The Hoover Institution Library & Archives is partnering with the International Spy Museum to co-host a hybrid event on The Troika, Markus Wolf's memoir of the Cold War, on Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, from 6:30 PM ET at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
In 1989, the notorious East German spymaster Markus Wolf published an unexpected book The Troika: A Story of Three Families, Friendship, and the Cold War. The Troika follows three boys and their Communist expatriate families — two from Germany, one from the United States—who form deep childhood bonds as they come of age in Moscow during the turmoil of Stalin’s Great Terror of the 1930s. Dispersed by the events of World War II, they wind up in different corners of the geopolitical map as they mature, survive the chaos of war, and struggle to reinforce or abandon the principles instilled in them as young men.
The Troika is now appearing in English for the first time. What were Wolf’s intensions with this introspective and nostalgic memoir? Join us this evening for a discussion of this unusual book with the editors Dr. Christian F. Ostermann, Research Professor, University of Maryland, and Executive Director, National Cold War Center; and Dr. Katharina Friedla, Taube Family Curator for European Collections/Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Dr. Hope M. Harrison, Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University, will provide perspective on German intelligence in the context of the broader Cold War and the division of Germany. SPY’s historian Dr. Mark Jacobson will moderate this glimpse into Wolf’s lived experience of the complicated ideologies of the twentieth century and the spymaster’s overscale role in East Germany.
The Troika will be available for sale and signing at the program and online.
The in-person event will have open seating available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In collaboration with the International Spy Museum.
