The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West

Plenty of people love to read crime novels. Others are fans of true crime. Some tastes tend toward the spy thriller genre. But what about a TRUE spy story?THE ILLEGALS, by Journalist Shaun Walker, is the story of Russia’s century long foray into the world of undercover espionage by using “illegals” (undercover agents) around the globe. Designed to blend into societies as disparate as Eastern Germany, Britain, South America, the Middle East – and eventually, The United States, illegal agents were given extensive training in the languages, culture, and habits of the target countries.Walker follows this program from its nascent beginnings during the Bolshevik Revolution, through the first and second world wars, the cold war, and up to and including the expulsion of illegals, Andrey Bezrukov (alias Don Heathfield) and Elena Vavilova (alias Tracey Foley), the couple that was one of the inspirations for the hit TV series, THE AMERICANS.The writing is fresh, the pacing excellent and, as a seasoned journalist, the breadth and quality of Walker’s research is impeccable. And, as he spins the yarn of this audacious decades-long program, a through-line emerges into the Soviet/Russian mindset of paranoia and power that simultaneously holds an unbreakable grip on its leaders, and that most westerners will find hard to understand and appreciate.

This book is a recent addition to the growing literature on illegals. It is consistent with the picture painted by the television series the Americans. This is a very complex topic with much to be said about both the western European and American espionage practices as well as the Russian and eastern European practices, and no one book can do this relationship justice. To do so would require exhaustive discussion of the Soviet Union as well as the nascent democratic and liberation movements of the "Third World." Be that as it may. this is a very readable and worthwhile addition to the corpus of popular literature on this subject..

Books are fundamental. I learnt so much from this book.Must read book if you are history buff or love espionage books movies.

This book by journalist Shaun Walker tells the story of Russia's use of illegal, deep cover spies as a key enabler of its foreign policy. Moscow is almost unique in how it uses and trains these people. Whereas all countries operate intelligence officers in overseas locations, they are almost always under official cover and acting in some role as a State Department employee, such as a consular officer. Russia also employs these types of spies, who are protected by laws and treaties. But it is unique in also utilizing "illegals," or undeclared spies operating in "non-official cover."Used from the very beginning of the Soviet state's founding, and throughout World War II, primarily to conduct assassinations, such as the operation to murder Leon Trotsky in Mexico. Moscow employed these most heavily during the Cold War. Russia would recruit promising individuals, either from universities or the military. The main attributes they would look for were a strong ability to learn foreign languages, operate independently, and keep their cool in difficult situations. They would send both individuals overseas and develop married couples who would operate as a team. Each situation was different, but largely these operators would eventually be sent overseas, mainly to Europe and North America, and be tasked with either recruiting individuals who had access to classified information or working themselves to develop personas that would grant them personal access to sensitive material.The most famous case in recent years also happened when the purported quality of the trainees was at a low point. In 2010, the FBI arrested 10 Russian illegals, many of whom had been living and operating undetected in America and Canada for decades. Several of these people had children with no connections to Russia - most of these kids didn't find out the truth about their parents until they were arrested.With Vladimir Putin in firm control of Russia and no hint that the US-Russia relationship is going to improve anytime soon, it is safe to assume that Moscow has any number of unknown and so far undetected individuals working and living in the United States right now.