ATOMIC SPY

The story of one of the Soviet Union’s most dangerous spies.

Though the Soviets’ bevy of successful spies no longer provokes outrage, their lives retain an irresistible fascination. Readers who have missed a few earlier biographies of Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) will not regret this latest by historian Greenspan, whose book The End of the Certain World chronicled the life of Fuchs’ mentor, Max Born. A young mathematical prodigy, Fuchs entered college in 1930. Always an activist, he switched from the Social Democratic Party to the far more energetic Communists and became a leader in opposing, sometimes violently, the burgeoning Nazi student movement. When Hitler took power in 1933, Fuchs fled to Britain, where he obtained a doctorate in physics, impressing everyone with his brilliance. He joined the British atom bomb research project in 1941 despite a security file that expressed concern over his Communist Party membership. Even at this time, he was passing documents to a Soviet controller. When Britain joined the Manhattan Project in 1943, he was one of the first to arrive in the U.S. Sent to Los Alamos, he won praise and remained after the war, returning to Britain in 1946 to become a leader in its nuclear program. By 1949, information from American codebreakers and Soviet defectors pointed to Fuchs as a spy, and he confessed after a few interviews. Greenspan focuses much attention on her subject’s early life, emphasizing his activism over his research and portraying a likable if bland character who regretted only betraying his friends, many of whom remained friends. The Manhattan Project occupies just 30 pages while more than 100 recount Fuchs’ surveillance, interrogation, and trial, a section that offers more detail than some readers will want. Ironically, his greatest regret was not spying or spending nearly a decade in prison but losing his citizenship. He wanted to remain in Britain. After his release, he moved to East Germany, resumed his research, and died full of honors.

An appealing biography of a productive spy.