Cheka - History of the Russian Secret Police & Intelligence Services 1917- 2017

Description

CHEKA - The History, Organization and Awards of the Russian Secret Police & Intelligence Services 1917-2017, 100 Years.
By Commander Robert S. Pandis USNR (Ret.).
Foreward by former KGB "illegal" Spy Jack Barsky.
Limited Supply.
Completely updated and new information in English.  424 full-color pages.  Custom hardcover. Large 8.5 x 11" glossy offset color printed pages.   Only 406 numbered copies were printed.   Only 80 copies remain.
Includes information on the history, organization, "spycraft" techniques & awards of the Russian intelligence organizations 1917 - 2017. The study covers the Russian GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MVD, MOOP, KGB, PGU, FSB, SVR, GRU, Border Guard, and their foreign intelligence partners.
The study features badges, documents, and ID books with a heavy focus on forgeries.
Signed by the author.
A must for Russian intelligence historians & collectors.
ISBN: 978-1-5323-4940-9.
Only 406 copies were printed, each is serial numbered.     Selling out fast.  Due to limited supply (80), the price will be going up to
5.00
soon.
See my Cheka badges from the book also for sale on Ebay.
Europe and UK buyers see eBay international shipping or contact
Ebay
Seller: gc3nn
*** I will ship international but accept NO returns. Insurance claims must be initiated by the buyer and sent via local post service to USPS.  Claims are seldom paid and take months.   So I will ship with insurance at your risk.   I apologize for the situation.  Better to contact my Ebay seller gc3nn.
The .00 International USPS Med Flat Rate Box will hold 2 books at the same postage rate.
Reviews:
May 12, 2018
Format: Hardcover
This is the most thorough and well-researched book of its kind in English that I know of and it is one I've wished for since I started collecting such items when I worked in Moscow for a few years in the early 1990s. At the same time, it is not a book exclusively for people like me who have been scouring through the limited available information on the security services of the Soviet Union. Instead, it is a fascinating look into all of the aspects of the organizations that ultimately held the USSR together as long as it survived. Robert Pandis approaches the subjects with passion, but without judgment. Many in the West have a Hollywood idea of the KGB and its many predecessors that started with the Cheka. Pandis takes extremely complicated subject matters, such as the politically motivated constant restructuring of the Cheka from various organizations into the KGB in 1954 after Stalin's death without getting the reader lost in all the service's name changes and functions. He also manages to incorporate the reorganization of the KGB after the formation of the Russian Federation into the current various groups with specific missions, such as foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, internal order and counter-intelligence, as well as discussing the ever-growing role of Russia's military intelligence. In addition to the plethora of information, both historical and current, the book is packed with many photos of awards and the men in uniforms who wore them that I have never seen other than in drawings or paintings. The Russians were masters of glass enamel work and silversmithing and the earliest of the awards show the beauty and detail the Soviets put into their awards. Pandis does not gloss over or attempt to glorify some of the tragic events that resulted from the abuses of Stalin or the heads of the various security services, particularly before WWII, but simply presents the facts that make up the history of what was the most effective intelligence agency of its time; a time when many countries had not given consideration to foreign intelligence gathering. The CIA wasn't created until 1947 from the remnants of the OSS of WWII. The Cheka was founded in 1917. This is a book any serious historian, collector or person interested in learning about aspects of life in the USSR that few of us in the West were taught (or taught erroneously) should own and read more than once. Since the security service archives compiled by the KGB remain closed to the public without even a hint that will change, this will be the best research any of us will have and the photos of the awards presented herein are likely the closest anyone outside of Moscow will ever get to even glimpse. There is no other book like it, nor do I expect there ever will be on this subject.