“The most important state secrets, particularly indications of the intentions and plans of potential enemies, cannot be found in newspapers, books, or scattered information but are kept behind well-locked doors. The mission of the intelligence services is to obtain the keys to those doors.” In this book, Alexandre Orlov explains how the individuals who manage to turn the keys that unlock the secrets upon which a state’s security is built are recruited and trained.

The Handbook of Espionage and Guerrilla Warfare analyzes the key strategic and tactical differences that distinguished the Soviet intelligence services from those of Western states and extensively examines the 8 different types of Soviet espionage. It describes how Soviet agents were trained to use multiple identities, how they recruited informants in foreign states, and the skills they developed to deceive counterintelligence officers. All Soviet principal spies, including Colonel Rudolf Abel and Molody-Lonsdale, who intercepted the secret plans of the nuclear submarine, applied the principles described in this book.

The author wrote the original version of this book in 1936 for use by the NKVD intelligence officers. It was also used as a text by him to teach espionage tactics to the students of the Central Military School of Moscow.