My Review of Shaun Walker's "The Illegals"

“The Americans” in Real Life

 “The Americans” was a hit TV show from 2013-2018 where it portrayed the daily life of two Soviet illegals and their two children as they worked their spy craft against America. Here Guardian reporter Shaun Walker delves into the history of Soviet illegals from Lenin to Putin. Indeed, before the revolution, Lenin himself was illegal in Britain. Because the in the early days Soviet Russia was a pariah state, there only way of obtaining intelligence on the West was through the use of illegals. As the Soviets obtained embassies, they integrated the work of the illegals with spies working under the cover of being embassy officials.

In this deeply researched book, which included interviews with former illegals in Russia and his use of the Mitrokhin files Walker puts together a history of Russia’s use of this method of espionage. He uses several case studies that would include Dmitry Bystrolyotov, Stalin’s Romeo and “Baron von Hohenstein.” To me the most fascinating spy was Iosif Grigulevich who was involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Trotsky and later as Teodoro Castro became a Costa Rican diplomat,

 Castro was ordered by Stalin, against the wishes of the KGB to assassinate Marshall Tito. Stalin’s death intervened and the order was never carried out. Who knows what the consequence would have been had he succeeded.

 Americans first learned of the Soviet illegal operation with the arrest of Rudolf Abel in 1957. Posing as an artist, Abel worked as a courier for other Russian spies operating in the country. In 1962 he was exchanged for the U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers. That is how high the Soviets valued him.

 In 2010 the American public learned of a roundup of 10 illegals in Boston and New York who ranged from being a high-end realtor to a Kennedy School graduate. It was their arrest that became the basis for the TV series. They were caught be- cause the CIA had an informant high in the SVR, the international intelligence service of Russia.

 In the 1970’s Putin watched the “Stierlitz” show on Russian television. That hit show featured the work of illegals in the West. Apparently, that made enough of an impression on him to become a KGB agent, and the rest is history. As president Putin stepped up the illegal program.

As depicted in the TV show, despite all of the training, the pressure on families was significant.  Many broke under the pressure of the job and the need to maintain there new identity. Indeed, there is a scene where an illegal in labor was fearful of blurting out Russian language expressions for pain.

 By 2016 it became apparent that through social media identities could be created in an instant Those social media identities have been used to great effect ever since to create discord in the West, especially during American elections. Thus, going forward the Russian need for illegals might be lessened.

 Shaun Walker has presented to us a very readable book on the underworld of the use of illegals in spy craft. He also demonstrates how asymmetrical the use of illegals is. It is much easier to create an illegal in America than it is in Russia. Given that asymmetry the Russians will continue to use them.