True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics cover image

The Great Illegals, Part One: The Whistler | NKVD

True Spies: Espionage | Investigation | Crime | Murder | Detective | Politics

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The Transformation of an Assassin: From Conscience to Defection

This chapter examines the life of Nikolai the Whistler, who reformed his identity from a contract killer to a defector after a moral awakening. It also highlights the repercussions of Soviet myth-making in the post-World War II era and teases the introduction of new recruits in the Soviet illegals program.

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