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The U-2 Over the Soviet Union: America’s Famous Cold War Spy Plane from a Soviet Perspective
On 1 May 1960, a traditional military parade was held in Moscow. What stood it out from the previous ones, however, was the number of missiles, and in particular the ground-to-air anti-aircraft variants, that were present.
There was perhaps nothing surprising in this dominance of missiles, for Nikita Khrushchev had already declared that the so-called Rocket Troops were to be the ‘main branch of the armed forces’. Not for nothing had the Politburo allocated huge sums of money and the best scientific minds to the on-going development of these weapons and units. In fact, there was no fly-past over the Red Square in 1960 as Khrushchev considered aircraft to be a ‘dying species’. From then on, it was being stated, military aviation would be assigned little more than an auxiliary role in the defense of the Soviet Bloc.
Khrushchev’s assessment of the future of aircraft was seemingly confirmed by an incident that occurred more than 1,000km to the east of Moscow. For what the spectators and participants of the grand ‘rocket’ parade did not know was, that in one of the key events of the Cold War, an American high altitude reconnaissance Lockheed U-2 jet had, barely hours before, been shot down over the Urals by one of the types of missiles that were passing before them.
Based on documents held in the CIA’s archives, declassified documents released by the Russian Ministry of defense, and the memoirs of participants in the events in question, this book explores the true story of the preparation, implementation, and consequences of the U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba between 1956 and 1962. For the first time, the author reveals the military plans that were activated in the Eastern Bloc to combat the U-2 missions, and how the Soviets tried unsuccessfully to create a fighter-interceptor to operate in the stratosphere. This book also reveals which secret locations and objects were photographed by the U-2, including those which remained unidentified, and investigates where the secret center of the Russian atomic project was actually located and whether the U-2 was able to find it. What was the true reliability and value of the information received from America’s U-2 operations?
The reader will discover which objects were confiscated from Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of the U-2 brought down, following his capture, and why was he had been issued with women’s jewelry and watches before his fateful flight? The Soviet view of the incursions by Powers and his fellow U-2 pilots is laid bare – revealing just why the Powers’ name is as widely known in Russia as that of the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
There was perhaps nothing surprising in this dominance of missiles, for Nikita Khrushchev had already declared that the so-called Rocket Troops were to be the ‘main branch of the armed forces’. Not for nothing had the Politburo allocated huge sums of money and the best scientific minds to the on-going development of these weapons and units. In fact, there was no fly-past over the Red Square in 1960 as Khrushchev considered aircraft to be a ‘dying species’. From then on, it was being stated, military aviation would be assigned little more than an auxiliary role in the defense of the Soviet Bloc.
Khrushchev’s assessment of the future of aircraft was seemingly confirmed by an incident that occurred more than 1,000km to the east of Moscow. For what the spectators and participants of the grand ‘rocket’ parade did not know was, that in one of the key events of the Cold War, an American high altitude reconnaissance Lockheed U-2 jet had, barely hours before, been shot down over the Urals by one of the types of missiles that were passing before them.
Based on documents held in the CIA’s archives, declassified documents released by the Russian Ministry of defense, and the memoirs of participants in the events in question, this book explores the true story of the preparation, implementation, and consequences of the U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba between 1956 and 1962. For the first time, the author reveals the military plans that were activated in the Eastern Bloc to combat the U-2 missions, and how the Soviets tried unsuccessfully to create a fighter-interceptor to operate in the stratosphere. This book also reveals which secret locations and objects were photographed by the U-2, including those which remained unidentified, and investigates where the secret center of the Russian atomic project was actually located and whether the U-2 was able to find it. What was the true reliability and value of the information received from America’s U-2 operations?
The reader will discover which objects were confiscated from Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of the U-2 brought down, following his capture, and why was he had been issued with women’s jewelry and watches before his fateful flight? The Soviet view of the incursions by Powers and his fellow U-2 pilots is laid bare – revealing just why the Powers’ name is as widely known in Russia as that of the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 10, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 11, 2026
Rounding up from 2.5.
Edit: God how I prattle on.
Orig: This book failed on so many levels, but I have to offer it at least a few stars for the author's effort to present a Russian-eye view of the development of the U-2, from German high altitude flight experiments during WW2 to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author admits that he was born during the Cold War, and was fed information from family members who themselves dined on Soviet State media on a daily basis. As such, there is quite an interesting anti-Western bent to the facts provided. Regardless, there were many facts revealed to me that I was completely unaware of, to the point of having to research to provide verification. One small example came when the text revealed that the Soviets conducted nuclear testing with an air-burst detonation at an altitude of 290 km. All true.
Significant marks off for the translation, which was nothing short of a travesty. There are three ways to translate moderately technical non-fiction literature: first, a translation that is grammatically and technically correct in the target language, at the education level of the original text - that's what we shoot for. Second, a translation that is coherent enough to follow and contains at least 90% of the essential elements of information rendered correctly - not ideal, but the reader will get a good idea of what is happening at any given point in the literature. Third, and clearly least desirable, is what we have here - a translation with so many mistakes as to render the overall text incoherent in many passages.
I suspect the translator is a native Russian speaker with a good grasp of the topic, but armed with either a poor machine translation engine or, also likely, a cocky sense that his or her ability to speak English will suffice for a book of this technical depth. Speaking a second language does not make you a translator - it takes years of study and years of practice, with mentors or advisers offering guidance when it is needed. I've seen too many people approach me professionally and tell me they could do what I do because they are a native (name-a-language) speaker who knows English. Not to sound too pedantic, but translation is an art. Yes, you have canvas and some oil paints, but you're not Picasso.
Enough of that soapbox.
The translation we're presented with has too many words that are essentially carried over from Russian to their English counterparts - локаторы /lokatory/ are referred to as 'locators' which is the English transliteration, but the passage in question is about radars. Катапульта /katapulta/ is translated as catapult, another tricky cognate. In this type of text, it is correctly translated as 'ejection seat'. There are too many similar examples to bore you with.
Finally, Degtev is no slouch in the publishing world within the Russian Federation. He's got dozens upon dozens of excellent (at times, sensationalist) books on military history. For some reason, when his work was translated for the English-speaking market, hiring an editor was perhaps assumed to be too costly. It's a shame, because there are errors (grammatical, repetition, punctuation, etc.) on almost every page.
The translation challenge and need for an editor led to nearly-crippling distractions that made me wonder why I was continuing the book at all.
An okay book overall. Read it for the facts and Soviet-eye view, and mind the other speed bumps I've whined on and on about.
Edit: God how I prattle on.
Orig: This book failed on so many levels, but I have to offer it at least a few stars for the author's effort to present a Russian-eye view of the development of the U-2, from German high altitude flight experiments during WW2 to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author admits that he was born during the Cold War, and was fed information from family members who themselves dined on Soviet State media on a daily basis. As such, there is quite an interesting anti-Western bent to the facts provided. Regardless, there were many facts revealed to me that I was completely unaware of, to the point of having to research to provide verification. One small example came when the text revealed that the Soviets conducted nuclear testing with an air-burst detonation at an altitude of 290 km. All true.
Significant marks off for the translation, which was nothing short of a travesty. There are three ways to translate moderately technical non-fiction literature: first, a translation that is grammatically and technically correct in the target language, at the education level of the original text - that's what we shoot for. Second, a translation that is coherent enough to follow and contains at least 90% of the essential elements of information rendered correctly - not ideal, but the reader will get a good idea of what is happening at any given point in the literature. Third, and clearly least desirable, is what we have here - a translation with so many mistakes as to render the overall text incoherent in many passages.
I suspect the translator is a native Russian speaker with a good grasp of the topic, but armed with either a poor machine translation engine or, also likely, a cocky sense that his or her ability to speak English will suffice for a book of this technical depth. Speaking a second language does not make you a translator - it takes years of study and years of practice, with mentors or advisers offering guidance when it is needed. I've seen too many people approach me professionally and tell me they could do what I do because they are a native (name-a-language) speaker who knows English. Not to sound too pedantic, but translation is an art. Yes, you have canvas and some oil paints, but you're not Picasso.
Enough of that soapbox.
The translation we're presented with has too many words that are essentially carried over from Russian to their English counterparts - локаторы /lokatory/ are referred to as 'locators' which is the English transliteration, but the passage in question is about radars. Катапульта /katapulta/ is translated as catapult, another tricky cognate. In this type of text, it is correctly translated as 'ejection seat'. There are too many similar examples to bore you with.
Finally, Degtev is no slouch in the publishing world within the Russian Federation. He's got dozens upon dozens of excellent (at times, sensationalist) books on military history. For some reason, when his work was translated for the English-speaking market, hiring an editor was perhaps assumed to be too costly. It's a shame, because there are errors (grammatical, repetition, punctuation, etc.) on almost every page.
The translation challenge and need for an editor led to nearly-crippling distractions that made me wonder why I was continuing the book at all.
An okay book overall. Read it for the facts and Soviet-eye view, and mind the other speed bumps I've whined on and on about.
June 6, 2026
The book introduces a lot more about the U-2 program than simply the Francis Gary Powers incident. There is plenty of detail here about the development of the program and its subsequent lifecycle. It delivers the Soviet Perspective with that Cold War tone of the era. The one complaint I have is regarding the clunky translation; it's as if the work was done in a hurry and the translator had no idea how to express the Russian genitive case. Still, I recommend it to those interested in the history of the Cold War era.
February 5, 2026
In "The U-2 Over the Soviet Union: America’s Famous Cold War Spy Plane from a Soviet Perspective," acclaimed Russian analyst and researcher Dmitry Degtev offers an insightful exploration of one of the Cold War's most pivotal espionage programs.
Drawing on his extensive expertise as the author of over 43 books, Degtev provides a nuanced account of the planning, execution, and ramifications of the U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union from 1956 to 1962. The narrative is anchored in a wealth of primary sources, including CIA records, declassified documents from the Russian Ministry of Defence, and firsthand testimonies from those directly involved in the operations. Through this meticulous research, Degtev illuminates the strategic military responses of the Eastern Bloc to these aerial incursions and delves into the technical challenges faced by the Soviets, including their unsuccessful efforts to develop a stratospheric interceptor.
A particularly compelling section of the book covers the infamous shootdown of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers on May 1, 1960, during a Soviet military parade that underscored missile superiority. Here, Degtev contextualizes the incident within the broader Cold War landscape, analyzing its implications on Soviet military doctrine and highlighting the regime's emphasis on its "Rocket Troops" as the dominant force in national defense. The unexpected inclusion of items confiscated from Powers upon his capture, such as women’s jewelry, adds a humanizing touch to the complex geopolitical narrative.
Degtev also engages in a critical examination of the intelligence gathered during these missions, questioning the effectiveness of the U-2 flights in pinpointing key Soviet installations, including the confidential sites associated with the Soviet atomic project that remain unidentified to this day.
By presenting these events through a Soviet lens, Degtev ensures that readers appreciate the nuanced dynamics of Cold War espionage, revealing how the U-2 incidents not only informed military strategies but also shaped the ideological confrontation between the superpowers.
In sum, "The U-2 Over the Soviet Union" is a significant scholarly work that reveals a somewhat different view, from a Soviet perspective, on a critical chapter of the Cold War, and it will undoubtedly be of interest to historians, military strategists, and anyone intrigued by the intricate web of international relations during a time of heightened tension and competition.
Reviewer background: Colonel Charles P “Chuck” Wilson, USAF Ret., Past-Chairman of the Board- The Cold War Museum®; Cold War U-2 Pilot, AF Commander multiple levels including being a Two-Time U-2 Squadron Commander in both Saudi Arabia and South Korea, 40+ year Daedalian, NASM DOCENT
Drawing on his extensive expertise as the author of over 43 books, Degtev provides a nuanced account of the planning, execution, and ramifications of the U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union from 1956 to 1962. The narrative is anchored in a wealth of primary sources, including CIA records, declassified documents from the Russian Ministry of Defence, and firsthand testimonies from those directly involved in the operations. Through this meticulous research, Degtev illuminates the strategic military responses of the Eastern Bloc to these aerial incursions and delves into the technical challenges faced by the Soviets, including their unsuccessful efforts to develop a stratospheric interceptor.
A particularly compelling section of the book covers the infamous shootdown of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers on May 1, 1960, during a Soviet military parade that underscored missile superiority. Here, Degtev contextualizes the incident within the broader Cold War landscape, analyzing its implications on Soviet military doctrine and highlighting the regime's emphasis on its "Rocket Troops" as the dominant force in national defense. The unexpected inclusion of items confiscated from Powers upon his capture, such as women’s jewelry, adds a humanizing touch to the complex geopolitical narrative.
Degtev also engages in a critical examination of the intelligence gathered during these missions, questioning the effectiveness of the U-2 flights in pinpointing key Soviet installations, including the confidential sites associated with the Soviet atomic project that remain unidentified to this day.
By presenting these events through a Soviet lens, Degtev ensures that readers appreciate the nuanced dynamics of Cold War espionage, revealing how the U-2 incidents not only informed military strategies but also shaped the ideological confrontation between the superpowers.
In sum, "The U-2 Over the Soviet Union" is a significant scholarly work that reveals a somewhat different view, from a Soviet perspective, on a critical chapter of the Cold War, and it will undoubtedly be of interest to historians, military strategists, and anyone intrigued by the intricate web of international relations during a time of heightened tension and competition.
Reviewer background: Colonel Charles P “Chuck” Wilson, USAF Ret., Past-Chairman of the Board- The Cold War Museum®; Cold War U-2 Pilot, AF Commander multiple levels including being a Two-Time U-2 Squadron Commander in both Saudi Arabia and South Korea, 40+ year Daedalian, NASM DOCENT
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews