Anna Geifman gives us a riveting portrait of Evno Azef, the most important and elusive police spy in the history of the Russian Revolutionary Movement. Geifman's research is impeccable and her argument convincing. Azef was neither a double agent nor a provocateur. As one of the premier historians of Russian terrorism, Geifman also explores the psychological realm of Azef's treachery, ... Read moreproviding important insights into his motivations and career.
Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University A revisionist work in the best sense of the word. It strives, on the basis of newly opened archival materials, to reevaluate the personality and career of tsarist Russia's notorious master 'spy.' Azef, who worked for the security police while heading the revolutionary terrorist organization, is here depicted, for the first time, as a complex person, less duplicitous than usually thought of but no less critical in discrediting the wave of terror that swept Russia in the early years of this century.
Richard Pipes, Harvard University Show Less