Boris Volodarsky

Boris B. Volodarsky (Russian: Борис Борисович Володарский; born 14 August 1955 in Syzran, Kuybyshev Oblast) is an English historian, specialising in Intelligence History, which he has studied for almost 30 years after having moved to the West, and the history of the Spanish Civil War.

Volodarsky has a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science

Since 2010, Volodarsky is a Research Fellow at the LSE's Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies under the directorship of Professor Paul Preston, member of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar chaired by Professor Christopher Andrew and the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), Stanford University, USA. Volodarsky made his name writing The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko (2009) and several follow-up books and articles on the history of Soviet intelligence. He is a regular contributor to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, ITV, and John Batchelor Show. Volodarsky also acted as the chief consultant for the BBC Panorama documentary ‘How to Poison a Spy’ (2007). Volodarsky's interview on the Russian undercover agents, the so-called ‘illegals’, for the Foreign Policy was reprinted by many international media and even referred to in WikiLeaks.

The first book was a short biography of the Soviet defector Nikolai Khokhlov (2005), whom he knew personally, for the series ‘Personal Files’. Volodarsky has also published a critical biography of the Soviet defector Alexander Orlov (2014), which the former Official Historian for the British Security Service MI5, the Cambridge Professor Christopher Andrew characterised as ‘a major contribution to the history of Soviet intelligence and foreign policy’. In his review of the book for The Spectator, Alan Judd, the former private secretary to the MI6 chief, writes that ‘Volodarsky enhances our understanding. His is not the last word – we’ll never get there – but it is a significant and valuable addition’. According to Professor Richard B. Spence, ‘Stalin's Agent is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the history of modern espionage, the Soviet aspect especially, and the history of the Spanish Civil War. It is likely to stand as a basic reference work for many years to come’. Its shorter version, mainly covering Soviet intelligence operations during the Spanish Civil War, was published in Spain (2013) and in Romania (2015).

Books

• Nikolai Khokhlov: "WHISTLER" (Vienna-London: Borwall Publishing, 2005),ISSN 1813-3436;
• The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko (London: Frontline Books, 2009; USA, Zenith Books, 2010), ISBN 978-0760337530;
• El caso Orlov (Barcelona: Crítica, 2013), ISBN 978-8498925531;
• KGB mürgitehas : Leninist Litvinenkoni (Tallinn: Pegasus, 2014), ISBN 978-9949531769;
• Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), ISBN 978-0199656585;
• Truciciele z KGB (Warszawa: RM, 2015), ISBN 978-8377732861;
• Cazul Orlov: Dosare KGB (Bucharest: Litera, 2015) ISBN 978-6067417838;

Selected articles

• ‘The KGB's Poison Factory’, The Wall Street Journal (USA), XXIII/84 (7 April 2005), 13; http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB111282082770699984
• ‘Getting the Reds out of the Orange Revolution’, The Wall Street Journal (USA), XXIII/184 (14 October 2005), 11; http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112923681671268044
• ‘The Ukraine's Tapegate Dilemma’, The Salisbury Review (UK), 24/2 (Winter 2005), 15 – 17;
• ‘Russian Venom’, The Wall Street Journal (USA), XXIV/208 (22 November 2006), 13; http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116416400977930364
• ‘License to Kill’, The Wall Street Journal (USA), XXIV/228 (20 December 2006), 15; http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116658415633355185
• ‘Cosí gli 007 di Mosca hanno incastrato Scaramella’, Il Giornale (Italy), XXXIV/26 (31 January 2007), 1 – 10, with Oleg Gordievsky; http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cos-007-mosca-hanno-incastrato-scaramella.html
• ‘Untangling the web of deception’, The Spectator (UK), 303/9327 (19 May 2007), 38 – 40, with Oleg Gordievsky; http://www.spectator.co.uk/2007/05/untangling-the-web-of-deception/
• ‘La guerra clandestine dei russi’, Il Giornale (Italy), XXXIV/130 (2 June 2007), 1 - 14; http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/guerra-clandestina-dei-russi.html
• ‘Terror's KGB Roots’, The Wall Street Journal (USA), XXV/208 (23-25 November 2007), 11; http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119578738628401849
• ‘Murder Convictions’, History Today (UK), 60/3 (March 2010), 66;
• ‘Living a Lie’, History Today (UK), 60/8 (August 2010), 39 – 45; http://www.historytoday.com/boris-volodarsky/kim-philby-living-lie
• ‘The KGB in Ann Arbor’, American Intelligence Journal (USA), 30/1 (2012), 39 – 45; http://www.nmia.org/page/AIJ2011
• ‘Unknown Agabekov’, Intelligence and National Security (UK), 28/6 (November 2013), 890 – 909; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684527.2012.701440?journalCode=fint20
• ‘Years of the Spy’, American Intelligence Journal (USA), 31/2 (2013), 152 – 4; http://www.nmia.org/page/AIJ2011
• ‘The threat from Russia's spies has only increased since the fall of Communism’ The Spectator (UK), 325/9701 (2 August 2014), 15 – 17; http://www.spectator.co.uk/author/boris-volodarsky/