How Not to Become a Spy: A memoir of love at the end of the Cold War

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How Not to Become a Spy: A memoir of love at the end of the Cold War

Justin Lifflander

2014 г.

ISBN 9780692259948

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284 с.

Two defunct nuclear missiles are on display at the Smithsonian Institution: one Russian, one American. They symbolize the signing of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Justin Lifflander, a wannabe intelligence officer, was part of a US inspection team stationed at a Soviet missile factory to ensure the treaty was honored. Inspector, sous chef, gardener, and janitor, Lifflander’s talent and curiosity convinced the KGB that he was a spy.

A comic memoir set at the end of the Cold War, How Not to Become a Spy follows Lifflander from internships at the FBI and State Department to Moscow, and finally to provincial Votkinsk, the birthplace of Tchaikovsky and the finest ICBM’s ever made. There he falls in love with his KGB-assigned “escort,” confounds Soviet authorities with pink lawn flamingos, hot tubs, and pet goats, and learns that Russians and Americans are more alike than they realize.