About the book (from dust jacket):
In April 1978, Arkady Shevchenko – United Nations Under Secretary General and former adviser to Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko – shocked the world diplomatic community by seeking refuge in the United States. The most important Soviet official ever to defect to the West, Shevchenko thus renounced what had been a meteoric career in his country’s foreign service.
Breaking with Moscow reveals the reasons behind Shevchenko’s action. He tells of his inner turmoil which began years before his defection, doubts about the Communist system that belied his reputation as a quintessential Soviet hard-liner and an ardent defender of his country’s foreign policy. He also divulges how, for some years after he approached U.S. officials about asylum, he served as a source of information – as a reluctant spy – transmitting the contents of Soviet diplomatic communications to American intelligence agencies.
