Vincent V. Severski: “Dystopia” (2023)

The work

“Dystopia” was published in October 2023 (536 pp.). According to the publisher, Jerzy Kaziura, an intelligence agent, becomes deputy prime minister and coordinator of the special services; some of the main characters end up in custody, and the Foreign Intelligence Agency is abolished.^1,2

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesnaEKRANIE.pl writes that Kaziura is a GRU agent, and that Sara, Monika and Maria prepare a rescue operation with the help of MI6 officers, a former Russian intelligence officer, Misha Popovsky, and an assistant to the NATO Secretary General; from behind the scenes, Kaziura runs a media campaign against the West on Moscow’s orders.²

The real background

In reality the head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency reports directly to the Prime Minister, and his appointment requires the opinion of, among others, the College for Special Services (Kolegium do Spraw Służb Specjalnych) and the Sejm Special Services Committee (Articles 3 and 14 of the Act on the Internal Security Agency and the Foreign Intelligence Agency). The Foreign Intelligence Agency was created by statute; abolishing it would require amending the law.^3,4

Campaigns against the West run under someone else’s banner are covered in the glossary under disinformation and FIMI.

In the novel a foreign agent takes over supervision of the services – the worst-case scenario from the point of view of counterintelligence. One of the statutory safeguards is the requirement for opinions from the President, the College for Special Services and the Sejm Special Services Committee when the heads of the Internal Security Agency (ABW) and the Foreign Intelligence Agency are appointed.³

What is accurate and what is invented

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesThe agent deputy prime minister, the arrests and the abolition of the Foreign Intelligence Agency are fictional; the sources identify no real-life models for the politicians. naEKRANIE.pl notes that the author has also written a biography of Krystyna Skarbek, “Christine” (2019).²