Dr Yuri Felshtinsky was a Fellow of the Hoover Institute, University of Stanford. He wrote bestseller Blowing up Russia ('Crucially important' Prof. Robert Service, Oxford University) with Alexander Litvinenko (Netflix bio-series in 2023).Colonel Vladimir Popov was a KGB operative from 1972 to the KGB putsch in August 1991 in which he refused to take part. He emigrated to Canada where he currently resides.

• List of AbbreviationsChapter 1 What's in a Name? Cheka to FSBChapter 2 From Red Terror to Terrorist StatePart One: The Cheka and the Soviet UnionChapter 1 Formation of the Soviet GovernmentChapter 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky's ConspiracyChapter 3 The First Attempt to Assassinate Vladimir LeninChapter 4 Lenin's ResurgenceChapter 5 Dzerzhinsky's Elimination of LeninChapter 6 Lenin's Premature Death—Joseph StalinChapter 7 Control over the LubyankaChapter 8 The Doctor's Plot and the Jewish QuestionChapter 9 Stalin's Premature Death—Lavrenty BeriaChapter 10 Yevgeny Pitovranov, the Phoenix RisesChapter 11 The KGB and Soviet IntellectualsChapter 12 Russian Nationalism, the New HymnChapter 13 Pitovranov's Special Operation in AfghanistanChapter 14 Angola, the KGB's Foreign Cash CowChapter 15 The Death of AndropovChapter 16 The Doomsday ScenarioPart Two: The Cheka's Russian WorldChapter 1 State Committee on the State of Emergency (August, 1991)Chapter 2 Yeltsin's Impeachment (September, 1993)Chapter 3 Presidential Elections (March, 1996)Chapter 4 The Lubyanka Seizes the Kremlin (April, 2000)Chapter 5 The Russian-Orthodox Church of SpiesChapter 6 The Russkiy MirChapter 7 Russia's Fifth InternationalChapter 8 Icebreaker Donald TrumpChapter 9 War on US TerritoryConclusionNew ChapterNotesIndex

‘Well-written and -documented and recommended for those researching or teaching courses on the Soviet and Russian security services.’ East Asia Studies (formerly Soviet Studies)‘Reframing Russia’s modern history in terms of the evolution of its intelligence services.’ Survival‘facts worthy of John le Carré.’ Telegraph‘Many insights into both the Soviet and the more recent neo-Soviet political systems in Russia.’ East West Review: The Journal of the Great-Britain Russia Society‘Shines a light on the rationale for Putin’s dictatorship… for all those wishing to understand the enigma that is Russia, Professor Colin Shindler, Jewish Chronicle‘Very interesting in its long lines to the world’s present predicament.’ Paolo Valentino, Corriere della Sera‘One of the most illuminating books on the history of contemporary Russia. A must read.’ La Revista‘Unputdownable.’ Martin Dewhirst, Honorary Fellow Glasgow University‘A stunning book.’ Silicon Curtain‘A scholarly and scrupulous analysis as well as a dark crime story which describes a bloodthirsty monster so slippery that it has so far defied description.’ Viktor Suvorov, ex-GRU colonel and historian‘[L]eading experts on Russian assassinations.’ Bill Browder‘[A] detailed, compelling history of the deep-seated thirst for carnage endemic in Russia’s intelligence services. A magisterial work by two of its foremost experts.’ Oleg Kalugin, ex-KGB major-general ‘Destined to become the standard work.’ Yuri Shvets, ex-KGB resident in Washington DC and former Putin classmate‘Truly interesting.’ Victor Sebestyen‘Meticulous and timely... many new facts.’ Former ambassador Eugène Berg, La Revue Defénse Nationale‘A powerful dissection of a secret and sprawling institution whose members – if they do not succumb to novichok, indigestion, or the law of gravity first – know that they can never retire. Bruno Deniel-Laurent, Revue des Deux Mondes‘We come across a thousand spies and double agents and as many secretive and camouflaged assassinations as “accidents”… How the Cheka, the political police created by the Bolsheviks and Lenin in the aftermath of the October Revolution, quickly became autonomous from political power and from all - powerful Communist Party to defend its own political line as well as its members, with one objective: one day to upset our world order.’ Romain Gubert, Le Point