
The Russian FSB
A Concise History of the Federal Security Service
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nigel Patterson
-
By:
-
Kevin P. Riehle
About this listen
Since its founding in 1995, the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service, has regained the majority of the domestic security functions of the Soviet-era KGB. Under Vladimir Putin, who served as FSB director just before becoming president, the agency has grown to be one of the most powerful and favored organizations in Russia. The FSB not only conducts internal security but also has primacy in intelligence operations in former Soviet states. Their activities include anti-dissident operations at home and abroad, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigations of crimes against the state, and guarding Russia's borders.
In The Russian FSB, Kevin P. Riehle provides a brief history of the FSB's origins, placed within the context of Russian history, the government's power structure, and Russia's wider culture. He describes how the FSB's mindset and priorities show continuities from the tsarist regimes and the Soviet era. The book's chapters analyze origins, organizational structure, missions, leaders, international partners, and cultural representations such as the FSB in film and television.
Based on both English and Russian sources, this book is a well-researched introduction to understanding the FSB and its central role in Putin's Russia.
©2024 Georgetown University Press (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Eurasian Century
- Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century
- By: Hal Brands
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
-
-
Worth the read.
- By Chip Eckert on 02-24-25
By: Hal Brands
-
Moscow Rules
- What Drives Russia to Confront the West
- By: Keir Giles
- Narrated by: Keir Giles
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Russia and the West are like neighbors who never seem able to understand each other. A major reason, this book argues, is that Western leaders tend to think that Russia should act as a "rational" Western nation—even though Russian leaders for centuries have thought and acted based on their country's different history and traditions. Russia, through Western eyes, is unpredictable and irrational, when in fact its leaders almost always act in their own predictable and rational ways.
By: Keir Giles
-
How to Be a Dictator
- The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Jack Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the 20th century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom.
-
-
Worth a listen
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-19
By: Frank Dikötter
-
The Soviet–Afghan War
- 1979–89
- By: Gregory Fremont-Barnes
- Narrated by: Chris Courtenay
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Soviet invasion of its neighbour Afghanistan in December 1979 sparked a nine-year conflict until Soviet forces withdrew in 1988–89, dooming the communist Afghanistan government to defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen, the Afghan popular resistance backed by the USA and other powers. Gregory Fremont-Barnes reveals how the Soviet invasion had enormous implications on the global stage; it prompted the US Senate to refuse to ratify the hard-won SALT II arms-limitation treaty, and the USA and 64 other countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.
-
Covert Regime Change
- America's Secret Cold War: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
- By: Lindsey A. O'Rourke
- Narrated by: Gary Roelofs
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Covert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O’Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on covert cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O’Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene. Covert Regime Change assembles an original dataset of all American regime change operations during the Cold War. This fund of information shows the United States was 10 times more likely to try covert rather than overt regime change during the Cold War.
-
-
Interesting Topic
- By Timothy A. McCormic on 09-28-24
-
The Secret History of the Five Eyes
- The Untold Story of the International Spy Network
- By: Richard Kerbaj
- Narrated by: Richard Kerbaj
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the definitive account of the Western world’s most powerful—but least known—intelligence alliance, which remains central to the defense of the free world in a dangerously uncertain time.
-
-
Anti-American
- By Paul H Robinson on 05-11-25
By: Richard Kerbaj
-
The Eurasian Century
- Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century
- By: Hal Brands
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
-
-
Worth the read.
- By Chip Eckert on 02-24-25
By: Hal Brands
-
Moscow Rules
- What Drives Russia to Confront the West
- By: Keir Giles
- Narrated by: Keir Giles
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Russia and the West are like neighbors who never seem able to understand each other. A major reason, this book argues, is that Western leaders tend to think that Russia should act as a "rational" Western nation—even though Russian leaders for centuries have thought and acted based on their country's different history and traditions. Russia, through Western eyes, is unpredictable and irrational, when in fact its leaders almost always act in their own predictable and rational ways.
By: Keir Giles
-
How to Be a Dictator
- The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Jack Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the 20th century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom.
-
-
Worth a listen
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-19
By: Frank Dikötter
-
The Soviet–Afghan War
- 1979–89
- By: Gregory Fremont-Barnes
- Narrated by: Chris Courtenay
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Soviet invasion of its neighbour Afghanistan in December 1979 sparked a nine-year conflict until Soviet forces withdrew in 1988–89, dooming the communist Afghanistan government to defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen, the Afghan popular resistance backed by the USA and other powers. Gregory Fremont-Barnes reveals how the Soviet invasion had enormous implications on the global stage; it prompted the US Senate to refuse to ratify the hard-won SALT II arms-limitation treaty, and the USA and 64 other countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.
-
Covert Regime Change
- America's Secret Cold War: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
- By: Lindsey A. O'Rourke
- Narrated by: Gary Roelofs
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Covert Regime Change, Lindsey A. O’Rourke shows us how states really act when trying to overthrow another state. She argues that conventional focus on covert cases misses the basic causes of regime change. O’Rourke provides substantive evidence of types of security interests that drive states to intervene. Covert Regime Change assembles an original dataset of all American regime change operations during the Cold War. This fund of information shows the United States was 10 times more likely to try covert rather than overt regime change during the Cold War.
-
-
Interesting Topic
- By Timothy A. McCormic on 09-28-24
-
The Secret History of the Five Eyes
- The Untold Story of the International Spy Network
- By: Richard Kerbaj
- Narrated by: Richard Kerbaj
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the definitive account of the Western world’s most powerful—but least known—intelligence alliance, which remains central to the defense of the free world in a dangerously uncertain time.
-
-
Anti-American
- By Paul H Robinson on 05-11-25
By: Richard Kerbaj
-
Britain's War
- Volume 1, Into Battle, 1937-1941
- By: Daniel Todman
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 35 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War, required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors. The outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe.
-
-
Great Performance, Biased with out a warning!
- By dell992 on 06-21-16
By: Daniel Todman
-
Waste Land
- A World in Permanent Crisis
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are entering a new era of global cataclysm in which the world faces a deadly mix of war, climate change, great power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, the end of both monarchy and empire, and countless other dangers. In Waste Land, Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and author of more than twenty books on world affairs, incisively explains how we got here and where we are going.
-
-
Climate / Population Alarmism in a Mask
- By ElovesK on 02-07-25
By: Robert D. Kaplan
-
Forged in War
- A military history of Russia from its beginnings to today
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: Simon Shepherd
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The national identity has been forged in the furnace of war. From the medieval kingdom of Rus battling against a Scandinavian princes and Mongol emperors, to its own empire-building conflicts in 19th-century Asia, to the formative wars of the 20th century which saw Russia pitch from Tsarist empire to communist state and defender against Nazism, all these conflicts stained the lands of Russia red with blood. A weak post-Cold War Russia then turned to Putin, who created a new mood for martial triumphalism which led directly to the Ukrainian war.
By: Mark Galeotti
-
To Lose a Battle
- France 1940
- By: Alistair Horne
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne's narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry.
-
-
You're going to need a French dictionary and a map
- By Mike From Mesa on 06-17-24
By: Alistair Horne
-
Pakistan's ISI
- A Concise History of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate
- By: Julian Richards
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forged during the tumultuous aftermath of Partition in 1947, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) has grown to become the preeminent intelligence service in Pakistan. Its capabilities are comprehensive, its remit covers both foreign and domestic intelligence, and it is one of the most feared and respected agencies of the Global South. Pakistan's ISI provides an up-to-date and detailed introduction to the ISI and its historical evolution.
By: Julian Richards
-
The Truth Detector
- An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide for Getting People to Reveal the Truth
- By: Jack Schafer, Marvin Karlins PhD
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unlike many other books on lie detection and behavioral analysis, this revolutionary guide reveals the FBI-developed practice of elicitation, the field-tested technique for detecting deception and encouraging people to provide information they would otherwise keep secret. Now you can learn this astonishing method directly from the expert who created this technique and pioneered it for the FBI.
-
-
5 stars if you HAVEN'T heard the like switch
- By kp on 09-26-21
By: Jack Schafer, and others
-
Operation Typhoon
- Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: Philip Battley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Stahel's groundbreaking new account of Operation Typhoon captures the perspectives of both the German high command and individual soldiers, revealing that despite success on the battlefield the wider German war effort was in far greater trouble than is often acknowledged.
-
-
Exhausting the Blitzkrieg
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 05-19-24
By: David Stahel
-
The Battle for Moscow
- By: David Stahel
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1941, Hitler ordered German forces to complete the final drive on the Soviet capital, now less than 100 kilometers away. Army Group Center was pressed into the attack for one last attempt to break Soviet resistance before the onset of winter. From the German perspective, the final drive on Moscow had all the ingredients of a dramatic final battle in the east, which, according to previous accounts, only failed at the gates of Moscow.
-
-
Classic Stahel
- By abulbulian on 06-15-24
By: David Stahel
-
Next War
- Reimagining How We Fight
- By: John Antal
- Narrated by: Gregory Abbey
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The nature of war is constant change. We live in an era of exponential technological acceleration which is transforming how wars are waged. Today, the battlespace is transparent; multi-domain sensors can see anything, and long-range precision fire can target everything that is observed. Autonomous weapons can be unleashed into the battlespace and attack any target from above, hitting the weakest point of tanks and armored vehicles. The velocity of war is hyper-fast.
-
-
Eye opening perspective that every American should read and act
- By Richard on 02-15-24
By: John Antal
-
The Story of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Story of Russia is about how the Russians defined themselves―and repeatedly reinvented such definitions along the way. Moving from Russia’s agrarian beginnings in the first millennium to subsequent periods of monarchy, totalitarianism, and perestroika, all the way up to Vladimir Putin and his use of myths of Russian history to bolster his regime, celebrated historian Orlando Figes examines the ideas that have guided the country’s actions.
-
-
Almost perfect…
- By Samantha Dispenzieri on 02-21-23
By: Orlando Figes
-
The British Are Coming
- The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Rick Atkinson - introduction
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abridged edition: Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first 21 months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force.
-
-
Good book, Bad reader.
- By Sandy McCall on 08-01-21
By: Rick Atkinson
-
A Short History of Russia
- How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: Mark Galeotti
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders. In A Short History of Russia, Mark Galeotti explores the history of this fascinating, glorious, desperate, and exasperating country.
-
-
Wonderful short history
- By Tad Davis on 01-19-21
By: Mark Galeotti