A few weeks ago, Paul e-mailed me a link to this lengthy essay on Adolf Tolkachev, a Russian engineer who turned over volumes of extraordinarily valuable information on Soviet weapons systems to the CIA from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. After printing it out, I finally read it a few days ago. (I was engaged in the decadent American activity of sitting still while my stylist added highlights to my hair!) I was sucked into the story more deeply than with any fantastic spy drama. I highly recommend it, particularly in a printed-out form.

I’m very interested in reading good tales of defectors to United States et al from Soviet Russia et al. (Since most of my reading on communism has been focused on Soviet Russia, that would be of greatest interest to me.) I have read — and very much enjoyed — Viktor Suvorov’s The Liberators and Inside the Aquarium. (I’d love to know what happened after his defection to Great Britain!) So any good recommendations?