cover image KGB: Death and Rebirth

KGB: Death and Rebirth

Martin Ebon. Praeger Publishers, $78.95 (248pp) ISBN 978-0-275-94633-3

The KGB was abolished in 1991, but as Ebon ( The Andropov File ) demonstrates in this cogent report, the former Soviet spy agency continues its domestic activities as the Russian Ministry of Security, while its foreign operations are now handled by various successor agencies. Moreover, virtually every former Soviet republic has retained a KGB or KGB-like apparatus for its own national purposes. Ebon sheds light on Gorbachev's ties to the KGB, reveals Moscow's covert operations in Iran and documents the agency's efforts to sabotage the Baltic republics' independence movements. He also theorizes, on the basis of fragmentary, inconclusive reports, that the British Czech-born billionaire Robert Maxwell, who drowned under mysterious circumstances in 1991, appears to have been an ``agent of influence'' for the Soviet secret service. (Apr.)