Man with the Poison Gun

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard and the director of the university's Ukrainian Research Institute. The Prize-winning author of nine books, including The Last Empire and The Gates of Europe, Plokhy lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Library Journal "Extensively researched and well documented, this fascinating true story will appeal to readers of spy fiction and nonfiction and Eastern European and Cold War history." Publishers Weekly "[Plokhy's] gripping, well-researched account of Stashinsky's life illuminates a pivotal juncture of the Cold War." Kirkus Reviews "With gusto and verve, Plokhy details Stashinsky's intelligence work... A thrilling, well-researched tale of espionage that has all the spycraft hallmarks of a blockbuster movie." Peter Finn, co-author of The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book "A gripping portrait of an assassin and his journey from recruitment to mission to defection, The Man with the Poison Gun exhumes one of the Cold War's stranger episodes--the KGB's murder of Ukrainian emigres with a spray gun that squirted poison. Author Serhii Plokhy tells an evocative and informative tale, based on original archival research, that immerses us in the tradecraft of Soviet spies operating in Western Europe."