KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko

by Boris Volodarsky

In late November 2006 the whole world was shaken by a ruthless assassination in London of former lieutenant colonel of the FSB (the Russian security service and a successor to the KGB) and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko. This has been the most notorious crime in the past 30 years committed by Russian intelligence on foreign soil. Former Russian military intelligence officer and international expert in special operations Boris Volodarsky shows how the Russian poisoning operations started with Lenin and his Cheka, the predecessor of the KGB with intelligence operatives creating poisons and delivery methods as well as planning and carrying out poisoning operations all over the world in order to eliminate the enemies of the Kremlin.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Military Fiction, Russia

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2009

Reviews

[Pete · Rating 1 out of 5]

I simply couldn't finish this book. It was poorly organized and a laborious read. The reader is bombarded with hundreds of names and organizations and most of the incidents related by the author had little to do with a poison program. The author digressed from the main theme constantly and the whole narrative felt bloated.

[Jeremiah Salyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely education but incredibly fragmented. Mr. Volodarksy really leaps around in terms of the narrative flow. Also, I suspect he wrote this in Russian and translated it to english or his grasp of English isn't the greatest. But it is still a fascinating subject. Sometime the context of certain people is not spelled out at all. And he changes the subject often within the same chapter. Despite all these flaws, he still wrote a fascinating and timely book for anyone interested in what the KGB has been up and is up to, or will be again in terms of carrying out political assassinations via poison.

[Lucy Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of a handful of books with real information on the Russian poisoning business. It was one of the best research sources for my novel -- "The Poison Factory - Operation Kamera." Topnotch read!