THE MAN BEHIND THE ROSENBERGS

In this important memoir, a former handler of spies for the Soviet Union—including Julius Rosenberg, who, with his wife, Ethel, was the first American civilian to be executed for spying—offers details about his work in the U.S. and a window into the world of Cold War intrigue. Feklisov provides a picture of Rosenberg familiar to those who know Soviet hagiography: Rosenberg "enjoyed excellent health," "was completely indifferent toward material things" and was generally unwilling to accept compensation from the Soviet government because he believed wholeheartedly in the cause for which he spied. But his descriptions of clandestine meetings in New York restaurants give a rare personal flavor to Cold War espionage. Feklisov criticizes the American government for executing Julius and Ethel while the British government only jailed Klaus Fuchs. (Feklisov briefly handled Fuchs, too, the German-born physicist who helped the Soviets produce the nuclear bomb by sharing secrets he learned at Los Alamos.) But insights into his work with Rosenberg and Fuchs are just part of Feklisov's story. He also guides readers on a journey through his own life, in which he ascends from an impoverished childhood in the USSR to a career in which, he claims, he played a leading role in ending the Cuban Missile Crisis. Feklisov even follows the post-spy career of those Americans who worked for him and communism. This work humanizes a subject that is all too often abstract or sensationalized. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)