
From Red Terror to Terrorist State
Russia's Secret Services and Their Fight for World Domination 1917-2036
Gibson Square Books Ltd (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 26. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-78334-296-9 (ISBN)
Description
The history of Russia since 1917 has always been told as the story of the Communist Party, with the secret police as its instrument - the sword and shield of the Party. This groundbreaking book revolutionises that account. It argues that the Cheka and its successors were never ancillary but the Party's equal, locked in a century-long contest for control of the state, starting with its founder Felix Dzerzhinsky - a ruthless killer - and succeeding with Vladimir Putin in 1999. It created a unique state, a country that is run entirely by its intelligence apparatus from the smallest detail to the main policies.
Reviews / Votes
'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 Carre.' 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 Eugene Berg, La Revue Defense 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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
450 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78334-296-9 (9781783342969)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
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.
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.
Content
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1 What's in a Name? Cheka to FSB
Chapter 2 From Red Terror to Terrorist State
Part One: The Cheka and the Soviet Union
Chapter 1 Formation of the Soviet Government
Chapter 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky's Conspiracy
Chapter 3 The First Attempt to Assassinate Vladimir Lenin
Chapter 4 Lenin's Resurgence
Chapter 5 Dzerzhinsky's Elimination of Lenin
Chapter 6 Lenin's Premature Death-Joseph Stalin
Chapter 7 Control over the Lubyanka
Chapter 8 The Doctor's Plot and the Jewish Question
Chapter 9 Stalin's Premature Death-Lavrenty Beria
Chapter 10 Yevgeny Pitovranov, the Phoenix Rises
Chapter 11 The KGB and Soviet Intellectuals
Chapter 12 Russian Nationalism, the New Hymn
Chapter 13 Pitovranov's Special Operation in Afghanistan
Chapter 14 Angola, the KGB's Foreign Cash Cow
Chapter 15 The Death of Andropov
Chapter 16 The Doomsday Scenario
Part Two: The Cheka's Russian World
Chapter 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 Spies
Chapter 6 The Russkiy Mir
Chapter 7 Russia's Fifth International
Chapter 8 Icebreaker Donald Trump
Chapter 9 War on US Territory
Conclusion
New Chapter
Notes
Index
Chapter 1 What's in a Name? Cheka to FSB
Chapter 2 From Red Terror to Terrorist State
Part One: The Cheka and the Soviet Union
Chapter 1 Formation of the Soviet Government
Chapter 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky's Conspiracy
Chapter 3 The First Attempt to Assassinate Vladimir Lenin
Chapter 4 Lenin's Resurgence
Chapter 5 Dzerzhinsky's Elimination of Lenin
Chapter 6 Lenin's Premature Death-Joseph Stalin
Chapter 7 Control over the Lubyanka
Chapter 8 The Doctor's Plot and the Jewish Question
Chapter 9 Stalin's Premature Death-Lavrenty Beria
Chapter 10 Yevgeny Pitovranov, the Phoenix Rises
Chapter 11 The KGB and Soviet Intellectuals
Chapter 12 Russian Nationalism, the New Hymn
Chapter 13 Pitovranov's Special Operation in Afghanistan
Chapter 14 Angola, the KGB's Foreign Cash Cow
Chapter 15 The Death of Andropov
Chapter 16 The Doomsday Scenario
Part Two: The Cheka's Russian World
Chapter 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 Spies
Chapter 6 The Russkiy Mir
Chapter 7 Russia's Fifth International
Chapter 8 Icebreaker Donald Trump
Chapter 9 War on US Territory
Conclusion
New Chapter
Notes
Index