"Yeltsin enjoyed embarrassing the KGB," the former KGB man said. The wife and daughters of Oleg Gordievsky arrived today in London to be reunited with him six years after he quit the K.G.B. From the trunk of the car, all Gordiyevsky could hear was the driver turn on a piece of music by Sibelius called Finlandia. The high-level KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky pleaded in vain with British intelligence to extract his family from the Soviet Union, top secret files reveal. At five o'clock on a Friday afternoon on July 19, 1985, a short, thick-set man in a worn jacket and corduroy trousers stepped out of a west Moscow apartment. At 4PM on the afternoon of July 19, 1985, Oleg Gordievsky dressed in a thin green sweater, faded green corduroy trousers and old brown shoes clothes he'd selected from the back of the. Ascot put his foot to the floor, Handels Messiah playing on the tape deck, and the gap increasing as the lay-by came into sight. This is my personal blog, where I share about the people I meet, the books I'm reading, and what I'm learning. The book focuses on Oleg Gordievsky, the double agent who helped prevent nuclear war, and Aldrich Ames, the American turncoat who likely betrayed him. Reagan recorded the following entry in his diary after the meeting: "Forgotthis morning had a. We are done for., Gordievsky, a keen badminton player, and right in his KGB uniform, switched his loyalty from Moscow to the West and took on the dangerous role of a double agent. 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The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre review - The Guardian Please verify email address. These were his British rescue team. It felt relevant and interesting not just as a historical study but also for understanding the professional culture in which Vladimir Putin was raised. Sergei Skripal (right) and Yulia Skripal (left)were poisoned in Salisbury. In Moscow, as double agentOleg Gordievsky walked through the airport, he saw signs of peril everywhere. If the plan failed, the British security services would lose a prized asset, sometimes considered the West's most valuable Cold War intelligence source. He shot into it and came to a stop, with Gee just a few yards behind. He locked the front door of his flat on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow, closing it, as he recalled later, not only on my home and my possessions, but on my family and my life. Im lucky to call Bono a friend. Actually, no. The KGB colonel knew his cover was almost blown. The double agent who changed the course of history | Ben Macintyre They agreed to abandon attempts to free Gordievskys family and expel 25 identified Soviet intelligence officers. "Our pursuers, having reached a traffic police post, asked the police: 'Where are the English cars? Following his latest summer reading list, heres a guide on where to start reading like a president. No espionage case illustrates the reality, perils and moral complexity of espionage more vividly than that of Oleg Gordievsky - the greatest spy story of the Cold War. In 1961 Gordievsky then a student was in East Berlin when the wall went up. Arthur and Rachel Gee stared ahead in silence. My task was to outlast [the effect of drugs]. Enter a new email. We have one extra guest. Now all that remained was to get out of Finland and away from possible Soviet pursuit. A few days after Oleg Gordievsky was recalled to Moscow, the KGB flew his wife, Leila, and their two daughters there, and he broke the unwelcome news that they would not be posted back to London. There was an Englishman an MI6 officer working under diplomatic disguise who wanted to recruit me. After Denmark Gordievsky was sent to Britain, to the delight of MI5. Oleg Gordievsky - IMDb The driver grinned in complicity and dropped him there ten minutes later with a lascivious wink. The future defector entered the KGB's First Chief Directorate in 1962, at the. If youve changed your mind about deleting your account, you can always hit cancel and deactivate instead. 776 pp. Should he make it to the West, he hoped that she and the girls would be able to join him there in time. Within an hour Gordiyevsky was at Moscow's Leningrad train station, where he bought tickets to Leningrad before travelling by suburban electric train to Zelenogorsk. You should recieve an email shortly with instructions on how to reset your password. When he escaped to Britain his family remained behind in Russia, and were only allowed to. Yet very occasionally spies have a profound impact on history. The final hurdle was passport control itself. He was wrong. Then his phone rang and he returned to the kiosk. Vladimir Putin is the FSB's former boss. This nonfiction account focuses on Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who became a double agent for the British, and Aldrich Ames, the American turncoat who likely betrayed him. Their note added that it was recognised that this would be hard for Hetman to accept. Ronald Reagans July 21, 1987, meeting with MI6 asset Oleg Gordievsky. You should take any holiday you are owed. Gordievsky was speechless. Final part of the true-life story behind Britain's most valuable spy They include a famous oligarch. From there, he jumped on a bus to Vyborg. Then, Operation Pimlico entered the execution phase. Spy in London, https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/07/world/soviet-turmoil-family-joins-kgb-spy-in-london.html. Unsure exactly where to get off but having passed a big bend in the road that resembled the meeting place, he feigned sickness and nausea to convince the driver to let him off, and walked back along the road until he found the designated meeting place. This brutal attack on innocent people made me hate [my own country], he later wrote. Oleg Gordievsky worked as a double agent for at least a decade until July 1985, passing information to Britain's intelligence service. The office of British Prime Minister John Major said earlier today that he would ask Soviet officials when he visits Moscow on Sunday to allow the Gordievsky family to leave. Without disclosing the source of the intelligence, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was able to convince Reagan to soften his tone and halt further escalation. According to the plan, the busted double agent had to leave Moscow for Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), then take a bus north to Vyborg, a Russian town close to the border with Finland. Neighbours learn pensioner was really MI6 legend - Daily Mail Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Gordievskys position within the KGB skyrocketed, along with his value as a double agent for the British MI6. As the sound faded, a tramp erupted from the undergrowth, unshaven and unkempt, covered in mud, ferns and dust, dried blood in his hair, a cheap brown bag clutched in one hand, and a wild expression on his face. He likens post-communist Russia under Putin to Mussolini's Italy. "I wanted to work for British intelligence and was looking for a chance to do so.". How many Russians do we expel? A skilled intelligence officer, he had been promoted a few months before to rezident, or chief, of the KGB station in the. Mass media reported that the order has not been rescinded, even after the collapse of the USSR. Oleg Gordievsky was born on 10 October 1938 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. When British intelligence officer Michael Bethany contacted the KGB with an offer of cooperation and passed sensitive documents, the KGB resident in London dismissed the offer, thinking it was a trap set by MI5. As the last military vehicle trundled across, he hit the accelerator, and drove like fury, with Gee on his tail. They had watched him leave, then lost him, but were too scared to report it. No one has passed,' [they answered]. Then I realized: we were on Finnish land, said Gordievsky. Oleg Gordievsky, Soviet spy and double agent. But ever since he became a double agent he had kept his secret life hidden from Leila; she had no idea he was working for the British. Theoretically, he suggested, he might return to Moscow if there were a democratic government but there is little prospect of that. The plan sketched out a risky rendezvous with two British diplomatic cars at the bend of a road near Finland. Franci Epsteins extraordinary book follows her story from life as a young fashion designer to a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, before her escape in 1945. Mrs. Gordievsky had been under 24-hour surveillance by the KGB, starting with her husbands defection in July 1985 and ending shortly after the failed Soviet coup last month. I feel lucky that I get to connect with so many people like you. Their wives, Caroline and Rachel, remained with the cars, trying to look casual. It should be explained to him that we had already risked a lot by the delay., Recalling the dilemma, Gordievsky told the Guardian: I discussed [with my British handlers] the expulsion of the Russian apparatus from London. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin agreed to allow Gordievskys wife and daughters to join him in UK. Select interests to personalize your profile and experience on Gates Notes. Covert surveillance photographs of Oleg Gordievsky taken by the Danish intelligence service PET during his postings to Copenhagen. These days, Gordievsky is a shadow of his former self. Oleg Gordievsky - Wikipedia The First Directorate was responsible for covert operations abroad, foreign intelligence and management of covert agents. Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent who became a mole. He worked as a double agent for the British secret service during the Cold War, between 1974 and 1985. Thats it, thought Ascot. Where were they? He mentions George Blake a British spy who was a double agent for Moscow. The daughter of a Russian. . He visited me at home seven times. Intriguingly, as Britain and Russia embark on something of a mini-thaw this week with top-level bilateral talks in London, Gordievsky warned that Moscow was operating just as many spies in the UK asit did during the cold war. The tactic had paid off. Gordievsky said in London that this raised his hopes that the abortive hard-line coup against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev might lead to a family reunion. and defected to Britain. The Finnish official examined them, handed them back and came out of his kiosk to raise the barrier. This website uses cookies. KGB Chairman Vadim Bakatin said that Gordievskys wife, Leila, and their two daughters had been barred from leaving the country by the secret police agency he took over after last weeks failed coup. A meeting in the Oval Office between Oleg Gordievsky and President Ronald Reagan on July 21, 1987. Macintyre, who has a keen eye for detail, does a great job narrating the escape scene and all the ways it almost fails. In the Saab, Roy Ascot a viscount, later to become an earl and possibly the most blue-blooded spy Britain has produced was in despair. It was in Denmark that the British MI6 approached the young Soviet undercover intelligence officer, who, it turned out, was himself seeking an opportunity to serve the crown. Mrs. Gordievsky, speaking in English, said as long as the KGB followed her she knew he was alive. The pick-up had taken 80 seconds. As the bus pulled away, Gordievsky bent over the roadside ditch, pretending to retch. Its destination was the border town of Vyborg, 50 miles away, but he would get off 16 miles short at marker 836 (denoting the number of kilometres from Moscow) for the rendezvous with his MI6 minders. The government was determined to expel them but hesitated as it bargained over the fate of Gordievskys family. You can sign back in at any time to reactivate your account and restore its content. He reasoned: "Nobody would dare to carry out an assassination abroad in an important country like Britain without authorisation." In 1982, Oleg Gordievsky started working in London under diplomatic cover. Gordievsky climbed into the boot of the Sierra and lay down. Viktor: Grushko: Chief of the Third Department. The marriage did not survive this long separation. I was given away by Aldrich Ames sometime between April 15 and May 1, 1985. At the next checkpoint, Ascot scanned the faces of the guards but sensed no special tension in the air directed specifically at us. Click verification link sent to this email address or, If you would like to permanently delete your Gates Notes account and remove its content, please, The best memoir by a rock star I actually know, The best guide to getting out of your own way. Now there were just two Finnish border controls to pass not a foregone conclusion because Finland had an agreement with the Russians to turn over to the KGB any fugitives from the Soviet Union who fell into their hands. They. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordievsky was at the pinnacle of his career. The defection of Gordievsky was one of the UKs greatest security coups, delivering a stream of high-grade information. Gates Notes may send a welcome note or other exclusive Insider mail from time to time. But 1983 could have been far worse. In 2008, however, Gordievsky claims he was poisoned in the UK. [2] Netflix viewers unable to get terrifying horror film out of their heads for 'weeks' after being left so shaken by creepy flick, Top conservative think tank takes the Biden administration to court for Prince Harry's immigration records - and demands to know why he's been allowed to stay in the U.S. when he has admitted using illegal drugs, Support for the Sussexes slumps: After Harry and Meghan's constant moaning, new polling shows only Andrew is less popular and just a third believe their claims about the Royal Family. In 2007 the Queen awarded him the CMG "for services to the security of the UK". '", "'What cars? Was he hallucinating again? At the beginning of his career, Gordievsky was stationed in Denmark. Gordievsky crawled into the undergrowth to wait. Thirty Years Later, Soviet-Era MI6 Double Agent Describes Escape From KGB What the CIA did not now, however, was that its own head of counter-intelligence was himself a KGB spy: the KGB was spying on the CIA, which was secretly spying on MI6, its own ally, which was spying on the KGB. They'd been on duty since about 7 that morning and let us go through to the border point without checking us.". He had toyed with taking them, especially as MI6 had always included them in the escape plan. Many are now billionaires. However, the arrest of a CIA turncoat cast a shadow on Gordievsky and made his superiors in Moscow suspicious of his true allegiance. He took no souvenir photographs with him or other emotional mementoes. Gordievsky inflicted more damage on Soviet intelligence than any other single spy. He ran through the full menu of surveillance-evasion techniques, jumping on a Metro train as the door closed, alighting after two stops, and then catching a train in the opposite direction. From the very beginning of his work for the KGB, Gordievsky found himself entangled in the spy games. Yelena Akopian, his first wife. Gorbachev was uneducated and not especially intelligent," he sniffed. For years, he provided top-secret Russian intelligence to the British, but he is best remembered for risking his life in 1983 to pull the world bac. It was horrible, horrible music. Litvinenko decided to defect after growing disillusioned with the FSB, which he felt had betrayed its ideals, Gordievsky said. By Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky. AreRussian killers on the streets of Britain? "He was crazy about fitness. But the alleged incident has taken a visible toll on his health. My soul was aching. He began to question all the Soviet dogma that he had been learning since birth. Controversially, the foreign secretary, William Hague, wants to keep the government's Litvinenko files secret to appease Moscow, according to critics. He had been suspiciously summoned to Moscow. It was years later that Western intelligence and Gordievsky learned. Ive got a nice lady waiting for me in one of them, he explained. AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. He had sent her and the children on a months holiday, to the dacha belonging to her father, an elderly KGB general, in Azerbaijan. In London he warned that the politburo erroneously believed the west was planning a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. But its thrilling anyway. and defected to Britain. He called MI6, Gordiyevsky recalls, and announced: "The luggage has arrived. Shortly after 8am, they crossed into the complete safety of Norway, a Nato country. Your Gates Notes account has been deactivated. "Leonid Brezhnev was nothing special. Leyla Gordievsky, 42, flew into Heathrow Airport with her daughters Maria, 11, and Anna, 10, after being allowed to leave Moscow - six years after her husband defected to Britain while working as the KGB chief in London. As they got closer to the border, there were two KGB Ladas behind them and a police car in front. He remains a passionate fan of Britain; he reads the Spectator and writes for the Literary Review. The image you are trying to upload is either too big or is an unacceptable format. I decided to try something different for my list of holiday books this year. Already, as they sped on the highway out of Moscow, KGB surveillance cars routinely tucked in behind them. I dived into a boot and the cars continued before the KGB car appeared from around the corner. At the first, a frontier guard gave the party a hard look but waved them through without even a document check. . Your password has been reset. Then a distinctive gush, as he decanted his lunchtime beers into the bottle. Leyla Gordievsky holding up large bottle of| champagne, daughters Gordievsky, 74, claims a large number of Vladimir Putin's agents are based at the Russian embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens. Asked whether he believed changes at home were irreversible, Gordievsky said, I believe it has changed for ever, but how profound the change is I still dont know., Connect with the definitive source for global and local news.
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