{"id":1329,"date":"2020-03-01T23:15:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T23:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2020-03-13T15:08:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T15:08:28","slug":"the-lost-spy-by-andrew-meier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/?p=1329","title":{"rendered":"The Lost Spy<\/em> by Andrew Meier"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Lost Spy<\/em> by Andrew Meier<\/h1>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Mug-shot-of-Cy-Oggins.jpg” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″]<\/p>\n

British author Andrew Meier, whose book is subtitled “An American in Stalin’s Secret Service”<\/em>, has exhaustively reconstructed the tragic life of Isaiah \u201cCy\u201d Oggins (1898 -1947) in this carefully researched book.\u00a0Oggins was a Jewish graduate of Columbia University who in his youth became attracted first to the labor movement, later to the Communist Party, and ultimately to serving as a spy for Stalin\u2019s Russia in Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Cy-Oggins-subject-of-The-Lost-Spy.jpg” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_margin=”-8px||||false|false” locked=”off”]<\/p>\n

Cy Oggins (left) as a young man and (right) shown in a Soviet mug shot taken shortly before his execution.<\/em><\/p>\n

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In the hindsight of history, I suspect a lot of people like me who grew up in the Cold War and subsequently witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall find his story baffling. How could a well-educated American like Oggins and his wife Nerma (who was Russian-born but had emigrated to the U.S.) be seduced into service for the despotic successors of the Bolsheviks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Author-HW-Brands-Andrew-Meier.jpg” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ width=”76%” box_shadow_style=”preset2″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″ hover_enabled=”0″ custom_padding=”0px||||false|false” custom_margin=”-12px||||false|false”]<\/p>\n

Author Andrew Maier<\/em><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.3.2″]<\/p>\n

Meier meticulously describes and helps us understand the many complex events and uncertainties along the way that led a once-idealistic Russophile down a path that eventually ended in his death in a Soviet prison once he was of no further use to the regime.\u00a0Meier achieves an additional depth and human quality to his narrative as he brings into the story — and shares his revelations with — Cy’s son Robin.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″ custom_padding=”0px||||false|false”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_button button_url=”http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=94331819″ button_text=”Read a review and an excerpt” _builder_version=”4.3.2″][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.3.2″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Cover-to-book.jpg” _builder_version=”4.3.2″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the tragic story of a well-educated, left-leaning, idealistic American being seduced into serving the despotic successors of the Russian Bolsheviks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.oganovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Mug-shot-of-Cy-Oggins.jpg?fit=650%2C406&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1347,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oganovic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}