Nielegalni - Vincent V. Severski

How I came about to reading this book.

One evening in January of 2012 I was just browsing through the internet and came across an interesting interview in a blog entry on the the webpage www.latkowski.com. Sylwester Latkowski is a Polish director, screenwriter, film producer and a writer. He directed several pretty interesting and from my point of view really good documentary films. However, maybe on another occasion I will elaborate on his films. He also regularly writes and publishes on his blog www.latkowski.com. There I found a very long interview with Vincent V. Severski. In his interview Severski was commenting on the current political situation in Poland, his former job experience at the Polish secret service and his latest book "Nielegalni". I found this interview really interesting and thought that I have to read his book. In an online shop I was able to buy an audiobook version of this book and towards the end of January 2012 saterted listening to it.

About the author

Vincent V. Severski is a pseudonym. The real name of the author is different. Being curious, as I always am, I have done quite an extensive research on the internet trying to get more background information about the identity of Severski. His identity is very well protected. Nowhere on the internet I was able to find his real name. The closest I came about to finding some background information was, that on one of the internet forums someone posted information that he knows very well who Severski really is, but will not disclose his real name, however, mentioned that he is a former Polish inteligence officer who started working for Polish inteligence service still in the 1980s, successfully managed to got through the screening process of the early 1990s and continued to work in the inteligence services of the Democratic Republic of Poland until 2007. In 2007 he voluntarily left the service on his own wish due to the fact that the current political leadership of inteligence services dispised anyone who had experience of working for intligence services during the time of communist Poland of the 1980s. There is a hint in the entry of the internet forum mentioned above that Severski is a son a a Polish Army officer who was stationed in the area of Cracow. Severski himself was a graudate of Jagiellonian University in Cracow where he got degree in law. In the interview with Latkowski Severski discoloses that he has worked on many international assignment all over the world, was a very dedicated officer, one of the best working for the inteligence services. However, as the Kaczynski brothers came to power in 2005, the political leadership of inteligence services changed and, as Severski puts it, unprofessional and incompetent leadership was put in charge of inteligence services, making the daily work quite difficult for very talented and dedicated officers. In more than 20 years of his experience of working for inteligence service Severski has never faced such incompetent management. On the top, he was getting obvious signs of being unwelcomed in the agency due to the fact that he has worked for the inteligence service during the 1980s when Poland was still a Communist country. Severski retired on his own wish in 2007, leaving him lots of time to write a book.

General information and my reflections about the book

"Nielegalni" is a spy novell. Severski mentions in his interview that its a complete work of fiction, however, in the books there are made references to the current political events in Poland, historical events of the World War II, Cold War, First Chechen War etc. Since he is obliged by law to keep any information from his real work experience as a secret he consulted the contents of his book making sure that he would reveal any national security secrets, however, some events described in the book come really close to actual events, the protagonists of the book are fictional, however, what they feel, what they innerly experience as human beings is real and Severski mentions that in the book he encapsulates his own reflections, feelings in some of the protagonists. Thus, although, the book is the work of fiction, what the protagonists innerly experience, reflect and feel is real. That is the reason why I like this book. On many occasions in the book, there are long descriptions of the feelings, thoughts of the protagonists. The reader can really get into the heads of the main protagonists. I found myself getting deeply emotionally involved in the reading that on many occasions the long descriptions were so emotionally contagious that I found myself feeling the exact feelings that the fictional character was experiencing at the given moment. The reader of the audiobook did a really excellent job and perhaps the experience of listening made it even more emotionally involving.

Plot (spoiler will follow)

The books has many intertwined plots. Its really difficult to summurize it. The main protagonists are:

Polish inteligence crew of the so called Q department:
Konrad Wolski - one of the main protagonists of the book, head of the Q department
Sara (Konrad's deputy). Has been working many years with Konrad, went thorught some life and death situations with him. She rescued his life during an assignment in Bosnia.
M-Irek (two techies supporting the department)
Lutek (quiet guy, his main tasks are surveiliance)
Marcin (simple minded guy, very dedicated and loyal, however, is forced by internal affairs to spy on the department, which he admits to the rest of the crew)
Hans Joergenson -- illegal espoionage resident working for many years for the Soviet Union, currently for Russia. Hans Joergens is of Polish nationality, as a 16 year old boy his family was killed by what he originally thought were Polish partisants, later it turned out that it were Soviets, dressed in Polish army uniforms. This fact was used by Soviet secret Service NKVD and Hans Joergens (whose name at the time was different) was drafted and trained as an agent of NKVD. Toward the end of Second World War he was placed with a German women in the German city of Flensburg. Allegedly his father was a Dane, who served in German army and who died in the eastern front. After some time of living in Germany Hans Joergensen got instructions to move with his fictional mother to Danmark, got there educated, got his first job. Later on he got instructions to move to Sweden, initially worked as a journalist, later got a job with immigration authority and for many years was arrenging for various Soviet spies fake identities as an immigration officer. Meanwhile he got married to a Swedish woman, got a child, got older and retired. At the time we get to know him in the book he is 80 years old, lives alone, because his wife has passed away already several years ago.
Karl Joergensen -- son of Hans Joergensen. As we get to know him closely in the book he is an inteligence officer working for the Sweidish military intelligence. However, he has no connection to Soviets and only at the end of the book learns the real identity of his father and that his father has been for more than 60 years working for the Russians. Hans Joergensen has kept as a secret his 2nd life of a Russian spy, in fact even misinformed Russians that his son was working for Swedish military inteligence. What is interesting that without much intervention from his father, Karl ended up also working for inteligence services. Toward the end of the book as Karl finds out his father real identity and learns about his second life as a spy, he does not turn away from his father, but even shows more love and support towards his father.
Tatar - Russian spy who was send to Sweden to execute Hans Joergensen, as the headquarters of Russian Inteligence in Moscow suspected that Hans Joergensen might toward the end of his life reveal his real identity to the Swedish authorities.
Jagan - Russian spetsnaz agent, was send to Sweden along with Tatar. Tatar was the brain of the operation of Hans Joergensen assasination. Jagan, was supposed to carry it out. The operation was planned very well, assasination was supposed to be carried out in such a way that Hans Joergensens death was to appear as natural. Jagan, as we learn in the book was a Russian soldier of the First Chechen war. We learn about his horrific experiences from the war. Jagan suspects that Tatar will kill him at the end of the operation. He event tempers with his gun making it disfunctional, which later turns out to be a great mistake as they are sieged by Sweidish police in the house of Hans Joergenson. Tatar dies, however, until his death show loyalty towards Jagan. Tatar dies in the siege, Jagan manages to escape and makes it back to Russia. Their assignment is not fulfilled. Both Joergensens manage to survive the attact of Tatar and Jagan. Hans Joergenson probably manages to defect and passes all his secrets to Swedish inteligence services.
Rupert - son of a Polish minister of Defense, works at the Polish Institute of Remembrence, historical research agency reseraching and archiving crimes of Communist regime and 2nd World War. He turns out later to be also working for the Russians. Konrads team discloses this.
Misha Popovski -- Russian inteligence officer who on many occasion was crossing ways of Konrad Wolski. The book end with a long dialogue between Misha nad Konrad, where Misha disloses that Ruperts father is also Russian spy. The long conversation between Konrad and Misha takes place in Brussels, is an exchange of view between the two agents on politics, history. Quite interesting dialogue. Among other things also the real story of Marian Zacharski is discussed.
Travis -- second protagonist of the book who turns out to be an illegal espionage resident. However, Travis is placed by Polish inteligence forces in todays Minsk, Bellarussia. At one point the crew of Konrad joins him in Belurusia in order to complete a secret mission of Polish inteligence forces.Travis goes through some difficult times as an illegal agent. He is almost disclosed, needs to commit murder to conceal his real identity and lives with the fact of commiting murder all by himself. Travis manages to recruit an officer of Belarussian KGB.
Karol Safir al Salama -- al-Kaida member of Polish identity. The book begins as Kondrad Wolski returns to Warsaw from two month assignment in Yemen where he was hunting down Karol together with another MI6 agenet, William Stenton. It is a marginal character. However, at the end of the book we learn, that Sara has met him during her travel to Ukraine where she was supposed to meet Travis. During Saras travel to Ukraine in the middle of the book, Sara met a mesterious guy on the bus and fell in love with him. The name of this guy is Alexadner "Olek" Kurtz. Later, at the end of the book, as Sara opens a message which has arrived her desk, it turns out that this misterous guy was Karol Safir al Salama.

Main plot of the book revolves around a secret archive of the Soviet inteligence service NKVD which was hidden right before the German invasion on Soviet Union in June of 1941 in the Brest Fortress. Polish, Belarussian and Russian inteligence agencies are after this archive, which was burried 1,5 meter deep underground on the premises of the Brest Fortress. The exact location of the archive is unknown, until an 80 year old professor tells his war story to the director of the Polish Institute of Remembrance. Naturally Russians find this out immediately, since Rupert, the assistant of the director is a Russian spy. Konrad with his department get an assignment of recovering the NKVD archive and smuggling it back to Poland. The archive is also crucial for understanding how penetrated with the Soviet spies was the Polish government of the 1930s and the underground Polish Home Army (AK).The archives might also contain some information about the grandfather of the current Polish president and it become a big political issue as well for the Polish government. Konrad with his team get a lot of pressure from the political leadership of the secret services to retrieve the archive as soon as possible. On the other hand the archive is also quite important for the Russian inteligence. They consider it as their own property. The only problem they face is that Brest is today located in Belarussia and in order ot retrieve it they need to do it secretly, since they don't trust completely the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.At the end of the book a steel box with the archive is retrieved by Konrad and his team. However, we never learn if the contents are any useful or if the box has even made it to Poland. In the conversation between Misha and Konrad which takes place at the end of the book, where they meet in Brusseles, Konrad indicates that the steel box with the archive is still located in Belarussia. However, Konrad never confirms this 100%. Konrad also reports to his bosses that mission of retrieving the archive has been acomplished, however, he does not disclose the details, and only states in a conversation with the head of Polish inteligence that all the details are stated in a report which he submits. This is an open end in the book.

As follow up of this book i would like to watch one time the Russian movie released on 2010 "Brest Fortress" showing the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Nazi Germany. I looked at the trailer and it looks pretty interesting and is considered as one of the best Russian war movies filmed ever.

Nielegalni - Vincent V. Severski

How I came about to reading this book.

One evening in January of 2012 I was just browsing through the internet and came across an interesting interview in a blog entry on the the webpage www.latkowski.com. Sylwester Latkowski is a Polish director, screenwriter, film producer and a writer. He directed several pretty interesting and from my...