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The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest…
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The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (original 2018; edition 2019)

by Ben Macintyre (Author)

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1,5625211,354 (4.36)48
Macintyre extends his knowledge of espionage to the cold war of the 70s and 80s as he tells the history of a Soviet spy who volunteered to help the British,and the West, understand the workings of the KBG. Well written! I would say his best book. ( )
  addunn3 | Feb 23, 2020 |
English (48)  French (1)  Dutch (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (52)
Showing 1-25 of 48 (next | show all)
A really unpleasant situation, well-researched, as always, by this author. I found this riveting story of Oleg Gordievsky eventual escape to the west a sad insight of how the KGB (now titled Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) operates with no care about global peace or freedom for Russian citizens to know the political and military truths. ( )
  SandyAMcPherson | Mar 7, 2024 |
This was a pretty remarkable story of a brave and principled man in the dying days of the Soviet Union. Oleg Gordievsky buried deep in the KBG spied for the British when paranoia over an American First Strike nuclear capability almost brought the Soviets to start a thermonuclear war. Gordievsky was fingered by the Soviet mole in the CIA, Aldrich Ames, but the KGB moved too slowly to prevent Gordievsky from escaping to the West in a risky MI6 exfiltration plan. Gordievsky’s wife never forgave him for deceiving and ultimately abandoning her and their two daughters even after they were allowed to leave Russia six years after his escape, in 1991. At 81, Gordievsky now lives in an English suburb protected from but not forgotten by Vladimir Putin whose own KGB career was briefly derailed by Gordievsky’s treachery. ( )
  MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 |
Chilling. ( )
  Suem330 | Dec 28, 2023 |
A gripping tale, particularly during the latter third. Well enjoyable! ( )
  Harris023 | Apr 23, 2023 |
Ben Macintyre tells the riveting story of Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB officer ever to spy for a foreign service. In the wake of the Prague Spring, Gordievsky was appalled by his government's response, and embarked on a 15-year career of spying for the British. In that time, he contributed to the prevention of a nuclear incident, the rapprochement of Gorbachev and Western leaders, and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union. As Macintyre says, working behind the scenes, this man was one of the most heroic figures of his time.

As a side note, Macintyre's description of Gordievksy's original recruitment by the British at a Danish badminton court helps explain Le Carre's use of badminton playing as a major trope in Agent Running in the Field. Le Carre is clearly making a reference to the Gordievsky case in doing that.

Macintyre's account is fast-paced and has all the features of a cracking spy thriller as he recounts the events leading up to the end of Gordievsky's career. It's a real page-turner, made all the better because it's drawn from real events. ( )
  gjky | Apr 9, 2023 |
Amazing book with great research and strong writing I didn't know anything about Mr. Gordievsky, so the story was a real page-tuner for me. It made me reflect on how the world of the people involved in international espionage is so vastly from the kind of life I live.

The author provided good insights into the world of spying, and the kind of people who engage in it. He also provided a strong portrayal of the main people in the story. For example, the part where Mr. Gordievsky is deciding whether to bring his family on his escape from the U.S.S.R. enabled me to really empathize with his struggle.

The book proves the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction: almost comic ineptitude at times, and the fact that MI6 staff brought a baby with them when they rescued Mr. Gordievsky!

Very well written, deeply researched. The author brings history to life with this story. ( )
  LynnB | Apr 7, 2023 |
The world knows of Kim Philby, but do you know of Oleg Gordievsky? Great effort by Ben Macintyre to bring his story to light. Oleg's escape is a thriller by itself. Well-writtten and well-researched, Ben also manages to illuminate Oleg's state of mind. You feel his uncertainty, fear and loneliness. ( )
  siok | Mar 25, 2023 |
A riveting story of a spy and his disillusion with the
Soviet system and his dilemma in betraying it. Some of the situations are funny and perhaps 007 is not so fictional. And don't clean up around park benches too much you might be endangering world peace. ( )
  charlie68 | Feb 16, 2023 |
A nonfiction account of a high-level KGB double agent who unwittingly became the bridge between Soviet-West negotiations when they were at their most volatile in the early 80s. ( )
  Ricardo_das_Neves | Jan 14, 2023 |
Fascinating story! It shed a lot of light on the inside workings of Russian spy work as well as Britians also taught me about several major political events that had lasting impaction the world. Reads like a thriller is totally engrossing and the audio is very well done. ( )
  carolfoisset | May 30, 2022 |
This is a tense, detailed and fascinating account of the life and escape from the Soviet Union of a KGB agent who was recruited by MI6. Like all of Macintyre’s books it’s packed with the kind of small, convincing, sometimes silly details that make the story come to life. ( )
  whatmeworry | Apr 9, 2022 |
This is one of the most thrilling book I have read in a long time. It claims to be a spy story and it is one, through and through . Set in the heart of the Cold war, It takes the reader through a captivating journey from the chilling chambers of KGB quarters to the secret walls of MI6 in Britain. It is a story of defiance and power of a single man's courage that changed the course of the Cold war. Highly recommended. ( )
  RupaliP29 | Feb 11, 2022 |
I really liked this book, but the story isn't the easiest thing to follow in an audiobook. There are a lot of names to follow, and I had a hard time keeping the USSR folks straight. ( )
  NancyinA2 | Feb 3, 2022 |
بعدما قرأت قصة العميلة السوفييتية سونيا ودورها في إشعال فتيل الحرب الباردة، كان الدور بعدها للعميل السوفييتي الخائن أوليغ غورديفسكي الذي ساهمت جهوده في إنهاء تلك الحرب.
يتتبع الكتاب نشأته ودخوله سلك المخابرات وترقيه إلى أعلى المراتب قبل أن يستيقظ من الوهم الشيوعي ويقرر التجسس لصالح المخابرات البريطانية. استطاع غورديفسكي مساعدة القوى الغربية على فهم سيكولوجيا القادة السوفييت مما مكنهم من تجنب حرب نووية محتملة. هرب في النهاية من الاتحاد السوفييتي ولم يعد أبداً. لا يتحدث المؤلف عن العميل الجاسوس فحسب، بل عن العاشق ورجل العائلة والإنسان، تماماً كما فعل مع سونيا، فكانت القصة آسرة مشوقة ومؤثرة.

بما أنني مستمتع بكتب ماكنتاير، سيأتي الدور في القراءة المقبلة على العميل الانكليزي المزدوج كيم فيلبي. ( )
  TonyDib | Jan 28, 2022 |
Excellent read - I found the plot better than bond, the characters richer and braver than any fictionous, and the feeling captured by the author of the participants exceptional. not mental chacolate but food for thought in this turbulent time. read with confidence and concern. ( )
  Brumby18 | Oct 23, 2021 |
Exciting, vivid real-life spy thriller! Very smoothly written, I'll definitely seek out Macintyre's other books. Narrative nonfiction at its most compelling. ( )
  usuallee | Oct 7, 2021 |
Exciting to read about real spies in little Denmark! And collaborators … ( )
  hotblack43 | Jul 23, 2021 |
One should avoid cliches like the plague (sorry about that) but like so many cliches the idea that "truth is stranger than fiction" is out there because it is so often true. Ben Macintryre's book proves it once again, although I might amend it to say that truth is more interesting and thrilling than fiction. This reads like a le Carre novel and the cover blurb is from Mr. le Carre and he is thanked by his read name in the acknowledgments. I can only try to imagine the amount of research Mr. Macintyre does for his books and he uses all his facts to great effect. Even though I knew some of how it will all come out I was on the edge of my seat as the story played out of Mr. Gordievsky's life as a KGB agent and eventually a spy for MI6. The writing is strong and neutral and ends up being neither hagiography or a hatchet job. In fact in the epilogue Mr. Macintyre talks about how he was assailed by both sides for his writing about a leader of the Labour Party who had some ties to the KGB in wonderfully dry British style, "It was not clear that either side had taken the trouble to read what I had written. The truth, of course, lies somewhere between the extremes..." Indeed that is true for so much of life. I wish more people would take the time to "read what was written" and find the nuance of the truth instead of viewing everything as binary and choosing what to believe without even leaning about it. This is a fantastic book. ( )
  MarkMad | Jul 14, 2021 |
A stocky, athletic figure, Gordievsky strode confidently through the airport crowds. Inside him, though, a low terror bubbled. For Oleg Gordievsky, KGB veteran, faithful secret servant of the Soviet Union, was a British spy. Code-named NOCTON

Wow, that one word is good enough to describe the book. Nothing like the odd 007 chracter were the protagonist spy could never go wrong backed by the multitude of gadgets and what nots. there is a healthy doubtful nature with all the spies running around in realty and by healthy I mean at the border of paranoia well they are all spies after all.
Continue at HermitTree.com ( )
  HermitTree | Jun 25, 2021 |
Interestinbg ( )
  ibkennedy | Feb 23, 2021 |
9 stars: Super, couldn't put it down.

From the back cover: Oleg Gordievesky was a spy like no other. The product of a KGB family and the best Soviet institutions, the savvy Russian eventually saw the lies and terror of the regime for what they were, a realization that turned him irretrievably toward the West. His career eventually brought him to the highest post in the KGB's London station - but throughout that time, he was secretly working with MI6, the British intelligence service.

As the Cold War heated up in the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Gordievsky provided critical information that foiled Soviet plots, exposed spies in the West, and ultimately avoided catastrophic nuclear escalation between the great powers. When Thatcher declared in 1984 that Mikhail Gorbachev was "a man one could do business with", it was largely because of information provided by Gordievsky. No Western country had ever run a spy so high up in Russian intelligence, which is why MI6 fierecely guarded Gordievsky's identity, even from the CIA. But the American spy agency was bent on discovering the British source, unaware that their head of counterintelligence - Aldrich Ames - was secretly spying for the Soviets.

------------

This book held me riveted. I had previously read a book which focused on Aldrich Ames. From that, I was aware of Gordievesky's name and that he did successfully escape Russia (though many other spies were murdered). Having said that, this book was much better. For the bulk of it, it focused on Gordievesky and why he turned from the Soviet Union. At one point in London, he was recalled to Russia. He considered not going, and did discuss with MI6, but ultimately he went back. He sensed the noose being tightened around him, and escaped through Norway, in the trunk of a car, in a fashion that would remind one of a spy movie -- but this is real life! Kept me riveted.

A few quotes I liked:

Paranoia is born of propaganda, ignorance, secrecy, and fear. The KGB's London station in 1982 was one of the most profoundly paranoid places on earth, and organization imbued with a siege mentality largely based on fantasy.

In a craven and hierarchical organization, the only thing more dangerous than revealing your own ignorance is to draw attention to the stupidity of the boss.

Reagan noted in his diary [after a briefing of info from Gordievsky] "I feel the Soviets are so paranoid of being attacked that we ought to tell them no one here has any intention of doing anything like that... Three years had taught me something surprising about the Russians: many people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy were genuinely afraid of America and Americans." [whereas Thatcher and Reagan were concerned about Soviet effect on Western democracy].

The cash could simply have been handed over to the illegal on arrival, but the KGB never opted for simplicity when something more elaborate could be devised. ( )
  PokPok | Dec 10, 2020 |
MacIntyre has written another excellent spy book. It reads like a fiction thriller in places. I imagine it is difficult for someone to young to remember the cold days of the Cold War, to fully grasp what was at stack, and how this one man did a great deal to keep a nuclear war from happening. Putin said, "There is no such thing as a former KGB man. Now with Putin's rise to power it is important to understand the psychology of the KGB. Oleg Gordievsky is owed a debt of gratitude by the West. The book is perfect in its research, and dramatic telling of these events. ( )
  mysterymax | Oct 8, 2020 |
This book did not "grab" my attention and I did not finish it. Other members of my reading group quite enjoyed it but the subject matter was not interesting to me. MI5 and espionage seem so outdated.. ( )
  lesleynicol | Oct 5, 2020 |
I read another book by Ben MacIntyre and thoroughly enjoyed it. I get quite fascinated with the reality of the Cold War and generally enjoy a good non-fiction read. This book details the life of a Russian spy who worked in the KGB and successfully spied for the English for a very long time. All the time reading there is that hollow feeling in the guts that at any moment he will get caught. Full of lots of background info of what was really happening at the time in the global sense. ( )
  Ken-Me-Old-Mate | Sep 24, 2020 |
Spy vs. Traitor
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook (Sept. 2018) released simultaneously with the original hardcover edition

The Spy and the Traitor is the story of KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky and American CIA traitor Aldrich Ames. The tie-in is that it was Ames' betrayals that led to the KGB being suspicious of Gordievsky and thus initiating British MI-6's exfiltration plan for Gordievsky and his family from the Soviet Union.

Macintyre tells an excellent story and the dramatic suspense built into the recounting of Gordievsky's escape is worthy of a novel in itself. Gordievsky was sentenced to death in absentia and that sentence has never been rescinded. The fact that it was associates of Vladimir Putin who were blamed for the bungling of the spy catching is all the more chilling in the present day climate (2010-2020s) where rivals and foes of Putin, whether in politics, business or journalism are regularly murdered, poisoned or imprisoned. ( )
  alanteder | Aug 25, 2020 |
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