Arkady N. Shevchenko (1930–1998)

OK.....a bit of a slow read; however paints a very good and thorough picture of life in the upper echlon of the political class in the former Soviet Union. Pretty incredible the lack of control on one's life, even to a person with the status of Shevchenko -- makes me believe a normal citizen's routine was awful. Also describes how the Soviet Union viewed (and used) the UN during the height of the Cold War.

In 1978, the author, the Under Secretary General of the United Nations, defected to the U.S.A., making him the highest rannking U.S.S.R. official ever to do so. This is his memoirs of his time in the Soviet Union's higher echelons, and his defection. It paints a chilling picture of a totalitarian system that did the world a favor by its breakup a little over a decade later.

The story of a Soviet defector. Back when spies were spies.

box 2