KGB
City 40: film lifts veil on secretive nuclear town
On Tuesday 14 June, a packed-out Frontline Club hosted a screening of the acclaimed documentary City 40 followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Samira Goetschel and Guardian journalist Luke Harding.
BookNight with Stewart Purvis and Jeff Hubert – Guy Burgess: The Spy Who Knew Everyone
Cambridge spy Guy Burgess was a supreme networker, with a contacts book that included everyone from statesmen to socialites and high-ranking government officials, to the famous actors and literary figures of the day. He also set a gold standard for conflicts of interest, working variously, and often simultaneously, for the BBC, MI5, MI6, the War Office, the Ministry of Information and the KGB.
For May’s members’ BookNight, we look forward to welcoming Stewart Purvis and Jeff Hulbert on the release of their new book, Guy Burgess: The Spy Who Knew Everyone .
The Red Web: Digital Surveillance in Russia
By Elliot Goat “This is not a phone conversation…” – Soviet saying Introducing his new book The Red Web: The […]
George Blake: Masterspy of Moscow
By Helena Kardova On Monday 16 March, the Frontline Club hosted a preview screening of Masterspy of Moscow – George Blake, directed by George Carey. The film, which will be broadcast on Monday 23 March by BBC 4 Storyville, traces the life story of the legendary George Blake, a British diplomat who became a longterm double agent […]
“Why did anybody go along with totalitarianism?” – Insight with Anne Applebaum
By Jim Treadway Free societies crumbled in the decade after World War II, when Stalin took much of Eastern and Central Europe, and in a single-minded fashion, dismantled the existing institutions to build totalitarianism. This period provides the subject for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum’s latest book Iron Curtain, which she discussed with journalists and columnist for The Times, Oliver Kamm […]
FULLY BOOKED Russia – A mafia state?
In 2007 Luke Harding arrived in Moscow to take up a new job as a correspondent for The Guardian. Not long after, mysterious agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, broke into his flat. He was followed, bugged, and even summoned to Lefortovo, the FSB’s notorious prison.
Luke Harding will be joined by a panel at the Frontline Club to discuss his experiences as The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent and what they tell us about Russia today.
Fully Booked- The New Nobility: Russia’s Secret Services Revealed
The FSB, Russia’s replacement for the KGB, has accumulated powerful backers and increasing authority ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Co-authors of a new book entitled The New Nobility, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, will be at the Frontline Club to discuss Russia’s shadowy security services with Susan Richards of Open Democracy.