soviet union

"Tells the story of the most important female spy in history, Ruth Werner: an agent code-named "Sonya," who set the stage for the Cold War. In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. 'Ursula Burton' was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her. They didn't know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn't know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI-and she evaded them all"--Adapted from publisher description.

"Oleg Gordievsky took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. The CIA officer assigned to identify him was Aldrich Ames, who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets"--OCLC.

"An exploration of the history of the 1954-founded KGB and other Russian espionage agencies, investigating their typical training and tools as well as the escapades of famous spies"--Provided by publisher.

"[An] expose of the KGB's renaissance, Vladimir Putin's rise to power, and how Russian black cash is subverting the world . . . reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and his entourage of KGB men seized power in Russia and built a new league of oligarchs. Through exclusive interviews with key inside players . . . tells how Putin's people conducted their relentless seizure of private companies, took over the economy, siphoned billions, blurred the lines between organized crime and political powers, shut down opponents, and then used their riches and power to extend influence in the West"--Adapted from dust jacket.

"Describes the creation of an all-female squadron of Soviet pilots, known as the Night Witches, in World War II and some of the major battles they fought in during the war"--Provided by the publisher.

Examines the life and rise to power of Vladimir Putin, discussing his childhood spent in poverty, role in the KGB, political career, and popularity, as well as the benefits and challenges he brings to Russia.

"An account of the Cold War spies whose survival depended on carefully orchestrated deceptions as they fought in the shadows to help avert global nuclear war and, in so doing, changed the global landscape"--Provided by publisher.

"The Soviet Night Witches flew over 30,000 missions in planes made of almost nothing more than plywood and canvas ... [This book teaches young readers] about the origin of the... women who flew these missions and were indispensable to the war effort in WWII"--Provided by publisher.

"In 1946 . . . linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation's military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lamphere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage--the atomic bomb"--Provided by publisher.

Yulia, now with the CIA, is working on a case involving a series of suspected KGB-led psychic attacks. She hopes her mother, still in Russia, is not behind them.