This book follows the central character of Stephan Ilyich Povin, a former KGB general who is imprisoned in a gulag labour camp. This man was a traitor to the Soviets and normally he would have been executed, however the Chairman of the KGB Kazin has kept him alive as Povin knows, without realising it, the secret of the British Intelligences agent extraction service. So Kazin, who is portrayed as an eccentric, yet effective mastermind plans a three pronged strategy to get Povin to give up the secret. This strategy is:
1) Intimidation at the labour camp by fellow inmates
2) Using an inexperienced, yet beautiful, female interrogator
3) Placing Povin in a camp that is tantalising close to border so the that British may attempt a breakout, thus identifying their operatives.

So will Povin hold out and retain the secret?

Overall:
According to the book, who would win the cold war: I would favour the Russians as Bryant, the British version of Kazin , doesn’t strike me as having the intellectual capacity to comprehend or combat the threat posed by Kazin and he doesn’t strike me as having the support of his Service to perform the necessary steps.
Explosives/fight scenes etc.. : Some labour camp mischievousness, and a shooting at the end

Believability of the goodies (UK): Stephan Ilyich Povin. My personal opinion is that traitors should be dealt most severely. I know there is a glamour of being a spy, but if you are caught you should have the absolute $%#* kicked out of you and depending on the lives you have sacrificed, you maybe should be executed. For instance Aldrich Ames, if he was directly responsible for the death of 10 agents, never mind betraying his country, then he should be lined up against a wall. I also think that sportsmen who deem themselves too good or have a hissy fit and wont play for their country, they should have a public flogging. Am I jealous right wing nut? Probably but I wish I had the talent to represent my country at something.
Anyway, back to Povin. I’m glad he is treated roughly at the labour camp and the author hasn’t made his incarceration at a holiday camp, however like some fictional heroic victims his faith is keeping him alive. Catholicism in fiction is always a device given to characters who are supposed to have a strong set of morals and are only spying against their country for morality or conscience reasons, but never for money, and Povin fits this mould neatly. The problem with Catholicism in fiction is that you are always nearly a martyr too. –Robert Hanssen did it for ego showing that faith wont stop you from being a traitor (I did like the movie Breach)–. Povin is a believable character, yet with a bit of a charmed life, gulag incarceration excepted, but the final few pages where he is interacting with Kazin doesn’t seem right, but overall he is believable.
Victor is the man sent by Bryant to go into the USSR and break Povin out of the camp. A tough job and a fair result what happens to him. The author doesn’t waste too many words on this character, rather he writes about Victors tasks, therefore it it hard to engage with the character.
Bryant comes across as a bit of a desk bound fool, as he thinks that he can get somebody to nip over the Russian border, bluff their way into into a labour camp, rescue somebody and then be back in time for tea and crumpets. Sadly believable. If preserving the extraction service was so important, he should have changed the methods and personnel and if that wasn’t possible, somehow go for the hard task of eliminating Povin, rather than the impossible task of breaking him out.

Believability of the baddies (KGB): Kazin, comes across as a shrewd Chairman of the KGB. He knows that torture does not always produce accurate results, but the lingering threat of torture coupled with other pressures might be better. I did think his character was strongly portrayed, and it was good how the author showed not just his strengths, but his weaknesses too and that being the Chairman of the KGB isn’t simply a spy catching job or sitting in a chair whilst stroking a cat and thinking up nefarious schemes to take over the world, rather like any head of any organisation there is internal and external political battles to fight. Believable? – yes.
Inna Marietta Karsovina, is the beautiful, yet inexperienced interrogator sent by Kazin to find out the secret from Povin. She is a workaholic single mother as her husband was a class traitor so for career purposes he is no longer in the picture. The idea being that her weaknesses are her strengths and her lack of experience will make Povin slip up. She is anti-religion, worked for a section of the KGB whose role was to weed out religion from the State. During the course of the book, she hates religion, finds out her mother is a Catholic, starts to agree with Povin on his views of faith and then not surprisingly becomes religious. She also starts to see Povin as a father figure and develops a deep affection for him as he takes the place in her heart where her husband was. Not really believable.

In summary I did actually enjoy the book and I was rooting for the baddies, even though this Blackadder goes Forth quotation was stuck in my head throughout the book:
Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshal Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.
Melchett: Filthy Hun weasels fighting their dirty underhand war!
Darling: And, fortunately, one of our spies–
Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes, risking life and limb for Blighty! “

Also, dear readers, what would you do if you were head of the Intelligence Services and identified a traitor? What punishment fits the crime?