Moscow Rules

by Douglas Boyd

After the guns fell silent in May 1945, the USSR resumed its clandestine warfare against the western democracies. Stalin installed secret police services in the satellite countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Trained by his NKVD officers of the Polish UB, the Czech StB, the Hungarian AVO, Romania’s Securitate, Bulgaria’s KDS, Albania’s Sigurimi and the Stasi of the German Democratic Republic spied on and ruthlessly repressed their fellow citizens on the Soviet model. When the resultant hatred exploded in uprisings they were put down by brutality, bloodshed and Soviet tanks. Not so obvious was that these state terror organisations were also designed for military and commercial espionage in the West, to conceal the real case officers in Moscow. Specially trained operatives undertook ‘wet jobs’, including the assassinations. Perhaps the most menacing were the sleepers who who married and raised families in the west while waiting to strike against their host countries; many are still among us.In Moscow Rules Douglas Boyd explores the relationship between the KGB and its ghastly brood – a family from hell.

Genres: History

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reasonably interesting but with such a white washing of the wests prolonged history of trying to conquer the world.

To quote a recent Malaysian Prime Minister: "We were neighbours with China for thousands of years. Within two years of the Europeans discovering us they conquered us".

The book largely ignores the wests role in history as a conqueror and the genocide perpetrated in the name of spreading western ideas (from Korean war, to Vietnam, south america, Indonesia, Iraq 1, Iraq 2, Yugoslavia, Libya, Yemen etc. etc.)

It portrays eastern communism in isolation and not in response to all the horrible shit the west was doing.

It also portrays the secret police under communism as being something 'especially' repressive when we know now the entire worlds electronic communications is spied upon and that torture and kidnapping is par for the course for western intelligence services.

The book also ends a few chapters with cheap hearsay and "I heard this rumour when I was working in X place" which to me is ridiculous. If I want cheap hearsay and rumours I'll big up the Sun/daily mail etc.

All in all has some interesting points but mostly dripping in ideology and western chauvinism.

[Aaro Salosensaari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would describe this as a journalistic half-popular general history of Eastern Block countries and their security apparatuses during the Cold War. Not exactly an academic-level or textbook level work, but slightly more serious about its subjects matter than most of popular histories. A mixture of secondary sources with some quotes of accounts translated from German via German books secondary sources, with citations provided.

Useful and informative, but not spectacularly so if you are already familiar with the 20th century European history and nature of communist regimes. Suffers from some disorganization, too.

[Piotr Grebski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good introduction to mentality of communist’s governments and how citizens walk trough the hell. There are few minor errors but book is worthy to read. Do not pay attention to one star review, person has no clue what he is writing about.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging book. Quite an eye opener and well written. Each section isn't too long and it gets the message across. Definitely worth a read.

[Christine Lapping · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good gallop through the security services of the eastern bloc, giving a brief history of each country. Necessarily superficial but a good place to start.