Harcourt, 1994. Cloth & boards. pp 315, index. Ink name at front, else fine in VG jacket. "[Yevno] Azef eluded all his pursuers until his death in Berlin in 1918 - and just as successfully eluded the subsequent attempts of journalists, historians, and novelists to make sense of his character and motives. Who was this man who betrayed scores of revolutionaries to the czarist police while at the same time organizing the assassination of the powerful minister of the interior as well as that of Grand Duke Sergei - and coming within a hair's breadth of orchestrating the killing of the czar himself? How could - and why would - anyone play such a deadly double game? Richard Rubenstein, an expert on political violence, is the first writer to make Azef comprehensible both as a political figure and as a human being. Drawing on materials that illuminate every side of the case, Rubenstein has created a singularly compelling and evocative portrait of a man, a way of thinking, and an endlessly fascinating place and time." - jacket.; Octavo 0151528950