KGB: Masters of the Soviet Union

The belief that the Soviet Communist Party exercises control over the KGB, an idea popular in the West, is a fallacy, charge the authors. Deriabin, a Russian agent who defected to the West in 1954, here teams with political scientist Bagley in a chilling expose that lifts a veil off the inner workings of Soviet power. The KGB, they claim, dominates the highest echelons of party and bureaucracy; it monitors the armed forces, influencing key appointments; it directs the 300,000-man ``Internal Troops'' who crush workers' protests, food riots, political dissension and nationalist uprisings. The authors take us inside KGB headquarters in Moscow to show how the agency spreads its tentacles into the courts and police, into offices, farms and factories, and overseas. Dense with material from Soviet and Western sources, this report is compelling, whether one favors a hard-line or conciliationist U.S. policy toward the Soviets. (Feb.)