one who gave Aldrich Ames up to the Americans for money. Cherkashin goes to some lengths to reject this accusation and establish his loyalty to his former service and country. There are some mysteries he discusses. Was Vitaly Yurchenko a real defector or was he sent to confuse the CIA by giving up Ron Pelton and Ed Howard in order to draw attention away from Hanssen, Ames and a suspected (but as yet undiscovered) fifth mole? In the main text, Cherkashin gives the impression Yurchenko was a real defector who changed his mind. But he also mentions that Yurchenko "kept the Americans guessing for years" which, possibly, was the whole point. Interestingly to this day Yurchenko refuses all interview requests and has remained in Russia. Cherkashin also claims that on a visit to the US, after being taken ill with stomach pains at a conference and taken to hospital, he was given truth drugs by the FBI in an attempt to find out what he knew - presumably about undiscovered moles in US intelligence. I find that claim a little difficult to believe; he states that his suspicious were aroused when the doctor gave him an injection without first examining him. Given his background, and that he was not completely incapacitated, why would he have allowed this? The memoir has obviously been in production a long time - possibly awaiting clearance from the KGB's successor agencies. Although the book was published in 2005 Cherkashin refers to Ed Howard as "living in Moscow and running a small insurance business". Howard was found dead in unexplained circumstances in July 2002. There is also a great deal on the vicious internal politics of the KGB. Despite successfully running (from the KGB's point of view), the most productive agents since the Cambridge Five, upon his return to Moscow, Cherkashin was treated with suspicion, because these agents had revealed the extent of CIA and FBI penetration of the KGB. In the end he was unfairly pushed out of foreign intelligence. Cherkashin touches on his experiences subsequent to the fall of the Soviet Union. It's impossible not to feel for the guy when he finds that after his forty-year career, due to rampa

Great Spy-thriller, Political-biography, and Memoir all wrapped into one great read

Voted for a 4.5 STARS. Victor Cherkashin is frank and candid from the very beginning. He informs the reader that he has tried to avoid falling "into the trap of polemics," that this is no James Bond-style novel, that he makes his "views about the KGB, the CIA and Soviet and American politics and affairs clear," and that he has not tried to "aggrandize my career on KGB." He also touches on the subject of how his memoir has caused some retired-KGB agents to denigrate his name in the Russian press or veteran circles. After finishing this captivating and intriguing read, I can say, that Cherkashin has been true to his mission that he outlined in the Preface. If there is one book on espionage you want to read, I would highly recommend this one. The read is mostly chronological, outlining his early life, his career start with the KGB, his advancement within this spy agency, and his multinational work abroad. This memoir does an excellent job at psychologically looking at the secretive, spy, and detective mouse and cat work of the CIA and KGB. The spies catch spies business. One revealing detail was that Cherkashin, as a high ranking officer, spends 70 to 80% of his time just filling out paper and communicating back and forth with HQ in Moscow. He does give specifics regarding handling some recruits and spies. Cherkashin also talks about the job of handling the two greatest American spies to work for "mother Russia" - Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames. Cherkashin is also keen on mentioning some top secret and super-tech CIA projects that were uncovered in or around Soviet Union's borders (eavesdropping operations). He never gives too much detail, as he knows that some info is still sensitive. His conclusion that "Despite the billions of dollars spent on counterintelligence, almost all exposed spies are betrayed by other agents" is quite telling. What surprised me the most, is how the author Cherkashin (with the aid of the editor Gregory Feifer) discusses freely his background, his love for Russia and Russian culture, his family, his dangerous operations, his fears and memories of victories, his rage and his cunningness during counterintelligence operations in such a casual manner. It really felt like the author was carrying on a normal conversation with me, and he was giving his testimony of what it means to work for the KGB, and what the job of a Handler is. And he speaks with patriotic pride, with honest self-analysis and KGB and CIA critique, and candid admiration for what is just and right. Another interesting fact is that even nowadays, post-Soviet Union disintegration, the spying business is very much alive and kickin'. Proof of this is the 'recent' catch of American spies Hanssen and Ames.

Riveting and revealing

SPY HANDLER reveals a career officer's unique perspective, his experiences and insights. Often pithy, the anecdotes are charming and well-told, and the author remains remarkably objective throughout. SPY HANDLER reminds us that ultimately the most effective spying is not mechanical but human, known as HUMINT (Human Resource Intelligence). The current market is swamped with a plethora of books on the technical side of gathering intelligence, that is, SIGINT, or Signals Intelligence. Like the obsession with forensics in law enforcement, this focus on technical expertise is only a portion of the story. However, HUMINT is a necessary but double-edged blade. As SPY HANDLER demonstrates, HUMINT is necessary because of the "old school" value of impressions, manipulation, and the wisdom of an officer with years of experience; double-edged because most security leaks--indeed, the most notorious cases from the Soviet Union and the United States--have always involved all-too-human spies. In a genre filled with posturing, pontificating and self-aggrandizement, SPY HANDLER stands above the rest as an excellent personal history of a significant period in recent history. Recommended for fans of intelligence books and modern history.

Ames & Hanssen give KGB the mother lode of intel info on US

In the words of Victor Cherkashin, "Aldrich Ames (CIA) was worth every penny of the $2.7 million he was paid." Moreover, Ames was indeed the "deadliest" KGB spy because he unmasked the CIA's intelligence network in the Soviet Union. However, Robert Hanssen (FBI) "was much more important (to the KGB) because he allowed the KGB to penetrate U.S. intelligence to such a degree that the KGB came to regard him as the greatest asset, surpassing Aldrich Ames," according to the author. Ironically, both Americans were "walk-ins," and were never actively recruited to betray the United States. "Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer," by Victor Cherkashin is an outstanding narrative of how former CIA agent Ames and how former FBI agent Hanssen gave the KGB the "mother lode" of information on the United States intelligence efforts against the former Soviet Union. To America, Ames and Hanssen were monsters...but the author demonstrates how in the eyes of the KGB both men were heroes. Interestingly enough, Ames declares he cooperated with the KGB because, "he worked for an agency that deliberately overestimated Soviet Union capabilities to wrangle more money for its own operations." Hanssen basically cooperated with the KGB because he loved the danger of it and truly thought he was much too smart to get caught. This book covers much territory. The author reports the unmasking of Soviet spies Ronald Pelton, the NSA cryptologist, former Navy sailor John Walker, and Edward Lee Howard. Cherkashin makes mention of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard but only in his description of 1985 as the "year of the spy." In conclusion, the author does an excellent job of describing how a series of lucky breaks dramatically altered the landscape of U.S. - Soviet espionage. He also does a professional job of explaining the Soviet spy strategy of observation, orientation, decision and action. Highly recommended. Bert Ruiz