Only in 1995 did the United States government officially reveal the existence of the super-secret Venona Project. For nearly fifty years American intelligence agents had been decoding thousands of Soviet messages; uncovering an enormous range of espionage activities carried out against the United States during World War II by its own allies. So sensitive was the project in its early years that even President Truman was not informed of its existence. This extraordinary book is the first to examine the Venona messages—documents of unparalleled importance for our understanding of the history and politics of the Stalin era and the early Cold War years.Hidden away in a former girls’ school in the late 1940s; Venona Project cryptanalysts; linguists; and mathematicians attempted to decode more than twenty-five thousand intercepted Soviet intelligence telegrams. When they cracked the unbreakable Soviet code; a breakthrough leading eventually to the decryption of nearly three thousand of the messages; analysts uncovered information of powerful significance: the first indication of Julius Rosenberg’s espionage efforts; references to the espionage activities of Alger Hiss; startling proof of Soviet infiltration of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb; evidence that spies had reached the highest levels of the U.S. State and Treasury Departments; indications that more than three hundred Americans had assisted in the Soviet theft of American industrial; scientific; military; and diplomatic secrets; and confirmation that the Communist party of the United States was consciously and willingly involved in Soviet espionage against America. Drawing not only on the Venona papers but also on newly opened Russian and U. S. archives; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr provide in this book the clearest; most rigorously documented analysis ever written on Soviet espionage and the Americans who abetted it in the early Cold War years.
#906306 in Books 1992-11-25Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.26 x .97 x 6.06l; 1.60 #File Name: 0300053274482 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The book is a great combination of history and artBy nancyDefinitely a must read before traveling to Russia. The book is a great combination of history and art.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. excellent scholarly overview of Russian artBy alykEnormously informative; if a bit dry. If you are really looking to immerse yourself in Russian art; and it's relationship to the culture; read this. It is true; as others have said; few color pictures. But for pure excusable; I have seen anything more comprehensive9 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Plain but correctBy A. HanegraafEnglish books about Russian art history are usually just covering separate areas. This book gives a nice overview covering early architecture; icon painting up to modern times. There are other books out there that are more comprehensive; but the once I could find were all written in Russian. And although I can read Russian; for ease of reading I was happy to at least find one book written in English to complete my Russian library and prepare for my exams. The book covered most I needed to know and I could find little places were the information was not in sync with the information I got from Russian books and my lectures.It would; like other reviewers already pointed out; had been nice if at least some pictures were printed in colour; but I didn't find this a very big problem since pictures of the art presented in this book are easily found on the internet. More important to me is that the text; although dry at times; is well written; correct; informative and covering a lot of ground.
