Farewell [Paperback]

A very interesting book but detailed to such a level that it was slow going. It's also a translated book that occasionally suffers from weak or literal translation that hinders flow. However, the detailed approach demonstrates the level of research that has gone into this book and ultimately results in a comprehensive account of the activities of Vladimir Vetrov. I'd never heard of Vetrov before and yet his actions had a major impact on the end of the Cold War. A very interesting and informative read but does require perseverance.

This is journalism of the highest quality. A Russian and a Frenchman combine forces to research the background, activities and motivation of Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov - an apparently obscure KGB agent who single-mindedly set out to destroy that organisation.

Vetrov chose to collaborate not with the 'big players' on the international stage, but with the French, and, moreover, with their counter-intelligence branch, rather than the SDECE. He revealed, and sabotaged, the industrial espionage that was enabling the Soviet Union to maintain parity with the West; thus it is claimed that single-handedly he brought about the end of the Cold War! This is not glamorous stuff, and before reading this book I had never heard of Vetrov, but when you take into account the impact of this one man's actions around the world, it is a story that deserves to be told!

Although Vetrov was handsome and with both high intellectual capacities and physical prowess, this is no story of a James Bond-style super-spy. Ultimately the tale is as much about his flaws as his virtues. And this is where the quality of the journalism shows.

Although the international collaboration means that the authors are well-placed to maximise their access to information, ultimately, in any account of the murky world of espionage, whilst some facts will be verifiable, many have to rely on a single, possibly unreliable source, whilst yet others can only by hypothesised, by analogy with other cases. Often the resultant account suffers from one of two flaws: either it races away with its author's personal interpretation of events leaving a 'controversial' account which can be 'debunked' by anyone whose political agenda differs from the author, or it is so careful not to state anything that might be subsequently disporoved that it confines itself with a bald recitation of the known facts, leaving the reader to interpret their implications as best they can!

This book falls into neither of these traps. It extends well beyond a mere account of Vetrov's actions; it goes deep into his past, attempting to understand his beliefs and interpret the motivations of this undoubtedly complex and contradictory character. However, at all points the authors painstakingly identify their sources for each statement - including an analysis of the source's general trustworthiness and possible ulterior motivations. They are not afraid to advance hypotheses and make inferences - but they make it clear when, and indicate on what basis they are doing so.

Thus the novice reader is guided through the complex situations and circumstances that characterise the late Cold War, but is simultaneously provided with enough information to come to their own conclusions at the end.

A rewarding and fascinating expose of a little-known contribution to recent history.

The title of this book is slightly misleading--anyone expecting a lightweight spy thriller to take to the beach will be disappointed. Rather, this is the real deal: Kostin and Raynaud spent years interviewing the key players in the Farewell saga, but we can never be sure exactly what happened. This is the real world, not a novel.

Vladimir Vetrov, the KGB agent who gave the West the documents that turned the tide of the cold war, was first posted to Paris and Canada, where he led a flamboyant life and was compromised by French and Canadian intelligence. He got away with this, but his career almost came to an end when his wife was caught out in a seemingly minor slip involving an expensive piece of jewelry. This would not have been a problem if Vetrov had connnections--as it was, it was touch and go as to whether he would keep his job.

Burning with resentment against a system he considered inept, he was relegated to desk work in Moscow. There he had access to the KGB's most sensitive files. Oddly, the picture that emerges is that the KGB was pretty much like all Soviet bureaucracies: sloth, incompetence and chaos reigned. Vetrov was able to take top secret documents home with very little risk, because the sheer numbers of KGB employees made it impractical to check everyone's briefcases when they went home.

Amazingly, he was able to copy and transmit them to the DST, the French counter-intelligence agency. The French had no spies working in the Soviet Union, so all of these papers had to be transmitted through amateur volunteers working for Thomson, the French telecoms company that had big contracts in Russia. And oddly enough, the sheer amateurism of this effort meant that it was never detected until long after the fact, when Vetrov was in the Gulag for a murder that was only vaguely connected to his treachery.

Vetrov is a fascinating if repulsive character, and his motivations and personality are fully explored. But more importantly, Kostin and Raynaud explain the crucial nature of this intelligence coup. In the first instance, it happened in 1981 and 1982, when Mitterand and Reagan came to power. When Mitterand--whose government included Communist ministers--offered all this material to Reagan, the mutual suspicion was broken, and the US accepted that France was still onside in the struggle against the evil empire.

The documents that Vetrov delivered proved that the Soviets knew all about the technical developments of Nato weapons systems. Ironically, this proved their ulitmate weakness; their own formidable army of scientists and engineers--the men and women who beat the US into space--were reduced to making slavish copies of Western armaments. Vetrov enabled the West to cut off the flow of information, which left them stranded. As America developed the Star Wars programme, they had no answer--and they were further hampered by a successful disinformation programme.

This is a massive book with acute insights into the messy ways in which the world, and more specifically the old Soviet Union, worked. It's not a difficult read, but a bit depressing. Vetrov, needless to say, was eventually shot.

The Vine version lacked an index, a serious omission for a work of this nature. I trust this will be supplied in the commercial edition.