Stalin's Romeo Spy
Emil Draitser
book reviews:
· general fiction
· chick lit/romance
· sci-fi/fantasy
· graphic novels
· nonfiction
· audio books

Click here for the curledup.com RSS Feed

· author interviews
· children's books @
   curledupkids.com
· DVD reviews @
   curledupdvd.com

newsletter
win books
buy online
links

home

for authors
& publishers


for reviewers

click here to learn more




Buy *Stalin's Romeo Spy: The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB's Most Daring Operative* by Emil Draitser online

Stalin's Romeo Spy: The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB's Most Daring Operative
Emil Draitser
Northwestern University Press
Hardcover
426 pages
April 2010
rated 4 of 5 possible stars

buy this book now or browse millions of other great products at amazon.com
previous reviewnext review

Dimitri Bystrolyotov could be considered the James Bond of the Soviet Union: charming and charismatic, he had an eye for the ladies and a willingness to kill to please his superiors. However, he was a very real person who left behind a trail of broken hearts, a prison sentence, and an intriguing career to look back on.

Emil Draitser met Bystrolyotov by chance in a café in the 1970s. The retired spy told the writer amazing, sometimes dubious tales about his life, which Draitser recounted in his writings. The two developed a friendship, leading Draitser to create Stalin's Romeo Spy, a fascinating biography of a memorable but not always trustworthy character.

Bystrolyotov spent his early years raised in Tsarist Russia by an activist mother, followed by a stint as a soldier in WWI which led to his embrace of Socialism and a spy career. Draitser also reveals Bystroloyotov’s relationships with women, particularly his first wife, Milena, an unstable woman who both loved and was repulsed by him. Their fights and constant one-upmanship are almost equal to Bystroloyotov’s escapades with enemy spies.

Draitser artfully captures his subject's spy career simply by removing the romance found in fictional spy tales. Many of Bystrololyotov’s missions consisted of following suspicious characters, seducing women to give him information, and living in fear and paranoia that he would get caught by enemies or betrayed by his own people.

Bystroloyotov’s spy career ended in 1938 with his arrest and sentencing to the gulag. The narrative grows tedious during his imprisonment, assistance to other prisoners and courtship of a woman through the bars. But Stalin's Romeo Spy, like its protagonist, is filled with charm, danger, and a lot of dubiousness that even Draitser doesn’t believe (there are many passages where Draitser writes something like “I don’t know how accurate is his claim, but…”) Regardless, it is worth reading about a real-life James Bond trapped in his own web of seduction and deceit.



Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Sara Porter, 2010

buy *Stalin's Romeo Spy: The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB's Most Daring Operative* online
click here for more info
Click here to learn more about this month's sponsor!


fiction · sf/f · comic books · nonfiction · audio
newsletter · free book contest · buy books online
review index · links · · authors & publishers
reviewers

site by ELBO Computing Resources, Inc.