jaredmlloyd

This was my second trip into Philbyania, in an attempt to understand what went through the minds of dedicated Communist spies from the Cold War era. This one is quite a bit different from Philby, because Borovik had access both to Philby and to his KGB file. The approach Borovik took was top-notch, lining up Philby's recollections and reports with the contemporaneous traffic in his file to see what the KGB thought and whether Philby's memory had perhaps faded. So it combines good primary research with the benefit of hindsight. Unfortunately, this too rarely paid off. There were some unfortunate ironies, but little that was deeply gripping. The English (I assume Borovik wrote it in English, as I suspect there was little demand for a Philby book in Russian) is a bit stilted, making it less engaging than it could have been.

2020-08-17 03:15