Book : Farewell The Greatest Spy Story Of The Twentieth...

-Titulo Original : Farewell The Greatest Spy Story Of The Twentieth Century

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Amazon Crossing

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Review “The reader of this wonderful book from Sergei Kostin and Eric Raynaud is in for a treat: an introduction into what President Reagan described as the most significant spy story of the last century...[an] exciting voyage into the murky world of espionage and counterespionage.” Richard V. Allen, United States National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan“Vetrov is 007’s opposite: a shambolic bear of a man, albeit with the requisite indestructible liver (and penchant for a basement quickie with the secretary).” The Sunday Times 1981. Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand are sworn in as presidents of the Unites States and France, respectively. The tension due to Mitterrand’s French Communist support, however, is immediately defused when he gives Reagan the Farewell Dossier, a file he would later call “one of the greatest spy cases of the twentieth century.”Vladimir Ippolitovitch Vetrov, a promising technical student, joins the KGB to work as a spy. Following a couple of murky incidents, however, Vetrov is removed from the field and placed at a desk as an analyst. Soon, burdened by a troubled marriage and frustrated at a flailing career, Vetrov turns to alcohol. Desperate and needing redemption, he offers his services to the DST. Thus Agent Farewell is born. He uses his post within the KGB to steal and photocopy files of the USSR’s plans for the West all under Brezhnev’s nose.Probing further into Vetrov’s psychological profile than ever before, Kostin and Raynaud provide groundbreaking insight into the man whose life helped hasten the fall of the Communist Soviet Regime. Review A Q&A with Sergei Kostin The only childhood photograph of Vetrov (left). Although a little shy in front of the camera, the boy has an inquiring look compared to his companion. Teenage Vetrov (right) with a teammate. A talented sprinter, he was considered an Olympic hopeful. Gifted intellectually, Vetrov was admitted to the prestigious Bauman Institute, Russias leading engineering school. The typical portrait of a secret agent. This picture was taken when Vetrov was a student at KGB School #101. Vetrov in Canada, having a friendly chat with a Soviet colleague over bourbon. But not a word about work: The men knew they were being watched closely by Canadian counterintelligence. The last known photo of Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov, taken in Lefortovo Prison, Moscow. About the Author Sergei Kostin is a Russian documentary maker and writer living in Moscow. He is author of four nonfiction books, mainly about secret services, translated into eight languages, including The Man Behind the Rosenbergs and of four spy novels published in Russia, the USA (Paris Weekend), Bulgaria, and Serbia. First published in France in 1997 under the title Bonjour Farewell, Farewell was the fruit of two years of painstaking investigation in Moscow and Paris interviewing the key players and witnesses to this amazing adventure.Eric Raynaud is a French film writer who joined up with Sergei Kostin to contribute to Farewell after the release of the film L’Affaire Farewell, starring Willem Dafoe.Catherine Cauvin-Higgins is a French-Russian-English translator. She was Thomson-CSF interpreter during the Vetrov years, working directly with Jacques Prevost, Vetrov’s initial French contact, and Xavier Ameil, his first handler. She participated in trade negotiations with Vetrov’s peers, in Paris and in Moscow, during those years.