Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy

Readers of the author's Inside Soviet Intelligence will be further enlightened by this brisk, readable account of his recruitment and training as an agent of Russia's ultra-secret GRU intelligence group. Suvorov, a tank-company commander when he was selected for army spy work, recounts his early low-level days as an officer in various posts (tracking NATO troop movements, working with saboteurs, etc.), then describes his three years at the GRU's secret training academy in Moscow and subsequent assignments at the agency's headquarters (the ""Aquarium'') and as an agent in Vienna and elsewhere. Suvorov, who now lives in England, recalls the testing and screening by stern, ruthless superiors, and offers many insights into Soviet information-gathering abroad. Conservative Book Club dual main selection; BOMC alternate. (April)