Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives

by Nigel West, Oleg Tsarev

This lively account of Soviet foreign intelligence activity in Great Britain during the Cold War is based on documents newly released from the KGB archives, their “crown jewels,” as the KGB unofficially called its most valuable assets. Written by Nigel West, called by the Sunday Times “ the unofficial historian of the secret services” and Oleg Tsarev, a former KGB lieutenant colonel, The Crown Jewels provides much new information on the activities of all the well-known British pro-Soviet spies, including Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Anthony Blunt, as well as many lesser-known spymasters and recruiters, reproducing many of their reports for the first time.


The book adds unsuspected dimensions to the famous Cambridge ring (including details of Burgess’s offer to murder his fellow conspirator Goronwy Rees). It also reveals a completely unknown Soviet network based in London and headed by a named Daily Herald journalist; describes the huge scale of Soviet penetration of the British Foreign Office from 1927 to 1951; explores a previously unknown spy ring in Oxford; and tells about the key role played by Blunt in supervising post-war Soviet espionage activities in London.

Genres: History, Espionage, Nonfiction

397 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time of this writing, there were several documents that had been recently released from the highly secretive KGB archives. This information is almost certainly outdated, as the book was published in 1999, but a lot of the information was new to me. Almost all that I know about the Cold War was from a very interesting display at the Berman Museum in Anniston, Alabama that I recently went to that had a lot of spy tools. This book gives a lot of information about pro-Soviet British spies, as well as Soviet operatives in Great Britain. These people, called "Crown Jewels" by the KGB, collected information on all kinds of people. Politicians, political activities, members of the royal household and the nobility, economic activities, etc. were among the most common targets of this fact finding mission. Spies have been used throughout history, and are almost certainly still being used today, so this isn't a shocking book.

I actually bought this book at my favorite used book store for .75. I got it because it was in the World War II section, but this is actually a Cold War book. I just glanced at it and thought this was a book about the British Crown Jewels, which I why I threw it in my cart. I am not really sure I would have picked it up if I would have known otherwise, but I thought .75 was a great price. I have to admit my interest in the Cold War is virtually nonexistent, so I would have never been in the Cold War section to begin with. Despite all of that, this was a pretty interesting read. I am sure there is a lot more information about these activities that are still secreted away or redacted, but perhaps we will continue to learn more about spy activities during the Cold War.

[Kevin Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used for research.

[ava! · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for my ee

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very informative but felt a little too dry. Reads like a thesis paper.