The Man with the Poison Gun

October 10, 2016
Plokhy (The Gates of Europe), professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, details the little-known story of KGB asset Bogdan Stashinsky, who in the late 1950s assassinated two prominent exiled Ukrainian nationalists living in West Germany, using a gun that fired a liquid poison that left no traces. At 19, Stashinsky joined the KGB to escape prosecution for a minor offense and informed on his Ukrainian nationalist family. In 1957, he killed political theorist Lev Rebet, but two years later claimed a more prominent victim: leading Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. Stashinsky and his East German wife defected to West Germany in 1961, whereupon he was held for interrogation. Plokhy recounts his trial for both murders, which led Soviet leaders to end the policy of assassinating anti-Soviet nationalists, having made martyrs of men like Bandera. Stashinsky received an eight-year sentence, the defense successfully arguing that the real murderers were the Soviet leaders who ordered the killings. After serving six years, he left for South Africa, aiding the country’s government on intelligence that would counter the anti-apartheid movement. Plokhy misses an opportunity to more broadly contextualize the Ukrainian anti-Soviet movement, but his gripping, well-researched account of Stashinsky’s life illuminates a pivotal juncture of the Cold War. Agent: Jill Kneerim, Kneerim & Williams.