The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story

by Serhii Plokhy

Overview

In the fall of 1961, KGB assassin Bogdan Stashinsky defected to West Germany. After spilling his secrets to the CIA, Stashinsky was put on trial in what would be the most publicized assassination case of the entire Cold War. The publicity stirred up by the Stashinsky case forced the KGB to change its modus operandi abroad and helped end the career of Aleksandr Shelepin, one of the most ambitious and dangerous Soviet leaders. Stashinsky's testimony, implicating the Kremlin rulers in political assassinations carried out abroad, shook the world of international politics. Stashinsky's story would inspire films, plays, and books-including Ian Fleming's last James Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun.

A thrilling tale of Soviet spy craft, complete with exploding parcels, elaborately staged coverups, double agents, and double crosses, The Man with the Poison Gun offers unparalleled insight into the shadowy world of Cold War espionage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465035908
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	12/06/2016
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. The New York Times bestselling author of  The Gates of Europe and Nuclear Folly, Plokhy is an award-winning author of numerous books. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Preface
Prologue

Part I: KGB Man

1. Stalin’s Call
2. Master Killer
3. Secret Agent
4. Parachutist
5. Streets of Munich
6. Wonder Weapon
7. Greetings from Moscow

Part II: Perfect Murder

8. Red Square
9. Herr Popel
10. Dead on Arrival
11. Funeral
12. CIA Telegram
13. Upswing
14. Prime Suspect
15. Active Measures

Part III: Moscow Nights

16. High Hopes
17. Man at the Top
18. Private Matter
19. Award
20. Proposal
21. Introducing the Bride
22. Month of the Spy
23. Going in Circles

Part IV: Escape from Paradise

24. Moscow Bugs
25. Family
26. Change of Plans
27. New Year
28. Back to School
29. Telephone Call
30. Berlin
31. Down to the Wire

Part V: Publicity Bomb

32. Shock Wave
33. Defector
34. Investigation
35. Press Conference
36. High Politics
37. Congressman

Part VI: Trial

38. Karlsruhe
39. Loyalty and Betrayal
40. First Murder
41. Big Day
42. Doubt
43. Prosecution
44. Devil’s Advocates
45. Verdict

Part VII: Departed

46. Unanswered Letter
47. Guest from Washington
48. Judex
49. Vanished
50. Kremlin Ghost
51. On the Run
52. Homecoming

Epilogue
Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2016
Plokhy (The Gates of Europe), professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, details the little-known story of KGB asset Bogdan Stashinsky, who in the late 1950s assassinated two prominent exiled Ukrainian nationalists living in West Germany, using a gun that fired a liquid poison that left no traces. At 19, Stashinsky joined the KGB to escape prosecution for a minor offense and informed on his Ukrainian nationalist family. In 1957, he killed political theorist Lev Rebet, but two years later claimed a more prominent victim: leading Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. Stashinsky and his East German wife defected to West Germany in 1961, whereupon he was held for interrogation. Plokhy recounts his trial for both murders, which led Soviet leaders to end the policy of assassinating anti-Soviet nationalists, having made martyrs of men like Bandera. Stashinsky received an eight-year sentence, the defense successfully arguing that the real murderers were the Soviet leaders who ordered the killings. After serving six years, he left for South Africa, aiding the country’s government on intelligence that would counter the anti-apartheid movement. Plokhy misses an opportunity to more broadly contextualize the Ukrainian anti-Soviet movement, but his gripping, well-researched account of Stashinsky’s life illuminates a pivotal juncture of the Cold War. Agent: Jill Kneerim, Kneerim & Williams. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly:
[Plokhy's] gripping, well-researched account of Stashinsky's life illuminates a pivotal juncture of the Cold War.



Washington Times:
"A gripping work by Serhii Plokhy that is rich in the tradecraft with which Stalin's killers stalked opponents - as a matter of state policy."


Peter Finn, co-author of The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, andthe Battle Over a Forbidden Book
A gripping portrait of an assassin and his journey from recruitment to mission to defection, The Man with the Poison Gun exhumes one of the Cold War's stranger episodes - the KGB's murder of Ukrainian man with a spray gun that squirted poison. Author Serhii Plokhy tells an evocative and informative tale, based on original archival research, that immerses us in the tradecraft of Soviet spies operating in Western Europe.

Kirkus Reviews:
"With gusto and verve, Plokhy details Stashinsky's intelligence work.... A thrilling, well-researched tale of espionage that has all the spycraft hallmarks of a blockbuster movie.

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
Plokhy tells a tale that eerily foreshadows the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and KGB. Memoirs, interviews, and recently opened KGB and CIA files substantiate this story of intrigue. (LJ 11/1/16)

Library Journal

2016-09-19
The story of Ukrainian Bogdan Stashinskys rise from an agricultural student to a KGB assassin who defected to the West in 1961.Stashinskys career as a member of the Soviet secret police did not have an auspicious beginning. As an aspiring university student during the postwar Soviet occupation of Ukraine, he had family ties to the nationalist underground and was sympathetic to anti-Soviet groups. Local Soviet officials knew this well and blackmailed Stashinsky by giving him an ultimatum: betray his loyalties or watch the Soviets persistently harass and potentially assassinate his family members. He chose to collaborate with his occupiers. However, Stashinsky was quickly outed and shunned by his family; with nowhere else to turn, he accepted an offer to join the MGB, a precursor to the KGB. So began his rise as a professional assassin. With gusto and verve, Plokhy (Ukrainian History/Harvard Univ.; The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, 2015, etc.) details Stashinskys intelligence work in East Germany, where he eventually received assignments to assassinate dissident journalist Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. To complete the deed, he was given a novel device that shot untraceable poison directly into the face of his victims. However, Stashinsky was a reluctant assassin and was eager for reassignment to the West. Upon being recalled to Moscow with his wifeand much KGB meddling with their personal affairshe decided to make a daring escape and defect to West Germany. Ironically, Stashinsky had to prove that he had killed Rebet and Bandera in order to save himself, though that was easier said than done. More than just the story of Stashinskys involvement with the KGB, the book wonderfully details the entire intelligence milieu of postwar Germany, Russia, and much of Eastern Europe, including the paranoid atmosphere created by the legions of secret police that had taken hold throughout the region. A thrilling, well-researched tale of espionage that has all the spycraft hallmarks of a blockbuster movie.

Kirkus Reviews