A Death in Washington: Walter G. Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror

Kern has done a remarkable job with this very difficult subject. I have read many books about Soviet spies, but this is by far the best one, in terms of the depth of understanding of the political system in the Soviet Union at the time. The portrait of American leftists and bureaucrats is priceless. This author has brought rigorous logic and impeccable scholarship to this field. All this, and it reads like a mystery.

A Death in Washington is a genuine page turner: Gary Kern manages to not only give the relevent facts of Krivitsky`s perilous and dangerous journey from believer in the great experiment to defector (where he gave early warning to the west of Stalin`s agenda), but best of all, it is written with great stylistic aplomb. This is a rare book which in its critical detail can satisfy the professional but is also completely accessible to the general reader; you will recognize many of the players, and the connections between them are clearly sustained. It is the general reader who will be most astonished by the sheer criminality of Stalin and the terrible code of the spy`s world. One of the great pleasures in this book is the psychological and methodological analysis inherent in the character of Krivitsky which enabled his survival until the very end. I think the book a very important addition to the literature which is becoming more available on the Stalin period, and I think that a thoughtful consideration of Kern`s invaluable and dramatic presentation will help us better understand the Russia which is emerging today on the world stage. I highly recommend the book. I had read it as slowly as I could so as to prolong the pleasure and thrill it gave to me.