Gordievsky has little contact with his two grown-up daughters, Maria and Anna, or his ex-wife Leila. In an emergency, Gordievsky would turn up wearing a grey cap and holding a plastic Safeway bag. After Gordievskys brother died on duty, his request to leave Moscow was accepted in 1972, and he was sent to Denmark again, this time as the Second Secretary at the Russian embassy in Copenhagen. The Spy and the Traitor: a Cold War story like no other This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 03:32. "[25], Gordievsky said that the KGB were puzzled by and denied the claim that Director General of MI5 Roger Hollis was a Soviet agent. Check if your The Spy And The Traitor is published in paperback, with a new afterword, on May 30 (Penguin), 8.99. Published: 07:37 EDT, 24 March 2020 | Updated: 08:20 EDT, 24 March 2020. , updated By this point Gordievsky was a junior spy abroad, working for the KGBs first directorate, and living in Copenhagen. He stayed there in a student hostel, made contact with his brother (who was already working there as a spy), and ran some errands (which he later found out was a litmus test for him). Yelena Akopian, his first wife. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. For tickets, go to, Chalke Valley History Festival 24th 30th June 2019 The largest Festival dedicated entirely to History in the UK, Do not sell or share my personal information. [7][2] Under increasing surveillance and pressure in Moscow and seriously suspected of being a double agent, in July 1985 he managed to send a pre-arranged covert signal to MI6 to be rescued. It went some way towards exorcising the Cambridge spies, who a generation earlier had travelled in the opposite direction. The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (Penguin, 25). Gordievsky described Valerie as a 'perfectionist' who 'always showed me great kindness and a lot of patience'. They were married before his first foreign posting in Denmark. Gordievsky, who studied history, geography, economics, and international affairs, wanted to learn English as a language. Though there was no substantial threat, the MI6 engineered an escape plan, codenamed PIMLICO, for their prized asset. The spy mentioned the possibility of fleeing to London to his wife without telling her of his true identity and was quickly dismissed, which made him decide not to include her and his daughters, then aged five and three, in the Pimlico plan. expert analysis, our dedicated Brussels Briefing newsletter. Oleg Gordievsky - Wikipedia Ever since his defection, Gordievsky has lived comfortably in the Surrey suburbs, for most of that time with his long-term British-born companion Maureen. They would have been aged three and six. Gordievsky seized both her hands and kissed them. People in Downing Street and the Oval Office didnt believe it at first, but Oleg managed to convince them it was true and say that unless they calmed down the fighting talk, the West would effectively press the button on its own destruction., Moves were made to calm down the Soviets, who never fired. Interviewer not heard. Gordievsky says he first "dreamed" of living in London after the 20th party congress in 1956, when former Soviet president Nikita Khrushchev launched his famous denunciation of Stalin. Macintyre writes that Foot wasnt a Soviet spy. Please, The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. He sat in the back of a Finnish rental car as Pettit drove them north for the Norwegian border. [2] Fake news there was plenty of that sloshing around. The cash went to fund the magazine Tribune. Its an old Stalinist technique called maskirovka, little masquerade, which means confusing everybody so that nobody knows what is real and what isnt. It was a hair-raising journey featuring a KGB pursuit, a smelly nappy and a bag of crisps. Oleg Gordievsky, the most prominent Soviet agent to defect to Britain during the Cold War, personally pleaded with Margaret Thatcher to help secure the release of his family from Moscow. According to one officer present Pettit was visibly moved, 'her expression a mixture of recognition and love', despite usually disapproving of emotional outbursts. For details about Ben Macintyres book tour, visit, Ben Macintyre will be speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival on Saturday 29th June. But he has interviewed all of the former officers involved in the case, who tell their stories for the first time. Gordievsky got disenchanted with the KGB and by Russia after their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. For three years Pettit arranged weekly meetings withGordievsky at a safehouse in Bayswater, London, where he spilledthe deepest secrets of the Russian intelligence during the darkest period of the Cold War while enjoying beer and smoked salmon. The Institute of International Relations housed a small KGB station, which began looking for new recruits. He arrived just as the Berlin Wall went up, and woke one morning to the sound of tanks rumbling past the Soviet embassy. Far from disappearing, because we do everything online now, the secret world is more important than ever. Leila Gordievsky. He had two daughters with Leila. For 11 years, he spied for MI6. For an extraordinary period he was briefing British and Soviet spies and Margaret Thatcher, who referred to him as Mr Collins. It wasnt as easy as turning up outside his front door., Security is still tight, particularly after the poisoning of the double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last year. [7] He was questioned for about five hours. [2] MI6 allowed him to make his own decision whether to immediately defect to the UK and live thenceforth in secrecy under their protection, or to go to Moscow with the understanding that he could be interrogated, tortured, or killed if the KGB suspected his betrayal. [2] A 1994 report by the Washington Post, however, stated that "After six weeks of questioning Ames the FBI and CIA remain baffled about whether Ames or someone else first warned the Soviets about Gordievsky". According to The Times, the couple met in secret trysts at various Copenhagen hotels every few weeks, but he could not divulge his life as a double agent to her and said half of my existence and my thoughts had to remain secret. Self: Sunday. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. His accusations over the years have proved controversial and his claims have been interpreted very differently by the right and left in Britain. Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG ( ; born 10 October 1938) is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate ( rezident) and bureau chief in London, and was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1974 to 1985. Gordievsky was featured in the PBS documentary Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. Oleg Gordievsky and Leila Alieva met in Copenhagen: she was a typist for the World Health Organization; he was an unhappily married KGB officer, and a spy for MI6. Godievsky was summoned back to Moscow (pictured) in 1985 under the guise of being made the head of the KGB in Britain. But when they got to the border sniffer dogs detected Gordievsky in the boot of the car and began circling. No spy had ever done that for Britain before., Gordievsky worked undercover for the KGB the Soviet secret service in London in the early Eighties, sending reports back to Moscow. Joseph Curtis For Mailonline He informed his handler, James Spooner of the MI6, of Soviets paranoia. To order a copy for 21.50 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Macintyre wrote: It [the dog] wolfed it down before being yanked away by the unsmiling handler.. It reveals the dramatic role played by MI6 in recruiting and cultivating a serving KGB insider and keeping him alive against the odds. Although he almost certainly remained under KGB surveillance, Gordievsky managed to send a covert signal to MI6, which activated the elaborate escape plan, Pimlico, that had been in place for many years for just such an emergency. KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin said that Gordievsky's wife, Leila, and their two daughters had been barred from leaving the country by the secret police agency he took over after last week's failed coup. He was made to learn the principles of communism at school. personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to Oleg was briefing both sides. As the USSR came with the relatives of traitors to the Motherland The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. When he tried it for the first time, it went unnoticed. Vitaly: Yurichenko: A KGB officer. Like Oleg, Leila came from KGB stock: her father, Ali, had risen to the rank of major in the KGB, before retiring to Moscow. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. After his short test in Berlin, Gordievsky was sent to the KGB covert training centre called School 101, deep into the woods in North Moscow, along with 120 other trainees. and defected to Britain. There has been only one sinister episode during this gilded life in the stockbroker belt. A Czechoslovak spy, Standa Kaplan, had defected to Canada. He was briefed on RYAN before he left Moscow, but by the time he reached London, the operation was well on its way. Oleg resented the strict discipline, the endless paperwork, the malevolent atmosphere. 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You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many users needs. He was accompanied in his car by wife Caroline and their 15-month old daughter Florence, while in the other vehicle was his deputy Arthur Gee and wife Rachel. It went some way towards exorcising the Cambridge spies, who a generation earlier had travelled in the opposite direction. Moore also wrote that, although the claims are difficult to corroborate without MI6 and KGB files, Gordievsky's past record in revealing KGB contacts in Britain had been shown to be reliable.[27]. The family loved life in the UK's capital and Gordievsky's career went from strength to strength; he was promoted four times, thanks to the British continually expelling his superiors. Gordievsky was posted in London as the Deputy Chief of the KGB at the embassy. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the Settings & Account section. The comments below have not been moderated. Paintings hanging on the walls of his home in Surrey reflect his love of avant-garde art. The Kremlin genuinely believed the West was going to launch a first nuclear strike.. Gordievsky had been recruited by the West in the late 1960s while stationed with the KGB in Denmark and had been persuaded to become a double agent during a game of badminton. He lost his marriage. He had a prodigious memory and thorough knowledge of current and former KGB operations. He was trained thoroughly in every aspect of intelligence service, including, intelligence, counter-intelligence, surveillance, and combat. All rights reserved. But it was the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that propelled Gordievsky towards the west and, as he put it, determined the course of my own life. At 7.30pm on Tuesdays British officers would watch a bread shop next to Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a diplomatic complex. Gordievskys double life started after a junior MI6 officer saw his name while leafing through a personnel file. Covert surveillance photographs of Gordievsky taken by the Danish intelligence service PET during his postings to Copenhagen. But there is no doubt that he played a profound role in undermining the Soviet system, not least by explaining the paranoia and fantastical thinking inside the KGB to western policymakers and agencies. Paul Bracchi for the Daily Mail, The Mars Bar defector: How MI6's greatest ever KGB mole was smuggled out of Moscow thanks to a chocolate bar, a Safeway bag and a very secret dash to Balmoral, Britain may have MISSED the real 'novichok assassins' by concentrating on pair caught on CCTV who may only have been 'watchers' spying on Skripal family home, Saboteurs wreck Russian train cut power cables 37mi from Ukraine, Moment large saltwater crocodile snatches pet dog off beach in QLD, 'We're not your enemies!' 'She opened the boot to let me out,' wrote Gordievsky, now 81 and still living in a safehouse in Britain. [2], Two of Gordievsky's most important contributions were averting a potential nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union, when NATO exercise Able Archer 83 was misinterpreted by the Soviets as a potential first strike,[10] and identifying Mikhail Gorbachev as the Soviet heir-apparent long before he came to prominence. Hes estranged from his children. It was obvious to me that I had been poisoned.. He was suspected of espionage for a foreign power, but his superiors stalled on taking any overt further action against him. Gordievsky (pictured in 1976) continues to defy Moscow from a safehouse in Britain. "[32], In 2018 Ben Macintyre published a biography of Gordievsky, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. We use Its author was Veronica Price a senior intelligence officer, working out of Century House, MI6s unattractive HQ. Moscow orders all over-65s to stay at home then adds the A million Britons abroad are told to come home NOW with more Saboteurs wreck Russian train cut power cables 37mi from Ukraine, Unseen footage of Meghan Markle during her teenage years, 'We're not your enemies!' [2] He was suddenly summoned back to Moscow via a telegram on 16 May 1985. 894646. At an early age he learned German. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. As soon as he arrived he realised he had been rumbled. Operation Pimlico plan was almost scuppered, Oleg Gordievsky: How a dirty nappy and bag of crisps saved British spy | News | The Times. Discover the stars who skyrocketed on IMDb's STARmeter chart this year, and explore more of the Best of 2022; including top trailers, posters, and photos. He continued to deny the accusations until his death at the age of 96 eight years ago. Pettit was the architect of Operation Pimlico, an operation that smuggled KGB colonel Oleg Gordievsky out of Moscow when he was betrayed by a disgruntled CIA officer in May 1985, The Times reported. The following day, Gordievsky kissed his wife Leila and his two daughters and flew to Moscow, having been summoned back to face his masters, who suspected him of treachery. Whatever little sense of belonging he had toward his country or his fathers beloved KGB, quickly changed into rage and anguish. . Documents released by National Archives show British officials saw efforts to free Oleg Gordievsky's family as a lost cause Owen Bowcott and Richard Norton-Taylor Mon 29 Dec 2014 19.01 EST Last . The Skripal case gave this story an immediacy that I had not anticipated. In 1981, the chairman of the KGB mistook a NATO exercise as the first nuclear strike by America and its allies. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. On July 16, 1985, a man could be seen standing outsidea bread shop on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, the wide avenue running from the centre of Moscow, at 7.30pm. [20], Gordievsky included a discussion of his exfiltration in his memoir, Next Stop Execution, published in 1995.[3]. . But he was also, bravely, spying for the West. These mutual signals indicated that the escape plan was to be activated immediately. Hes always maintained that he made the right decision and I dont think I would challenge that, morally, in terms of what was happening in the world then., Leila Gordievsky did eventually come to Britain, after the end of the Soviet Union, but the marriage quickly failed. Gordievskys British contacts were a colourful bunch. Ben Macintyres wonderful The Spy and the Traitor complements and enhances Gordievskys first-person account.

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