The rapporteur

It is 1974. The Cold War has reached its climax, but the tensions caused by the arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States have not abated. These two superpowers keep a very close eye on each another. Industrial espionage is the order of the day.

Without wanting to, the businessman Mark Vrijman is drawn into this perilous game. Vrijman regularly travels to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries for his work, delivering gases and chemicals to manufacturers of semiconductors. That attracts the attention of Western intelligence services. 

One day, two men report to the office of the main character. They come from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the American Embassy. They use pure blackmail to force Vrijman into espionage. The honorable businessman is not interested, but when they force his hand, he agrees. Initially, the spying is easy. Vrijman has to deliver a copy of his business reports. Later he becomes more deeply entrenched into the espionage network and meets increasing danger. And his romance with the beautiful Tsetka Dimitrov acquires also the full attention of the Americans. 
Vrijman supplies the Americans with valuable information on the status of the electronic (weapons) industry behind the Iron Curtain. With the intelligence service, he has the reputation of being as cool as a cucumber and a person who does not flinch. 

´The Rapporteur´ is a non-fiction novel that gives a fascinating view of life behind the Iron Curtain in the period 1974 - 1988, before the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in the end of the Cold War. The book sketches an interesting picture of a period in which the Soviet Union had control over Eastern Europe and was seen by the West as the Red Menace. ´The Rapporteur´ is based on the many travels that the author, Marinus Jungbeker, made to the Soviet Union and the countries that were under the sphere of influence of this superpower. The experiences are dramatized.