{"product_id":"the-troika-markus-wolf-9780817926946","title":"The Troika: A Story of Three Families, Friendship, and the Cold War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow Cold War geopolitics challenged the bonds of lifelong friends\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis now-legendary memoir written by a leader of East Germany's notorious Stasi secret police follows three expatriate families whose boys create childhood bonds in Moscow--only to find the events of the 20th century casting them in different directions and testing not only their ties but their political beliefs.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAuthor Markus Wolf, known in the West as \"the man without a face,\" was a notorious shadow figure who had loomed large in the East German intelligence service. \u003cem\u003eThe Troika\u003c\/em\u003e was published in 1989, after his retirement. And with East Germany on the verge of revolution and collapse, it became a sensation. \u003cem\u003eThe Troika\u003c\/em\u003e is now published in English for the first time.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe titular trio --two Germans and one American, their families drawn to the Soviet Union by the promise of Communism--grow up and become friends in Moscow's colorful Arbat neighborhood in the 1930s, experiencing childhood steeped in one of the most potent ideologies of the era. In the turbulent decades following the Russian Revolution, the city faced economic turmoil and political violence, culminating in Stalin's Great Terror of the 1930s.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith the arrival of World War II, the trio are pulled into the fray on different fronts: one with the Red Army, one among the Americans, and one on the side of the Third Reich. The conflagration brings them to different corners of the geopolitical map as they mature, survive the chaos of war, and struggle to reinforce or abandon the principles instilled in them as young men. They miraculously remain connected through the thorny contradictions of the Cold War--until the pressure of the times drives one of them to a tragic end.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Troika\u003c\/em\u003e is a sober testament to the 20th century's divisive doctrines and a paean to the power of familial and friendship ties during the most trying episodes of European history. It is also a humanizing peek behind the curtain at a man who ultimately found it too hard to remain invisible as his country endured the seismic shocks of perestroika and, ultimately, the fall of the Berlin Wall.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRooted in a wealth of rarely seen photographs and documentary materials, Markus Wolf's autobiographical tale deftly weaves various threads of a fraught century into a magnificent tapestry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Markus Wolf\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0817926941\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780817926946\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Hoover Institution Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Markus Wolf","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48443204600063,"sku":"9780817926946","price":54.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_40d1df69-005b-4201-ac5e-52ec091cfe38.jpg?v=1777202552","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-troika-markus-wolf-9780817926946","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}