Operation Kronstadt: The Greatest True Story of Honor, Espionage, and the Rescueof Britain'sgreatest Spy, the Man with a Hundred Faces

By Harry Ferguson

Book Overview

Paul Dukes - a 30-year-old concert pianist, master of disguise dubbed 'The Man with a Hundred Faces, ' and the only English spy in Russia - was cut off in Petrograd after infiltrating the Bolshevik Government and stealing top-secret information. With the government in London desperately in need of the documents in Dukes possession and the Bolshevik secret police closing in, a seemingly suicidal plan was hatched to rescue Dukes. 29-year-old naval lieutenant Gus Agar and his handpicked team of seven men boarded plywood boats?the fastest naval vessels in existence, most armed with only two machine guns and a single torpedo. They set out for the island fortress of Kronstadt, the most well-defended naval target in Russian, and into the jaws of the Soviet police. Written by a former MI6 officer in the tradition of Agent Zigzag, Operation Kronstadt is an extraordinarily gripping non- fiction thriller.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590202295
• ISBN13: 9781590202296
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 363 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, if a bit overdone

This is an exciting story about a little-known era of history -- Western military intervention in Russia after the end of World War I. It seems strange now to read about attacks on Russian installations from British bases in Finland. The author covers the naval combat better than the espionage inside Russia, whose operations and successes are somewhat opaque. As is so frequently the case in modern popular histories, some of the dialogues and personal thoughts seem at least partially invented. Nonetheless, this is a good read. It would have been even better if the maps had been placed at the front of the book instead of after the appendices and bibliography. I did not discover the maps until after I finished reading the text.

A Classic Spy Story/ That Never Leaves You

This is the story of the only spy to ever be knighted and his rescue by some common soldiers that step up to the classic plate, "above & beyond the call of duty". the spy consistently has to face classic dilemas that face all uncover operatives such as putting his life in the hands of suspicious characters or simply walk away and never get in. He literally has no experience or training! He is basically dropped into the Russian revolution of 1917 with just a few contacts that may be double or blown. He soon learns the first rule pronto: maintain your cover. He also must maintain a fast learning curve... or die. He learns that it is often the most dangerous and least trustworthy contacts that have the best information. He unfortunately, also learns, the Popeye Effect: "Iams what Iams" - hooked on the adrenalin high of having his life in constant danger. Fortunately, a must for his do or die existence. Soon the untrained undercover officier becomes the consumate professional. He knows the greatest dangers as he moves in & out of the deadly under currents of revolutionary zeal, from papers that are updated frequently w/new stamps to unexpected face to face encounters that spell certain capture. Eventually the suspicion of one Russian for another turns into a feature of Russain life. Sadly it continues to this day. MI6 is a bungling organization. He walks a high-wire, with them continually shaking it or cutting off! For example, MI6 should have supplied him w/money, but whenever they failed he had a stark choice of abandonig his hard-won agents or taking high risks/he never abandoned his agents/always taking the high-adrenalin road. The rescue mission of this daring spy story is its equal in high on adventure and suspense. Gus wins the Victoria Cross as a result of it. In the end both Duke/spy and Gus/rescuer want nothing to due with the incompetent double-dealing spy agency. A trend that has not changed for MI6/CIA/FBI/FSB/KGB/you name it. A GREAT story told very well about those times, times that sadly never really changed: the waste & inefficiency in the system is its bone and marrow. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!

reads like a James Bond thriller

This is the story of one of the early secret operations of Great Britain's MI6 - the rescue of the "man with a hundred faces" from inside Bolshevik Russia in 1919. Paul Dukes, the only MI6 officer ever knighted for his espionage work had valuable intel on the Bolsheviks and needed very much to get back to Britain. Gus Agar, Royal Navy, would lead a team in fast boats against the best defended naval target in Russia - Kronstadt. The best in nonfiction reads like a James Bond thriller