Publisher's Synopsis
Oriented for a general reading audience, this book gives a unique and rare perspective on the KGB "special operations" in Soviet Ukraine, which targeted especially the USA and Canada, using issues related to Soviet Ukrainian identity and cultural diplomacy of Soviet Ukraine after Stalin's death in 1953 until the perestroika of the 1980s.
Concentrating on the period of the Cold War after Stalin and combining the counterintelligence documents from the KGB archive in Kyiv, Ukraine, with the official KGB correspondence and reports to the political leadership of Soviet Ukraine, this book offers an experimental view of the political and cultural history of relations between Soviet Ukraine and "capitalist America" through the prism of KGB operations against the US and Canada. Written from a "hidden" perspective of KGB operations from 1953 to the end of the 1980s, this book covers intelligence and counter-intelligence operations and the active measures of the KGB, but also various problems of anti-American cultural campaigns in Soviet Ukraine, sponsored by the KGB, involving the issues of cultural consumption, knowledge production, youth culture and national identity.
Using carefully researched archive materials, this is an invaluable resource for scholars and advanced students of KGB operations, the Cold War, counterintelligence and political and cultural history of the relations between Soviet Ukraine and the United States and Canada, and a role of cultural consumption in this history.
"Few themes in the Cold War history received more attention but are less understood than the intelligence and counterintelligence operations of the KGB. The reason for that is simple-till recently very few if any documents on the subject were available to the scholars. In this pioneering study, Sergei Zhuk takes full advantage of the recently opened KGB archives in Ukraine to examine the "active measures" and other operations of the Soviet clandestine service against the United States and Canada. It is a major contribution to the field, which fills an important gap in our knowledge about the Cold War and the ways in which it is related to today."- Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University and author of "The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story",
"Zhuk's timely book uses rigorous archival research to analyze KGB activities, avoiding the sensationalism and speculation usually associated with study of these topics. Beyond being fascinating reading, the book uses KGB operations in Ukraine as a fascinating lens for examining Soviet interactions with American society and with Ukrainian national identity." - Benjamin Tromly, University of Puget Sound
"This is a highly original, eminently readable, and chillingly enlightening book on KGB operations. It illuminates the creative, clandestine, and devious measures the Soviet secret police used to enhance Soviet influence. All the same, the KGB lost ultimately to the seductive power of American culture. Highly recommended" - Hiroaki Kuromiya, Indiana University
"The leading historian of postwar Ukrainian society and culture, Sergei Zhuk has revolutionized our understanding of life in Soviet Ukraine during Cold War. His new book, which focuses on the machinations of the Ukrainian KGB both inside and outside Ukraine, is both fascinating and provocative. As always, his research-this time in KGB archives, supplemented by interviews with KGB officers-is original and impeccable. Highly recommended to all students of the Cold War." - Denise J. Youngblood, University of Vermont, co-author of Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds
"Sergei Zhuk's meticulously researched study accurately reconstructs the KGB's covert operations during the post-Stalin era in Soviet Ukraine and beyond, which were designed to solidify and protect Soviet society from Western political and cultural influences. His work with previously unavailable KGB documents has produced an insightful analysis of the intelligence and counterintelligence aspects of Soviet history, a significant contribution to scholarship that enhances our understanding of the dynamics of the Cold War and the continuity of the KGB traditions." - Olga Bertelsen, Tiffin University
