Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War

David Wise

Publishers Weekly

Former journalist and bestselling author Earley (Family of Spies) tells the story of Russian spymaster and defector Sergei Tretyakov-code-named Comrade J-in an exposé with few surprises. A career intelligence officer, Tretyakov was Russia's deputy resident in New York City from 1995 to 2000, responsible for all covert operations there. But as the political and economic situation in Russia deteriorated under presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, Tretyakov began to consider defecting. Disgusted by the spy agency's shoddy standards and the "corrupt political system" in Moscow and seeking "a better future" for his teenage daughter Ksenia, Tretyakov became a double agent for the FBI before finally defecting in 2000. He claims that he is now breaking his silence because he hopes to warn America that Russia is not a friend and "is trying to destroy the U.S. even today." Among his more controversial assertions, in 126 hours of interviews with the author, is that former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott was considered a "Special Unofficial Contact" by Russian intelligence-a claim that Talbott adamantly denies. While many of Tretyakov's claims are impossible to verify, Earley mounts a spirited defense of his veracity in this workmanlike account. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Spies exist because governments exist and governments have secrets. We may naively believe that the ending of the Cold War meant that the United States and Russia no longer spied on each other. Earley's new book on the remarkable career of top Soviet spy, Sergie Tretyakov, should dispel any thoughts that the "new" Russia under Yeltsin and now Putin is really any different from the one that existed under Stalin, Khrushchev, or their successors. Earley (Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames), a former journalist who has written both fiction and nonfiction about the post-Cold War world, was contacted by the FBI and CIA to meet Tretyakov in 2001, soon after he had defected to the United States. This is Tretyakov's story as told to Earley, who admits that he has very little evidence to corroborate Tretyakov's tale. News accounts and interviews (off the record, of course) do seem to offer supporting evidence that much of Tretyakov's story is true. This is a fascinating account of Tretyakov's activities first as a Soviet spy in New York in the 1980s and early 1990s and then as a double agent providing extensive information to the CIA and the FBI during the Clinton presidency. Earley has solid credentials as a former Washington Postwriter, which lends credence to this amazing story. For larger collections.
—Ed Goedeken

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