The best real espionage stories from the perspective of an ex undercover KGB agent

This is a nonfiction book that reads like a novel. It is a juxtaposition of two spies, Oleg Gordievsky, KGB, and Aldrich Ames, CIA. Gordievsky risks his life by becoming a top source for MI6 (British Intelligence) because of his moral outrage over the crimes committed by the Soviet State. Ames risks more than prison by betraying his country and causing the death of a great number of CIA sources in the Soviet Union. This is a thriller unequalled by the best espionage fiction.

Correra follows the path of 10 illegal deep-cover Russian spies that were finally caught by the FBI and eventually exchanged for four Russian nationals who spied for the CIA, most notably Sergei Skripal. This is a tale of modern Russian espionage and clear evidence that the apple did not fall far from the tree.

This is the story of how British MI5 zeroed in on a spy ring led by Gordon Lonsdale (aka Konan Molody) and Helen and Peter Kroger (aka Morris and Lona Cohen who previously had been members of the Rosenberg spy group that stole the atomic secret. I was friends with the Cohens while getting my training in Moscow). The book reads like a thriller/detective story.

Markus Wolf is generally considered the greatest Spy Master of the Cold War. He was in charge of intelligence for the Stasi (East German Intelligence Service) that was focused primarily on the enemy on the other side of the Berlin Wall. The Stasi was incredibly successful, having placed up to 1,000 East German agents into high places in the German government. This is a tale of espionage devised and executed by the best. Wolf was the inspiration for the famous “Karla” character in John Le Carree’s novels

This book is a true find for history buffs. It is based on the by now declassified thousands of KGB messages that were decoded by the Venona Project. It gives clear evidence of the Soviet espionage efforts by the KGB against the United States even while the two were allies in WWII. It also proves the hitherto only rumored deep penetration of Soviet assets into the United States government. In those decrypted documents there is proof that the much-maligned Senator Joseph McCarthy was more right than wrong, albeit too frenetic and sensationalist in his pursuit of communists in the US government.