Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley - Softcover

Olmsted, Kathryn S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469614995 ISBN 13: 9781469614991

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014

Synopsis

When Elizabeth Bentley slunk into an FBI field office in 1945, she was thinking only of saving herself from NKGB assassins who were hot on her trail. She had no idea that she was about to start the greatest Red Scare in U.S. history.

Bentley (1908-1963) was a Connecticut Yankee and Vassar graduate who spied for the Soviet Union for seven years. She met with dozens of highly placed American agents who worked for the Soviets, gathering their secrets and stuffing sensitive documents into her knitting bag. But her Soviet spymasters suspected her of disloyalty--and even began plotting to silence her forever. To save her own life, Bentley decided to betray her friends and comrades to the FBI. Her defection effectively shut down Soviet espionage in the United States for years.

Despite her crucial role in the cultural and political history of the early Cold War, Bentley has long been overlooked or underestimated by historians. Now, new documents from Russian and American archives make it possible to assess the veracity of her allegations. This long overdue biography rescues Elizabeth Bentley from obscurity and tells her dramatic life story.

About this title

Book Description:

"Olmsted has done history a great service with this nuanced and credible assessment. Her balanced and scholarly appraisal of Bentley's career will hold up and be hereafter cited as the most authoritative judgment."-- National Review

From the Inside Flap:

A biography of Elizabeth Bentley--New England schoolteacher, Soviet spy turned informant for the FBI, and key figure in the second Red Scare. Her decision to betray her friends and colleagues to the FBI effectively ended Soviet espionage in this country for many years.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1469614995
• ISBN 13: 9781469614991
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288