A pacy, character-driven history of the KGB's deepest cover spies in the West, a system that took decades to unravel
The Cold War had been over for two decades when, in 2010, ten Russian agents were arrested in the United States after a decade-long FBI operation. Among the spies were three couples who had lived as Americans for years, and one agent who had lived undercover for so long that he could barely even speak Russian. They had hidden their true identities from their children, neighbours and even their partners.The Illegals captures the untold history of Russia's deep cover spy programme, following its evolution from the talented "great Illegals" of the 1920s and '30s up to the 21st century, when agents maintained their fake identities and loyalties even after the fall of the Soviet Union. Through hundreds of interviews and access to never-before-seen archives, Shaun Walker exposes the colourful history of the KGB's most secretive espionage project.
'The author must be a great listener and a careful interviewer to win the trust and confidence of all these individuals.' - Svetlana Savranskaya
'Shaun Walker has not only done the hard and necessary work of reporting from Russia and Ukraine, he has also reflected, with remarkable historical and literary sensibility, on what it means when a great power gives up on its own future and decides instead to market its past.' - Timothy Snyder, Yale University
'The best history of the ideologies and politics behind the headlines ... Walker's meticulous documentation of the annexation of Crimea and the subsequent occupation of Ukraine makes this exemplary political history, but The Long Hangover will be remembered, and re-read, as a history of memory.' - Linda Kinstler
'Some of the finest journalism of the post-Soviet era. Highly recommended.' - Library Journal, starred review
Shaun Walker is a foreign correspondent for the Guardian, currently covering central and eastern Europe. He was the Guardian's Moscow Correspondent between 2013 and 2018, prior to which he spent six years as Moscow Correspondent for the Independent. He studied Russian and Soviet History at Oxford University.
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