Front cover image for The spy and the traitor : the greatest espionage story of the Cold War

The spy and the traitor : the greatest espionage story of the Cold War

Ben Macintyre (Author)
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky's name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain's obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets
Print Book, English, 2018
Viking, London, 2018
Biography
xii, 366 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
9780241186664, 9780241186657, 9781101904190, 9781101904213, 9780241972137, 0241186668, 024118665X, 1101904194, 1101904216, 0241972132
1021289307
Introduction: 19 May 1985
The KGB
Uncle Gormsson
SUNBEAM
Green ink and microfilm
A plastic bag and a Mars bar
Agent boot
The safe house
Operation RYAN
Koba
Mr Collins and Mrs Thatcher
Russian roulette
Cat and mouse
The dry-cleaner
Friday, 19 July
Finlandia
Passport for Pimlico
Codenames and aliases
Acknowledgements