Even the Soviets knew they were the bad guys comparatively.
BlacksmithAccurate25 on
Such things exist. But you’d have to look for translated Soviet and Ostbloc novels.
Sticking with Western writers, Eric Ambler has some sympathetic Soviet spies in his early novels. They are idealistic and help the heroes. I can’t remember which books they’re in.
To address your question in the title: because the Soviet Union and other communist states were at least as murderous, corrupt and kleptocratic as the Nazis. While it is possible, just about, to imagine a “good” Soviet spy, to imagine the system as good — even just on balance, taking into account all trade-offs — is impossible.
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Even the Soviets knew they were the bad guys comparatively.
Such things exist. But you’d have to look for translated Soviet and Ostbloc novels.
Sticking with Western writers, Eric Ambler has some sympathetic Soviet spies in his early novels. They are idealistic and help the heroes. I can’t remember which books they’re in.
Just start with[ The Mask of Dimitrios](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46429.The_Mask_of_Dimitrios) (published as A Coffin for Dimitrios in the USA) and work your way forward. They appear in some of the ones written before the Nazi-Soviet pact.
To address your question in the title: because the Soviet Union and other communist states were at least as murderous, corrupt and kleptocratic as the Nazis. While it is possible, just about, to imagine a “good” Soviet spy, to imagine the system as good — even just on balance, taking into account all trade-offs — is impossible.
Have fun with Eric Ambler, though. He was an idealistic left-winger, at least at the start of his writing career. And his thrillers were ground breaking, forging a path for Le Carré and most other modern writers of spy fiction.
[https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26006.Eric_Ambler](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26006.Eric_Ambler)
Because the USSR wanted to destroy the world, and the CIA literally exists to save the day