Join us for Alex Storozynski’s presentation of his newest book
“SPIES IN MY BLOOD Secrets of a Polish Family’s Fight Against Nazis & Communists”
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 @6PM
Polish and Slavic Center
176 Java Street, 1st Floor Gallery
Brooklyn, NY 11222
RSVP: pscea@polishslaviccenter.org
If you want a copy of the book signed, please buy it on Amazon and bring it to the event where it will be signed by the author. Click HERE to buy the book.
In the 1970s and 80s, Polish Col. Ryszard Kuklinski leaked thousands of pages of Soviet military secrets to American intelligence officers. Kuklinski was the most consequential military defector in the Cold War. He stopped a planned Russian nuclear attack on the West. How did the CIA exfiltrate him from Poland? This clandestine operation has been kept under wraps — until now. It’s revealed in a new book, Spies In My Blood, by Alex Storozynski.
This memoir narrates the true story of two brothers raised in New York by WWII refugees. George and Alex Storozynski journeyed to Poland to discover their roots. They learned they descended from a family of soldiers, spies, and assassins. In the Russian-occupied People’s Republic of Poland, they were put under surveillance by Communist secret police and given code names “Rocky and Nemo.”
One brother became a banker and a spy, the other a journalist who challenged the powers that be. When Alex attended the press conferences of propaganda minister Jerzy Urban, he began to write about how the Communists used Agitprop (agitation and propaganda) to control the information given to the people. The SB secret police declared Alex “an enemy of the state” and banned him from Poland.
More about the book:
The true story of two brothers raised in New York by WWII exiles and their journey to Poland to uncover the truth about their family of soldiers, spies, and assassins. Alex and George were put under surveillance by Communist secret police and given code names “Rocky and Nemo.” Which brother would go into the family business?
The memoir chronicles the resilience of three generations of spies in a single family who fought Poland’s occupation by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. It exposes the black market scams and extortion people trapped behind the Iron Curtain were forced to endure and unveils secrets of the Cold War yet to be told.
Spies In My Blood reveals the clandestine mission to exfiltrate CIA informant Col. Ryszard Kuklinski out of Poland. It details the university research on freedom of speech by Alex Storozynski that infuriated the Communists in Poland so much that they declared him “an enemy of the state.” Alex and George had traits in their blood from their father, who was a soldier and spy during WWII, and their grandfather, who operated a Polish intelligence ring in the 1930s running a team of chimney sweeps to track Stalin’s NKVD and Russian spies in Lwow, (today’s Lviv). Their maternal grandfather wielded a cutthroat razor in covert operations that left blood on his hands.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. With Russia again fighting to move the border between East and West, the Cold War has exploded into a horrific international battle. Vladimir Putin’s attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union’s Evil Empire by invading countries like Ukraine and bombing civilians is a grim reminder of the need to avoid repeating history. Motorized terror squads are again murdering Europeans and Jews, and the deaths of women and children on all sides are written off as collateral damage. The gravity of the situation cannot be overstated.
Who was truly responsible for the opposition priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, being murdered? What tricks did Poland’s propaganda minister, Jerzy Urban, use to manipulate American media? How did the Kremlin brainwash the people? Spies In My Blood examines the untold atrocities of WWII and the Cold War, providing a lesson for avoiding the doom of repeating history.
Alex Storozynski is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker. His award-winning book The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, was made into a film, Kosciuszko: A Man Ahead of His Time, which ran on PBS. Storozynski is President Emeritus and Chairman of the Board of The Kosciuszko Foundation.
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“Alex Storozynski has done much for Poland. Listen and read what he writes and says. I ask you to read and listen to this man.”
- Lech Wałesa, Former President of Poland & Nobel Peace Prize Winner
“Alex Storozynski and his brother were on the front lines in the fight against the Soviet empire. Thanks to people like them, the Soviet empire was overthrown. Alex has the family gene of fighting for freedom. Spies In My Blood will help you discover it in yourself.”
- General Roman Polko, former commander of GROM, Poland’s Special Forces
“A fascinating story — at times harrowing, funny and exciting. Brilliantly told.”
- Tim Spicer, OBE (Order of the British Empire), author of A Suspicion of Spies
“You did it. A big coup!” On getting the media to ban the phrase “Polish Concentration camps.”
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor
“Alex Storozynski has been on a relentless quest to uncover the secrets of his family’s past. The result is this immensely readable and informative book.”
- Andrew Nagorski, Award-Winning Newsweek foreign correspondent, and author of the books, Saving Freud, Hitlerland, and The Nazi Hunters
Spies in My Blood is far more than a history of modern Poland and its position at the center of world events for the last 100 years. It is the story of perseverance, courage, family, and the unshakable resolve to fight for freedom and justice regardless of the danger and risk. And that makes it an epic account of the American experience.
- Samuel M. Katz – New York Timesbest-selling author of
Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi
“Spies In My Blood is a remarkable work that offers invaluable insights into the experiences of a Polish family caught in the crossfire of 20th century political upheaval. It will resonate with readers and contribute significantly to our understanding of this complex and pivotal period in history… a compelling blend of personal memoir and historical narrative.”
- Piotr Wilczek, Ambassador of Poland to the United States (2016 to 2021)
& Poland’s Ambassador to The United Kingdom since 2022
“In Spies in My Blood Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Storozynski tells the gripping story of his discovery of dark family secrets that go back generations, from Nazi terrors to the Cold War to today. It’s a seat-of-your-pants epic tale that reverberates to world events unfolding right now – a page-turner full of intrigue, lies, betrayal, a triumph worthy of John le Carré.”
- Scott James, Emmy-winning journalist and author of Trial by Fire
“Storozynski delivers unique and vital perspectives on Poland’s modern history. His and his family’s involvement is explored in an engaging, often breezy style, but all the drama, tension, and tragedy come through forcefully. The heroic commitment displayed by successive generations of Storozynskis, necessarily clandestine and deadly at times, is compellingly portrayed as they fight for freedom and democracy against Nazis and Communists. Storozynski thoroughly unearths the “bloody details” that his mother tried to shield him from when he was a child.
- David Tereshchuk, “The Media Beat,” PBS and NPR
“This book provides unique insight into Poland’s experience under Soviet domination and the critical role of the Polish Pope, the Solidarity Trade Union, and President Reagan in ending the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Storozynski, who was in the innermost circles of the resistance, reveals the secret history of the successful revolution against the communist regime.”
- Ted Lipien, former head of Voice of America Polish broadcasts & former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty