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Abstract – Adam Svendsen (2009) and Simon Willmetts (2013; 2019) have argued that spy fiction written by former intelligence officers can illuminate the main elements of espionage (recruitment, operational planning, teamwork, etc.). This article analyzes the spy fiction of three former KGB officers to uncover their individual and institutional aspirations, values, and insecurities as well as the major aspects of their spycraft. The three case studies cover the literary works of Nikolay Luzan, a military counterintelligence veteran and the only person to receive the FSB’s first prize for literature twice, Yelena Vavilova, a veteran “illegal” foreign intelligence officer arrested in the United States in 2010 and later exchanged, and Mikhail Lyubimov, a veteran foreign intelligence officer and a prominent commentator on intelligence matters in post-Soviet Russia.