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Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller
Sheymov, is the real thing. A former KGB officer who had access to the most sensitive Soviet intelligence. He describes in detail his life as a member of the KGB and his defection to the West. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
420 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1993
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July 27, 2023
3.50 stars
May 15, 2021
How do people change their minds? What brings people to convert from one deeply-held belief to another or to abandon one deeply-held belief for doubt? Examples of conversion include Eldridge Cleaver from Black Panther to Republican, David Horowitz from Marxist to conservative, Alexander Solzhenitsyn from Marxist to Christian, Alexander Barmine from Soviet loyalist to defector, Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Muslim to classical liberal, Victor Sheymov from Soviet loyalist to classical liberal. For some, a personal tragedy provokes a reexamination of fundamental assumptions, as when the Black Panthers killed a friend whom David Horowitz recommended for a job with the Black Panthers. For others, an inclination toward intellectual consistency provokes a dark night of the soul. Losing faith hurts. Normal people will no more set out to reexamine fundamental beliefs than they will amputate their right foot without anesthetic.
Conversion often involves a gradual erosion of faith. Alexander Solzhenitsyn described the unease with the Soviet system that he felt as a child. In _Mig Pilot_, John Baron describes the unease that Victor Belenko felt as a youth with the prevalent corruption and cynicism of the Soviet system. A personal tragedy (a failed marriage) contributed to Belenko's disillusion.
Vassily Grossman treats the phenomenon of conversion at length in his great novel _Life and Fate_. Victor Sheymov gives readers a non-fiction treatment of the topic from an analytical, impersonal yet intimate and personal point of view.
Victor Sheymov specialized in electronic communication security. Sheymov writes in the third person about his work and his departure, intellectually and physically, from the Soviet Union. This part of _Tower of Secrets_ reads like John LeCarre. Those who find the puzzle of conversion of interest will value Sheymov's account of his conversations with his wife, in which they together worked themselves around to something like classical liberalism, an accomplishment akin to inventing Analytic Geometry unaided. Like Victor Belenko, Victor Sheymov and his wife, at great risk, abandoned a life of privilege for little more than intellectual and moral integrity. Which, to them, apparently, was no small thing.
Conversion often involves a gradual erosion of faith. Alexander Solzhenitsyn described the unease with the Soviet system that he felt as a child. In _Mig Pilot_, John Baron describes the unease that Victor Belenko felt as a youth with the prevalent corruption and cynicism of the Soviet system. A personal tragedy (a failed marriage) contributed to Belenko's disillusion.
Vassily Grossman treats the phenomenon of conversion at length in his great novel _Life and Fate_. Victor Sheymov gives readers a non-fiction treatment of the topic from an analytical, impersonal yet intimate and personal point of view.
Victor Sheymov specialized in electronic communication security. Sheymov writes in the third person about his work and his departure, intellectually and physically, from the Soviet Union. This part of _Tower of Secrets_ reads like John LeCarre. Those who find the puzzle of conversion of interest will value Sheymov's account of his conversations with his wife, in which they together worked themselves around to something like classical liberalism, an accomplishment akin to inventing Analytic Geometry unaided. Like Victor Belenko, Victor Sheymov and his wife, at great risk, abandoned a life of privilege for little more than intellectual and moral integrity. Which, to them, apparently, was no small thing.
May 10, 2022
This was a third-person autobiographical account by an intelligent, well-educated Muscovite who worked on the Soviet version of star wars program’s guidance system for satellite weapons, and his work later in the higher echelons of the KGB. Taking place before 1980 his account is saturated with energy and interest. His exceptional memory for and depth of details --of conversations and activities of his work in both institutions, his perceptions and observation of both his own country and, from his travels in Poland and China, events he witnesses, and his views and analysis of the real-world events, ideologies, and ethical questions raised by the practice versus purported objectives of communism in those countries. Painstaking efforts to determine what was really going on, and asking questions some of which took years to answer, due to what he calls ‘trouble shooting’. Through propaganda permeated from childhood up in all citizens, even the ‘elite’ (the class he was born into and held increasingly responsible positions in) who had privileges far beyond those of the average citizen, the abuses rampant using the excuses of the stated ideals, seeing over time the huge discrepancies. His belief in the ideals confounded during his experiences seeing citizens manipulated mercilessly for the supposed good of “Mother Russia”. Structure of the system is that few workers have more than a tiny area of understanding about how it all works, but as he becomes promoted into higher and higher positions at the KGB can see more of the State’s underpinnings.
He hears about his wife’s mother finally, telling her daughter about family assassinations by the KGB pretending it never happened so their children wouldn’t know and get taken away for knowing too much. Shortly after finding this out, his friend is also killed by KGB operatives, with a mostly successful ensuing cover-up by govt using scurrilous scapegoating of the friend’s wife, and his painstaking efforts to find out the details for her. It reads well and holds together throughout the narrative. He is finally convinced, along with his own wife, that they are living in a truly corrupt and morally bankrupt system, with no hope for correction. You see why the State has become so powerful and how impossible it is to change things in any way based on its structure.
He becomes interested in finding the true roots of that communism, to understand the real purpose, but even that search for its roots is considered anti-communist by the all-powerful, and puts him at risk for being sent to a prison camp with years of hard labor his reward. He finds the texts secretly and reads the writings and commentaries of the original thinkers, Marx, Lenin, etc, to understand the rationale for this miserable state of affairs, to try to understand if there is really a higher reasoning for why these murders and proscriptions came to be thought acceptable. He examines them thoroughly, seeing the contradictions in the logic and reasoning, and concludes there is no way to perfect a philosophy that is at its basis, amorphous and flawed. Like many ‘holy’ books, those contradictions allowed those desiring power over others to interpret them any which way at all, arbitrarily, and create any kind of mayhem that was useful to their own purposes.
Ethically questionable actions of not just the Soviets but the bloc countries, the Chinese intelligence, for example, who during Stalin’s era built the Soviets an embassy with built-in security deficiencies so the Chinese could surveil Soviets secretly, whose creative complexity created a natural acoustic back-door, which wasn’t discovered by the Soviets until the 1970s. China was looking for any advantage over the Soviets even back then, while they appeared to be on very friendly terms. He avoids saying what the reader’s mind creates: the missing cliché’s and truisms. You can easily reach your own conclusions: that the mindset of both countries was similar, and that they were both willing to do whatever it took to gain power over the other.
He mentions that their traffic laws are a bit different. If a light turned red and a driver was 100 feet away he didn’t have to stop. He wonders if it is because the majority of the Chinese that he saw on the streets in Beijing are malnourished and their reaction times were affected. He had been sent to Beijing and during a walk, he and his ‘minder’ came across a truck with handcuffed men who had stolen as little as $10 wearing placards detailing their crimes, being driven around the country and publically shamed, and was told it was a journey for them to later be put to death or given 20 years very hard labor.
He learned how to tell who worked for the military or police by the fact that they “had sleek cheeks and an obviously healthy appearance”, that the vast majority of the people were malnourished, and although they all worked very hard, could not lift or carry as much as a typical Russian.
He adds what some might believe are extraneous details about how during the Korean war, when Soviets trained Chinese pilots to fly the Chinese were so malnourished, their reaction times and ability to withstand the g-forces during maneuvers caused crashes through blackouts, but that once the Chinese were fed a normal quantity of food this trend ended. That China was willing to go to great lengths to simply gain access to the Russian Ambassador’s wastebasket and official calendar, in East Germany years ago, by taking 10s of 1000s of man-hours and equipment tunneling and building devices to attain access to that wastebasket and calendar. Reported to the Soviets not by the East Germans due to embarrassment, but found out by a Soviet agent in the embassy later on.
This all happened before 1980, and it makes you wonder what is going on, now, more than 35 years later, as countries continue to spy on their friends and neighbors as well as enemies. What is known is a fraction of what is going on, because by its nature relationships between countries are towers of secrets. Most people, myself included would like to see more transparency, but by reading history we see how difficult it is to work well unilaterally, since a cold-war mentality runs so many, and the few who try for advantages over others create havoc for all, in their quests for an (unfair) advantage. This a profound book, not because it proselytizes, because it does not, but that it explores the roots of what makes us human: why we hide or reveal, from ourselves as well as others, why we behave the way we do, and what creates a human outlook. Although not named as doing so, it asks these and other questions, like the importance of the self-concept to create what we do in any situation. His narrative illustrates the best and worst of human nature and allows you think about it in ways you hadn’t thought of before.
His writing is excellent: he shows, more than he merely tells. His writing reveals him to be an extraordinary individual, who not only displays the activities and behaviors revealing his own intelligence and awareness but even mistakes he has made. His intense desire to understand things, and troubleshoot intricacies leads to questions to which he finds answers, keeping at it with a persistence and energy that is inspiring. The disinterest in what his wife Olga says, by other reviewers, was for me surprising. It was extremely relevant and if you want to understand the milieu of the times and the intricacies of human thinking about what was seen versus what was happening underneath, her contributions are crucial. This is a truly historical read, with much more than the average history book because of these details. This history of a time, of an era, he and his wife’s contributions are highly reflective of life in Russia. I found myself anxious to learn what was going to happen next, for example, about why she was upset about what propaganda that she saw in what her child and children at school experience, like all children in all Soviet schools. What she and he thought and felt, as illustrated in their interactions with people they know: the scientists, the KGB people, their families, and the normal people, many of whom were similarly aware that all was not as it seemed in Mother Russia.
You learn the combination of circumstances that finally led to Sheymov becoming “a traitor” to his country and leaving it. Real change was impossible from the inside, no matter how high a position he held, and he was very high up in the KGB. You hear about the structure of the KGB and see why it was impossible. You mourn the murder of his friend, Valentin Yegorov, a captain from the 8th CD, by the KGB due to the disturbed man becoming volubly dissatisfied with the lies of the Communist state which were so apparent that he couldn’t live with it in silence anymore. Just by voicing his awareness was a fatal mistake. What creates a need to show oneself as being right, even at the threat of being assassinated for speaking one’s mind? The implications of what happens to society when it is voiced and the absolute control the State requires that this not be allowed. Sheymov counseled him to keep his doubts to himself, but Valentin Yegorov wouldn’t keep silence and two days after he gave his own father an earful about what was on his mind, he was murdered by the KGB. The details of the cover-up of the killing, even the autopsy, what and how he ferreted out that information show conclusively that Valentin was killed merely for voicing his opinions to friends and family.
That KGB workers and their family members were constantly surveilled, even in their own homes, was a surprise. The author and his wife could talk freely only when they were walking outdoors, away from all microphones and listeners, and even neighbors couldn’t be counted on because they also tattled and could benefit from turning in a suspected thought crime. The indoctrination in the universal propaganda, the willingness among some of the common people, to sell out their neighbors for merely voicing opinions: hard to believe, and to imagine it happening, and happening again, and again throughout their own history with Stalin’s purges, etc. That people either didn’t remember their history or were not even told about it, for reasons like that you didn’t want your children to know because it might get them in trouble later because they would talk about it god forbid. Which silence is how Sheymov’s wife grew up, as Olga knew nothing about the murders of members of her own family. She told him how upset she was (they had to take a walk outdoors to even Talk about it!) when her mother finally revealed her grandfather and other members of her family did not die of natural causes but were murdered by KGB. That had been kept secret for decades but the revelation came at a time when Sheymov’s doubts about the society and its communist roots were starting to grow. The murder of his friend in the following days by the KGB could only have accelerated those doubts.
We learn that the KGB is also called the Close Neighbor, while their Soviet counterparts overseas, the GRU, the Far Neighbor. The depth and breadth of bugging and encryption, and on all sides the little tricks embassies play to try to get one-up on each other’s intelligence, the known ploys of what one is saying but actually really meaning, the impressions of people, mostly higher-ups in the embassies, but some front line people as well, and backed up with supporting data revealing, for example, when Sheymov was merely lucky rather than skillful. Sheymov has a memory like a tape-recorder and reveals in-depth knowledge. We were given an immense gift when this man defected to the US. The majority of people over there AND over here don’t know about what was and probably still is going on.
It is no wonder the Soviets tried to pretend to their people that the westerners were lying to them when we spoke about how most of us have cars and don’t share a house. The Soviet people typically lived more than one family in an apartment, and they found this normal. They did not think this was suffering, because they knew no different. You find out what their lives were really like, and mostly they were hugely deprived. Of privacy, of material goods, of information, of freedom to talk to each other and to know what was going on in the rest of the world. Just a few of the things they were deprived of, and through no fault of their own, and they had no understanding that there was anything better, and thought that all our freedoms and luxuries were just lies and propaganda. The KGB was on guard all the time to ensure the people didn’t find out otherwise (they had entire CDs just to ensure it!) and this was their job: to protect the people from the truth. They had a whole department to punish anyone who said no I don’t like it or believe it. Sheymov lists all the departments in a convenient appendix at the end of the book. It is exceptionally sobering what each CD did, and it greatly affected me knowing that there’s so much we take for granted that the people living there don’t even know about. The intricacies of a surveillance society, where citizens were kept in the dark about what was really going on there and elsewhere in the world, and mostly took it for granted. What would you do? The bits and pieces about how the Pope was almost assassinated because of his hold on the Polish people (GRU couldn’t get close enough to do it), and some surprising things I hadn’t heard elsewhere about Khrushchev: this book is a gem.
Wikipedia article illustrates that Sheymov is an incredibly diverse individual with a mind that excels in more than just writing. I was interested to find out more about him and will look for his books in future. In this book he does talk about the beginning of his technology career in scientific research involving guidance systems within the Soviet "star wars" missile defense program. And his reasons for choosing to move next into KGB Intelligence departments are understandable and believable: he had what Einstein would have called a Fine Mind, and encountered the predictable resistance that such people tend to encounter throughout the world. His disillusion and investigations into communist ideology contain perceptive insights about why it is at its core, flawed and even dangerous. Sheymov’s presentation of what life was really like during this period and the towers of secrets surrounding life there and elsewhere bring some wildly held opinions into question, posing without asking some important questions that can’t be answered easily.
He hears about his wife’s mother finally, telling her daughter about family assassinations by the KGB pretending it never happened so their children wouldn’t know and get taken away for knowing too much. Shortly after finding this out, his friend is also killed by KGB operatives, with a mostly successful ensuing cover-up by govt using scurrilous scapegoating of the friend’s wife, and his painstaking efforts to find out the details for her. It reads well and holds together throughout the narrative. He is finally convinced, along with his own wife, that they are living in a truly corrupt and morally bankrupt system, with no hope for correction. You see why the State has become so powerful and how impossible it is to change things in any way based on its structure.
He becomes interested in finding the true roots of that communism, to understand the real purpose, but even that search for its roots is considered anti-communist by the all-powerful, and puts him at risk for being sent to a prison camp with years of hard labor his reward. He finds the texts secretly and reads the writings and commentaries of the original thinkers, Marx, Lenin, etc, to understand the rationale for this miserable state of affairs, to try to understand if there is really a higher reasoning for why these murders and proscriptions came to be thought acceptable. He examines them thoroughly, seeing the contradictions in the logic and reasoning, and concludes there is no way to perfect a philosophy that is at its basis, amorphous and flawed. Like many ‘holy’ books, those contradictions allowed those desiring power over others to interpret them any which way at all, arbitrarily, and create any kind of mayhem that was useful to their own purposes.
Ethically questionable actions of not just the Soviets but the bloc countries, the Chinese intelligence, for example, who during Stalin’s era built the Soviets an embassy with built-in security deficiencies so the Chinese could surveil Soviets secretly, whose creative complexity created a natural acoustic back-door, which wasn’t discovered by the Soviets until the 1970s. China was looking for any advantage over the Soviets even back then, while they appeared to be on very friendly terms. He avoids saying what the reader’s mind creates: the missing cliché’s and truisms. You can easily reach your own conclusions: that the mindset of both countries was similar, and that they were both willing to do whatever it took to gain power over the other.
He mentions that their traffic laws are a bit different. If a light turned red and a driver was 100 feet away he didn’t have to stop. He wonders if it is because the majority of the Chinese that he saw on the streets in Beijing are malnourished and their reaction times were affected. He had been sent to Beijing and during a walk, he and his ‘minder’ came across a truck with handcuffed men who had stolen as little as $10 wearing placards detailing their crimes, being driven around the country and publically shamed, and was told it was a journey for them to later be put to death or given 20 years very hard labor.
He learned how to tell who worked for the military or police by the fact that they “had sleek cheeks and an obviously healthy appearance”, that the vast majority of the people were malnourished, and although they all worked very hard, could not lift or carry as much as a typical Russian.
He adds what some might believe are extraneous details about how during the Korean war, when Soviets trained Chinese pilots to fly the Chinese were so malnourished, their reaction times and ability to withstand the g-forces during maneuvers caused crashes through blackouts, but that once the Chinese were fed a normal quantity of food this trend ended. That China was willing to go to great lengths to simply gain access to the Russian Ambassador’s wastebasket and official calendar, in East Germany years ago, by taking 10s of 1000s of man-hours and equipment tunneling and building devices to attain access to that wastebasket and calendar. Reported to the Soviets not by the East Germans due to embarrassment, but found out by a Soviet agent in the embassy later on.
This all happened before 1980, and it makes you wonder what is going on, now, more than 35 years later, as countries continue to spy on their friends and neighbors as well as enemies. What is known is a fraction of what is going on, because by its nature relationships between countries are towers of secrets. Most people, myself included would like to see more transparency, but by reading history we see how difficult it is to work well unilaterally, since a cold-war mentality runs so many, and the few who try for advantages over others create havoc for all, in their quests for an (unfair) advantage. This a profound book, not because it proselytizes, because it does not, but that it explores the roots of what makes us human: why we hide or reveal, from ourselves as well as others, why we behave the way we do, and what creates a human outlook. Although not named as doing so, it asks these and other questions, like the importance of the self-concept to create what we do in any situation. His narrative illustrates the best and worst of human nature and allows you think about it in ways you hadn’t thought of before.
His writing is excellent: he shows, more than he merely tells. His writing reveals him to be an extraordinary individual, who not only displays the activities and behaviors revealing his own intelligence and awareness but even mistakes he has made. His intense desire to understand things, and troubleshoot intricacies leads to questions to which he finds answers, keeping at it with a persistence and energy that is inspiring. The disinterest in what his wife Olga says, by other reviewers, was for me surprising. It was extremely relevant and if you want to understand the milieu of the times and the intricacies of human thinking about what was seen versus what was happening underneath, her contributions are crucial. This is a truly historical read, with much more than the average history book because of these details. This history of a time, of an era, he and his wife’s contributions are highly reflective of life in Russia. I found myself anxious to learn what was going to happen next, for example, about why she was upset about what propaganda that she saw in what her child and children at school experience, like all children in all Soviet schools. What she and he thought and felt, as illustrated in their interactions with people they know: the scientists, the KGB people, their families, and the normal people, many of whom were similarly aware that all was not as it seemed in Mother Russia.
You learn the combination of circumstances that finally led to Sheymov becoming “a traitor” to his country and leaving it. Real change was impossible from the inside, no matter how high a position he held, and he was very high up in the KGB. You hear about the structure of the KGB and see why it was impossible. You mourn the murder of his friend, Valentin Yegorov, a captain from the 8th CD, by the KGB due to the disturbed man becoming volubly dissatisfied with the lies of the Communist state which were so apparent that he couldn’t live with it in silence anymore. Just by voicing his awareness was a fatal mistake. What creates a need to show oneself as being right, even at the threat of being assassinated for speaking one’s mind? The implications of what happens to society when it is voiced and the absolute control the State requires that this not be allowed. Sheymov counseled him to keep his doubts to himself, but Valentin Yegorov wouldn’t keep silence and two days after he gave his own father an earful about what was on his mind, he was murdered by the KGB. The details of the cover-up of the killing, even the autopsy, what and how he ferreted out that information show conclusively that Valentin was killed merely for voicing his opinions to friends and family.
That KGB workers and their family members were constantly surveilled, even in their own homes, was a surprise. The author and his wife could talk freely only when they were walking outdoors, away from all microphones and listeners, and even neighbors couldn’t be counted on because they also tattled and could benefit from turning in a suspected thought crime. The indoctrination in the universal propaganda, the willingness among some of the common people, to sell out their neighbors for merely voicing opinions: hard to believe, and to imagine it happening, and happening again, and again throughout their own history with Stalin’s purges, etc. That people either didn’t remember their history or were not even told about it, for reasons like that you didn’t want your children to know because it might get them in trouble later because they would talk about it god forbid. Which silence is how Sheymov’s wife grew up, as Olga knew nothing about the murders of members of her own family. She told him how upset she was (they had to take a walk outdoors to even Talk about it!) when her mother finally revealed her grandfather and other members of her family did not die of natural causes but were murdered by KGB. That had been kept secret for decades but the revelation came at a time when Sheymov’s doubts about the society and its communist roots were starting to grow. The murder of his friend in the following days by the KGB could only have accelerated those doubts.
We learn that the KGB is also called the Close Neighbor, while their Soviet counterparts overseas, the GRU, the Far Neighbor. The depth and breadth of bugging and encryption, and on all sides the little tricks embassies play to try to get one-up on each other’s intelligence, the known ploys of what one is saying but actually really meaning, the impressions of people, mostly higher-ups in the embassies, but some front line people as well, and backed up with supporting data revealing, for example, when Sheymov was merely lucky rather than skillful. Sheymov has a memory like a tape-recorder and reveals in-depth knowledge. We were given an immense gift when this man defected to the US. The majority of people over there AND over here don’t know about what was and probably still is going on.
It is no wonder the Soviets tried to pretend to their people that the westerners were lying to them when we spoke about how most of us have cars and don’t share a house. The Soviet people typically lived more than one family in an apartment, and they found this normal. They did not think this was suffering, because they knew no different. You find out what their lives were really like, and mostly they were hugely deprived. Of privacy, of material goods, of information, of freedom to talk to each other and to know what was going on in the rest of the world. Just a few of the things they were deprived of, and through no fault of their own, and they had no understanding that there was anything better, and thought that all our freedoms and luxuries were just lies and propaganda. The KGB was on guard all the time to ensure the people didn’t find out otherwise (they had entire CDs just to ensure it!) and this was their job: to protect the people from the truth. They had a whole department to punish anyone who said no I don’t like it or believe it. Sheymov lists all the departments in a convenient appendix at the end of the book. It is exceptionally sobering what each CD did, and it greatly affected me knowing that there’s so much we take for granted that the people living there don’t even know about. The intricacies of a surveillance society, where citizens were kept in the dark about what was really going on there and elsewhere in the world, and mostly took it for granted. What would you do? The bits and pieces about how the Pope was almost assassinated because of his hold on the Polish people (GRU couldn’t get close enough to do it), and some surprising things I hadn’t heard elsewhere about Khrushchev: this book is a gem.
Wikipedia article illustrates that Sheymov is an incredibly diverse individual with a mind that excels in more than just writing. I was interested to find out more about him and will look for his books in future. In this book he does talk about the beginning of his technology career in scientific research involving guidance systems within the Soviet "star wars" missile defense program. And his reasons for choosing to move next into KGB Intelligence departments are understandable and believable: he had what Einstein would have called a Fine Mind, and encountered the predictable resistance that such people tend to encounter throughout the world. His disillusion and investigations into communist ideology contain perceptive insights about why it is at its core, flawed and even dangerous. Sheymov’s presentation of what life was really like during this period and the towers of secrets surrounding life there and elsewhere bring some wildly held opinions into question, posing without asking some important questions that can’t be answered easily.
May 23, 2023
Certainly I did like the book.
It is a good book.
But it is fiction ...
I was under impression, that the book has been written like fiction, but it is a documentary. Well, I was very much disappointed, then I've started checking facts. And the true events were different, for instance, when the traitor has decided to defect, he said, that the meeting took place in Moscow, on the boulevard ring, in fact, the meetings really took place in Moscow (Moskva), but it was the name of the public swimming pool. It is even more clever to meet a meeting with your handler in the pool, I guess the author had to change the real events.
Therefore we can, say, that the fiction book has been based on the true events ))))
It is a good book.
But it is fiction ...
I was under impression, that the book has been written like fiction, but it is a documentary. Well, I was very much disappointed, then I've started checking facts. And the true events were different, for instance, when the traitor has decided to defect, he said, that the meeting took place in Moscow, on the boulevard ring, in fact, the meetings really took place in Moscow (Moskva), but it was the name of the public swimming pool. It is even more clever to meet a meeting with your handler in the pool, I guess the author had to change the real events.
Therefore we can, say, that the fiction book has been based on the true events ))))
April 11, 2021
Real life spy work has nothing to do with James Bond’s type of adventure but rather consist of long periods of boredom and paperwork with a short bursts of adrenaline filled action.
The book is pretty much the same. Could be shorter, could be more exciting, but it’s a memoir so one can’t really expect the same story as a fictional novel.
I generally enjoyed a book, although it really must be much more interesting for anyone from the western side of Iron Curtain.
The book is pretty much the same. Could be shorter, could be more exciting, but it’s a memoir so one can’t really expect the same story as a fictional novel.
I generally enjoyed a book, although it really must be much more interesting for anyone from the western side of Iron Curtain.
April 27, 2022
It took almost a half of the book for me to get into this story. However, once the main character realized he needed to defect the USSR, it got very interesting. Less of a thriller throughout, you learn a lot about the ins and outs of the KGB during the late 1970s. The story mainly focuses on the cases and everyday experience of the main character and of course his family's daring escape.
August 1, 2018
Holy shit.
Despite a "sudden awakening" of anti-Soviet vitriol that seems staged, the stories of Victor's responsibilities in the KGB were informative and the hair-raising escape was quite incredible. Who knows what is true, but regardless - what a story.
Despite a "sudden awakening" of anti-Soviet vitriol that seems staged, the stories of Victor's responsibilities in the KGB were informative and the hair-raising escape was quite incredible. Who knows what is true, but regardless - what a story.
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December 6, 2019want to read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2020
Excellant book.
The Tower of Secrets is fabulous book and what makes even more amazing is that it's true. Thank you to everyone involved.
The Tower of Secrets is fabulous book and what makes even more amazing is that it's true. Thank you to everyone involved.
March 30, 2021
Espionage from the KGB’s point of view
The author’s autobiographical story of a fast track career in the KGB and the epiphany it led to. He exposes communism for what it really is.
The author’s autobiographical story of a fast track career in the KGB and the epiphany it led to. He exposes communism for what it really is.
January 31, 2025
Although it was interesting and well written it took me four years to read. I did enjoy it though. Just hard to get into.
August 31, 2019
If you have to escape from Russia for any reason, put this book on your required reading list.
It is a story of how a high ranking KGB communications officer became disillusioned with the propaganda fed to the public as pablum by those in power to keep themselves in power.
It reveals the hyprocracy and dishonesty that people are compelled to l live with until or unless
they can tolerate it no more. It also shows what is needed to make an escape feasible.
It shows you how these people hope for liberation and freedom from such total regimentation.
The book helps you understand how Lenin conned the Russian people into obedience and then forced them to follow the Bolshevik dogma which was designed to achieve his more immediate needs. rIf Russians had known global history they would have recognized that imperialism is the natural result of totalitarianism, not capitalism. Imperialism in real global history long. predated capitalism, notwithstanding Lenin's propaganda (as Joseph Schumpeter long ago claimed in "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. "
It is a story of how a high ranking KGB communications officer became disillusioned with the propaganda fed to the public as pablum by those in power to keep themselves in power.
It reveals the hyprocracy and dishonesty that people are compelled to l live with until or unless
they can tolerate it no more. It also shows what is needed to make an escape feasible.
It shows you how these people hope for liberation and freedom from such total regimentation.
The book helps you understand how Lenin conned the Russian people into obedience and then forced them to follow the Bolshevik dogma which was designed to achieve his more immediate needs. rIf Russians had known global history they would have recognized that imperialism is the natural result of totalitarianism, not capitalism. Imperialism in real global history long. predated capitalism, notwithstanding Lenin's propaganda (as Joseph Schumpeter long ago claimed in "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. "
September 17, 2016
Very interesting view into the workings of the KGB but in novel format so it keeps your attention. Also the fact that it's a true story adds to the book.
January 4, 2011
Somewhat poorly written, though not entirely unexpected, as it is basically an autobiography set as a spy novel. The author, Sheymov, was a former high-level KGB officer who defected to the United States during the Carter administration. But the author, as a disillusioned Communist, goes to these great lengths to trash the communist system in extensive dialog that is both poorly written and totally unbelievable. I found myself skimming those scenes and chapters between Sheymov and his wife. What were interesting, and particularly so because of his position, are the scenes when Sheymov is inside the KGB. His intimate knowledge of the various departments and committees at the KGB lend the touch of reality to those chapters, and are what are needed in a good spy novel.
So if you're going to read this book, only do so if you enjoy learning about Russia/Moscow/KGB, and then only read the portions that do NOT include Sheymov's wife, and you will probably give this book four stars.
So if you're going to read this book, only do so if you enjoy learning about Russia/Moscow/KGB, and then only read the portions that do NOT include Sheymov's wife, and you will probably give this book four stars.
January 26, 2011
Somewhat poorly written, though not entirely unexpected, as it is basically an autobiography set as a spy novel. The author, Sheymov, was a former high-level KGB officer who defected to the United States during the Carter administration. But the author, as a disillusioned Communist, goes to these great lengths to trash the communist system in extensive dialog that is both poorly written and totally unbelievable. I found myself skimming those scenes and chapters between Sheymov and his wife. What were interesting, and particularly so because of his position, are the scenes when Sheymov is inside the KGB. His intimate knowledge of the various departments and committees at the KGB lend the touch of reality to those chapters, and are what are needed in a good spy novel.
So if you're going to read this book, only do so if you enjoy learning about Russia/Moscow/KGB, and then only read the portions that do NOT include Sheymov's wife, and you will probably give this book four stars.
So if you're going to read this book, only do so if you enjoy learning about Russia/Moscow/KGB, and then only read the portions that do NOT include Sheymov's wife, and you will probably give this book four stars.
February 3, 2017
A timely read! Literally a true life spy thriller.
February 24, 2011
It's a very interesting story of what life was like in the midst of the USSR communist regime.
Read
March 12, 2011KGB cipher expert decides to defect when he realizes communist theory and practice are no where near the same.
October 26, 2014
Insightful on kgb
October 3, 2013
Fascinating glimpse of life in USSR at the top. We take our freedom for granted.
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