“They did not know that the woman they called Mrs. Burton was really Colonel Ursula Kuczynski of the Red Army, a decorated Soviety military intelligence officer, and a highly trained spy who had conducted espionage operations in china, Poland, and Switzerland, before coming to Britain on Moscow’s orders.”
I was so excited when I received the review copy for this book because Ben Macintyre is one of my favourite authors ever, and he did not disappoint.
Not only is this yet another incredible espionage narrative biography from Macintyre, but it is the first of its kind that focuses on a female spy. I definitely need to own a physical copy of this book as well to add to my collection.
Macintyre’s latest work centres around Ursula Kuczynski, known to other Soviet spies as Sonya. As a Jewish child growing up in early twentieth century Germany, Kuczynski became devoted to the Marxist cause very early on in her life, a cause that would be close to heart for the entirety of her long life. An interest that began with street protests and academic study soon morphed into a dangerous career.
“Like many born to privilege, she wondered if she had the stomach for the grimy, morally contradictory and frequently violent reality of revolution. Could one be a revolutionary and still enjoy good things, like new clothes?”
Recruited by the Soviets while living in China, Kuczynski ended up spying for the communist cause in multiple countries before ending up in England around the end of the war. Over the course of her decades-long career, she was hunted by multiple countries’ intelligence operations, but was never betrayed by any of her fellow spies.
Incredibly brave and skilled at her work, Kuczynski was able to escape to East Germany just as MI in England was about to realize just who they had let slip through their fingers multiple times. While Millicent Bagot at MI was convinced of Kuczynski’s communist spy connections for quite a while, none of her male colleagues would listen to her, as they fell multiple times for Kuczynski’s act as a simple housewife. The sexist dynamics at Military Intelligence (MI) allowed Kuczynski to evade arrest in England.
It was only after she had already left England that MI realized just who they had let walk—the woman responsible for gathering scientific secrets about the American nuclear bomb development program that enabled the Soviets to catch up so quickly. Sending in double agents, Agent Sonya was able to make it so that England was less up-to-date about the program than the Soviets were.
The at-once tense and harmonious relationship between Kuczynski’s life as a woman and mother and her life as a spy is a strong theme in this book. While she cared deeply about the communist cause, Kuczynski also loved being a mother. Both of these occupations were impossible to abandon, so she made them work in harmony with each other.
Deeply respected by the entirety of Soviet intelligence, Kuczynski was able to survive Stalin’s Purge while many of her peers disappeared around her. She was most recently honoured, posthumously, by Vladimir Putin, who declared her a “super-agent of military intelligence.”
Every time Macintyre releases a new book, it is better than the last. This one was no exception. It grabs you right from the beginning and is fast-paced all the way through. I loved seeing Kuczynski develop as a spy and as a woman over the course of the book. She was incredibly skilled at her job, such as it was. Macintyre gave her the respect she deserved, and did not treat her as precious or naive due to her sex. He gave her the biography any badass spy would be proud to have.
“Ursula became a spy for the sake of the proletariat and the revolution; but she also did it for herself, driven by the extraordinary combination of ambition, romance, and adventure that bubbled inside her.”
Like most books about female spies, I wanted to become friends with her. I wanted to be her.
“Ursula was touched by a gift that was part love token, part espionage tool.”
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in trying out espionage nonfiction, or anyone who already loves it as a genre.
Thank you so much to Signal and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Patti T, Bookseller
Émilie W, Reviewer
