Farewell

The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century

By: Sergei Kostin, Eric Raynaud, Catherine Cauvin-Higgins - translator, Richard V. Allen - foreword

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

1981: Ronald Reagan’s inauguration marks a new escalation in the United States’ Cold War with the USSR. Months later, François Mitterrand is elected president of France with the support of the French Communist Party. The predicted tension between these two men, however, is immediately defused when Mitterrand gives Reagan the Farewell dossier, a file he would later call "one of the greatest spy cases of the 20th century".

Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov, a promising technical student, joins the KGB to work as a spy. Following a couple of murky incidents, however, Vetrov is removed from the field and placed at a desk as an analyst. Soon, burdened by a troubled marriage and frustrated at a failing career, Vetrov turns to alcohol. Desperate and in need of redemption, in 1980 he offers his services to the DST, the French counterintelligence service. Thus Agent Farewell is born. Soon he is sneaking files and photographing sensitive documents, keeping the West informed of the USSR’s plans - right in the heart of KGB headquarters.

The most complete account of these dramatic events ever recorded, Kostin and Raynaud’s thorough investigation is a fascinating tour de force. Probing further into Vetrov’s psychological profile than ever before, they provide groundbreaking insight into the man whose life helped hasten the end of the Cold War.

©2009 Editions Robert Laffont, S.A., Paris; translation copyright 2011, Amazon Content Services LLC (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

KGB Spy Helps Take Down Soviet Union

Great documentary and analysis of a Russian agent who fed secrets to the west during the early 1980s. His actions along with the political and economic climate at the time helped the US and its allies win the Cold War.

History book

It reads too much like a history book. Found myself lost and would have to rewind.

Interesting read

This book is interesting and informative for what it is. The manifold questions and uncertain areas of the narrative are treated exceptional well by the author. Competing hypotheses and conjectures are laid out well and leave no uncertainty in the reader about the uncertainty of the points being made. I would like to have had more in depth analysis on geopolitical ramifications of the information leak. The author focuses on the affair itself and the actors involved, leaving as secondary the before and after analysis of the global scene. That was the authors choice and the book reflects that.

What a Story!

What did you love best about Farewell?

I was amazed at how this spy pulled off such a long term operation and the affects on the US, Russia, and Europe.

Have you listened to any of Arthur Morey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first Arthur Morey performance but surely not the last.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This is a LONG book, so no way you will be able to listen in one sitting. It did get a little tedious because of the length.

interesting story

Interesting story. Found the back and forth in time distracting, but not so much that it turned me off.