Refusenik's Son: A Story of Spies, Bioweapons, and Cold War Survival (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)

Refusenik's Son is an extraordinary story of family, courage, and betrayal during the Cold War.Against the broader political history of the period, Alex Goldfarb weaves his personal story as one of the players in an intricate cat-and-mouse game of deception and survival.Goldfarb's was a fraught world populated by KGB and CIA agents, informers and traitors, foreign correspondents and politicians, artists and dissidents, some of whom risked their lives. Refusenik's Son begins in the early 1970s, when Goldfarb, a young science student from a privileged Jewish family in Moscow, joins the dissident movement.His circle includes writers, avant-garde artists, Western journalists, and Soviet scientists.Some are loyal to the system, others secretly dream of emigration.Eventually, Goldfarb receives permission to leave, but the authorities continue to deny an exit visa for his father, a prominent microbiologist.Decades later, through a former KGB officer, Goldfarb discovers the identities of infor