The Spy Who Changed History

August 1, 2019
History-changing it wasn't, but this is a genuinely untold story about a major Soviet espionage operation. In a well-researched and often breathless account, Lokhova (By-Fellow/Churchill Coll., Univ. of Cambridge) focuses on Soviet technocrat Stanislav Shumovsky (1902-1984), who led an advanced party of 75 countrymen to the United States in 1931 to enroll in universities, majoring in science or engineering. The students' goal, Stalin informed them, was to bring home knowledge from the world's most advanced nation to jump-start sluggish Soviet industry. They were to learn, but even more, they were to steal. Overseen by Shumovsky and a cadre of undercover agents, they sent back an avalanche of technical information under the nose of the FBI, which remained oblivious for two decades. "To an extent that has never been acknowledged before," writes the author, "the Soviet Union's survival during the Second World War was underpinned by the technological and manufacturing secrets, plundered from US universities and factories, that enabled the development and mass manufacture of the aircraft and tanks needed to defeat the Third Reich." Lokhova is at her best describing individuals: earnest Russians and often enthusiastic Americans who were happy to help build the workers' paradise led by Stalin, who receives an admiring portrait. While there's no doubt the Soviet Union received useful intelligence, readers will not find hard evidence that this ensured its survival. Obsessed with espionage, the Soviets expended enormous resources perhaps better spent elsewhere. Much of the massive material sent back was public or simply proprietary. Lokhova highlights American amazement at the advanced Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 bomber, but it owed more to reverse-engineering of the American B-29 than spying. American material, not secrets, aided the Soviet Union against Hitler. Acquiring the American atom bomb plans saved time and money, but it was not a game-changer. Concentrating on the trees at the expense of the forest, the author never points out that Soviet industry remained backward until its 1989 collapse. An interesting glimpse into a hitherto obscure Soviet spy ring, but there is less there than meets the eye.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 11, 2019
In this eye-opening debut, University of Cambridge historian Lokhova documents the Soviet Union’s covert campaign to acquire America’s scientific and technological secrets in the decade before WWII. Beginning with the 1931 arrival of 75 Russian students (several of whom were trained spies) at U.S. universities including Cornell, Harvard, and MIT, the espionage mission, Lokhova contends, made it possible for the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany and close the “technological gap” with America. She focuses on the career of MIT graduate and spy Stanislav Shumovsky, who spent 15 years gathering intelligence on the U.S. aeronautics industry and established a network of American engineers and scientists willing to share top-secret technologies with the U.S.S.R. It’s thanks to Shumovsky, Lokhova writes, that Russia was able to mass-produce bombers capable of reaching U.S. targets and build its own atomic bomb. In addition to the scope of Shumovsky’s espionage, Lokhova also uncovers the roles of two Russian-American women, Raisa Bennett and Gertrude Klivans, in helping to train the Soviet spies for their U.S. missions. Though it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of the various code names and military hardware, Lokhova delivers a comprehensive account of a crucial yet overlooked chapter in the history of Soviet espionage.