Alex Storozynski is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker. His award-winning book The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution was made into a film, Kosciuszko: A Man Ahead of His Time, which ran on PBS. Storozynski is President Emeritus and Chairman of the Board of The Kosciuszko Foundation.

Spies In My Blood is the true story of two brothers raised in New York by WWII exiles and their journey to Poland. Each takes a different path to infiltrate the Communist secret police on a mission to uncover the truth about their family of soldiers, spies, and assassins. Which brother would go into the family business?

Alex Storozynski was the first in his family born in the United States, a new leaf on the family tree. When he set out to find his roots in Poland during the Cold War, his Mama stitched secret pockets into boxer shorts where he could hide his cash, passport, and important documents. Before he left to go behind the Iron Curtain, his mother warned him: “Be careful of your brother’s friends.” His big brother George, a banker, told him, “Mama doesn’t want you to go into the family business.”

As an aspiring journalist, Storozynski interviewed Polish rock stars, filmmakers, and artists fighting censorship. He navigated the black market and learned to thrive in the surreal and repressive system. He persuaded the Communist government to give him a scholarship to write a doctoral dissertation about the most hated man in Poland, the military regime’s press spokesman, Jerzy Urban. But he asked too many questions.

Storozynski attended Urban’s press conferences with American journalists and met underground Solidarity activists trying to overthrow the government. He translated interviews with opposition leaders like Lech Wałesa for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Boston Globe.

There’s a Polish saying, “You can’t fool your genes; it’s in your blood.” The Communist secret police (SB) stole Storozynski’s visa and interrogated him. When Senator Ted Kennedy arrived in Warsaw to give The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to Adam Michnik and the parents of martyred opposition priest Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, Storozynski spent time with the Kennedy clan and taught them to sing Sto Lat (May He Live 100 Years) to the opposition.

The SB had enough. After investigating Alex Storozynski, they wrote: “The findings in the case show that he is familiar with the working methods of special services.” Storozynski was declared an “enemy of the state” and banned from Communist Poland.

This is the true story of Alex Storozynski’s quest to uncover the nitty-gritty of three generations of spies in his blood.

Winston Churchill’s words serve as a stark warning: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” With the Russian Army again trying to move the border between East and Western Europe, the dormant Cold War has reignited a hot war. Russia’s invasion of sovereign nations and killing of Ukrainians is a grim reminder of the need to avoid repeating history. Motorized terror squads are once again murdering Jews, and civilian bombing deaths are written off as collateral damage. The gravity of the situation cannot be overstated.

Spies In My Blood examines the untold atrocities of WWII and the Cold War, providing a guiding principle for avoiding the doom of repeating history.

“Alex Storozynski has done much for Poland. Listen and read what he writes and says. I ask you to read and listen to this man.”

Lech Wałesa, Former President of Poland 

& Nobel Peace Prize Winner

“Alex Storozynski and his brother were on the front lines in the fight against the Soviet empire. Thanks to people like them, the Soviet empire was overthrown. Alex has the family gene of fighting for freedom. Spies In My Blood will help you discover it in yourself.”

General Roman Polko, former commander of GROM, Poland’s Special Forces

“A fascinating story — at times harrowing, funny and exciting. Brilliantly told.”

Tim Spicer, OBE (Order of the British Empire),

Author of A Suspicion of Spies

“You did it. A big coup!” On getting the media to ban the phrase “Polish Concentration camps.” 

 Zbigniew Brzezinski, 

President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor

“Alex Storozynski has been on a relentless quest to uncover the secrets of his family’s past. The result is this immensely readable and informative book.”

Andrew Nagorski, Award-Winning Newsweek foreign correspondent

Author of Saving Freud, Hitlerland, and The Nazi Hunters

"Spies in My Blood is far more than a history of modern Poland and its position at the center of world events for the last 100 years. It is the story of perseverance, courage, family, and the unshakable resolve to fight for freedom and justice regardless of the danger and risk. And that makes it an epic account of the American experience."

Samuel M. Katz – New York Times best-selling author of 

Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

“Spies In My Blood is a remarkable work that offers invaluable insights into the experiences of a Polish family caught in the crossfire of 20th-century political upheaval. It will resonate with readers and contribute significantly to our understanding of this complex and pivotal period in history… a compelling blend of personal memoir and historical narrative.”

Piotr Wilczek, Ambassador of Poland to the United States (2016 to 2021) & Poland’s Ambassador to The United Kingdom since 2022

In Spies in My Blood, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Storozynski tells the gripping story of his discovery of dark family secrets that go back generations, from Nazi terrors to the Cold War to today. It’s a seat-of-your-pants epic tale that reverberates to world events unfolding right now – a page-turner full of intrigue, lies, betrayal, a triumph worthy of John le Carré.

Scott James, Emmy-winning journalist and author of Trial by Fire

“Storozynski delivers unique and vital perspectives on Poland’s modern history. His and his family’s involvement is explored in an engaging, often breezy style, but all the drama, tension, and tragedy come through forcefully. The heroic commitment displayed by successive generations of Storozynskis, necessarily clandestine and deadly at times, is compellingly portrayed as they fight for freedom and democracy against Nazis and Communists. Storozynski thoroughly unearths the “bloody details” that his mother tried to shield him from when he was a child.  

David Tereshchuk, “The Media Beat,” PBS and NPR

“This book provides unique insight into Poland’s experience under Soviet domination and the critical role of the Polish Pope, the Solidarity Trade Union, and President Reagan in ending the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Storozynski, who was in the innermost circles of the resistance, reveals the secret history of the successful revolution against the communist regime.”

Ted Lipien, former head of Voice of America Polish broadcasts & former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty