Book details of 'Spymaster: The Real-Life "Karla," His Moles, and the East German Secret Police'

Title	Spymaster: The Real-Life "Karla," His Moles, and the East German Secret Police
Author(s)	Leslie Colitt
ISBN	0201407388
Language	English
Published	November 1995
Publisher	Perseus Publishing

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Spymaster: The Real-Life "Karla," His Moles, and the East German Secret Police':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Markus Wolf was, for many years, deputy minister of the East German State Security Ministry, more commonly known both within and outside of the GDR as the Stasi. In it, he headed the foreign espionage branch, roughly equivalent in function to the American CIA and in fact called the Central Intelligence Adminstration (although the German initials are HVA). This book is a biography of the man that many see as the real life model for John Le Carre's fictional Karla. There is no doubt that Colitt has done a great deal of research. The Stasi tried, but was unable to destroy forty-five years of records in the brief time between its disbanding and the takeover by the reunified Germany. The author was able to interview Wolf and family members as well as prisoners, spies and dupes from the days of the HVA's greatest activity. The accuracy of the material, though, is questionable. Colitt writes with great confidence, but late in the book finally allows that the Stasi files are sometimes hopelessly paranoid, some of the sources are almost pathological liars, and, of the rest, stories conflict, are edited to show the speaker in the best light, or people simply do not recall. While not written to the pace of Ludlum or even Le Carre, there is a great deal of fascinating material in terms of real life spy stories, "tradecraft" and human interest. The book does have its lighter, and occasionally exalting, anecdotes. When all is said and done, though, the book recounts a series of personal, professional and political betrayals. Which may, of course, simply reflect the sordid nature of the spying profession. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996
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