The Russian House

FIRST EDITION by Alfred Knopf, 1989. hardcover with dust jacket. 354 pages The Russia House is a spy novel by John le Carré published in 1989. The title refers to the nickname given to the portion of the British Secret Intelligence Service that was devoted to spying on the Soviet Union. In 1987, Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, a heavy-drinking British publisher, attends a book fair in Moscow. Business friends cajole him into joining them on a drunken retreat to a secluded dacha in the forest near Peredelkino. When discussion turns to politics, Barley finds himself talking boldly of patriotism and courage, of a new world order, and an end to Cold War tensions. One attentive listener, Goethe, asks him privately whether he truly believes in the possibility of such a world. Barley convincingly says that he does. Several months later, a beautiful woman named Katya seeks Barley out at another book fair, hoping to convince him to publish a manuscript for her friend Yakov, which in fact details Soviet nuclear capabilities and atomic secrets. The manuscript has a cover letter to Barley, saying that Yakov is trying to serve his country by hastening the day when democracy will come to the Soviet Union. However, with Barley at home in Lisbon, Portugal, Katya gives the package to a sales agent with instructions to forward it to Barley. The agent reads the manuscript and recognizes its potential value. The document has information that the Soviet nuclear missile programme is in complete disarray, and therefore there's no real reason for an arms race to continue.