The KGB's Poison Factory

"Here, for the fan of murder thrillers and modern history alike, is a cracking good read. In brilliant light we see what lay for nearly a century behind the London polonium poisoning of British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian. With original research guided by his insider's eye and scholarly care, Boris Volodarsky recounts scores of murders. Assassination emerges as state policy, as institutionalized bureacracy, as day-to-day routine, as laboratory science, as a branch of medicine researching ways not to stave off death but to deliver it in apparently innocent or accidental forms, and as engineering technology, devising ever-new devices to meet each new requirement, from umbrella tips and cigarette cases and rolled-up newspapers -- to Litvinenko's teacup." Tennent H. Bagley, former CIA chief of Soviet Bloc counterintelligence.

Library Journal

In September 2004, Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned by dioxin, which caused severe illness and disfigurement. In October 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and his handling of the Chechen conflict, was shot to death in Moscow. In November 2006, former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by polonium-210 and died after several days of agony. Litvinenko was known for publicly alleging that the Russian government was behind numerous acts of terrorism against its own people, including Politkovskaya's murder. These stories are familiar to most who follow international news. What many people do not know is that this type of assassination has a long history extending through Soviet regimes as far back as Lenin. Volodarsky, a former KGB officer himself, provides evidence that eliminating enemies by poisoning or other means is still business as usual in Russia, despite the political changes of the past two decades…[The KGB’s Poison Factory] will fascinate students as well as general readers interested in international espionage.