Viktor – a haunted spy

Based on true characters and events, the story of how nuclear Armageddon was narrowly avoided in the 1980s. Told as fiction the story of how one loyal Russian patriot ended up averting the very war he had been planning for.

In the early 1980s the world was on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon. Trust between the USA and the Soviet Union was at an all-time low, suspicion and fear ruled as each side believed that the other was planning an imminent attack. Against this background Viktor Gumnov, a KGB officer, is sent with his family on a secret mission to Washington charged with the task of finding a way in which the Soviet Union could win such a war.

While there Viktor comes to the conclusion that if the American people could be provoked into mass panic, it would be possible to initiate a series of manufactured natural disaster to take out most key parts of the eastern United Staes.

Despite planning America’s defeat, his fear that a forthcoming NATO exercise would be seen by Moscow as cover for a genuine attack prompts Viktor to try to get a vital message to the Soviet leadership. He emphasises that his well-placed contacts insist that the NATO exercise is just that, not cover for the real thing. Moscow is sceptical but the world survives.

Based on a true story, this is a tale of high-stakes espionage as it really happened, and of how a potential global catastrophe was averted. It is a human story of courage and ingenuity, and a quest for understanding.

• | Author: Casey J Smith, Jo Calman
• | Publisher: Troubador Publishing
• | Publication Date: Nov 28, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781836285199
• | ISBN-10: 1836285191