Im glad I read this remarkable profile in courage. He called MI6, Gordiyevsky recalls, and announced: "The luggage has arrived. Crammed into the boiling boot, fleeing for his life, this lover of Bach and Handel was irritated by such low-brow, pop. But the alleged incident has taken a visible toll on his health. He likens post-communist Russia under Putin to Mussolini's Italy. Ive got a nice lady waiting for me in one of them, he explained. Oleg Gordievsky is a former colonel of the KGB and KGB resident-designate and bureau chief in London. Another 14 work for GRU [Russian military intelligence]," Gordievsky told the Guardian. On the pretext of feeling bad, Gordievsky made the bus driver stop and got off the bus midway. Join the Gates Notes community to get regular updates from Bill on key topics like global health and climate change, to access exclusive content, comment on stories, participate in giveaways, and more. Operation Pimlico, a complex and risky escape plan to get him out of the Soviet Union in an emergency, had been triggered. It felt relevant and interesting not just as a historical study but also for understanding the professional culture in which Vladimir Putin was raised. You should recieve an email shortly with instructions on how to reset your password. From the car boot, Gee and his wife, Rachel, could hear muted grunts and bumps, as Gordievsky struggled to remove his clothes. This lasted for four hours while the interrogation went on, said Gordievsky. It was years later that Western intelligence and Gordievsky learned. Then, with their wives, one carrying her 15-month-old baby daughter, they drove west in the direction of the Soviet Unions border with Finland. He shot off, waited at the side of the road further on, and then joined the column at the back. Please verify email address. As soon as the family completes the usual passport and exit paperwork, I think they will be able to go.. Until recently, they faced round-the-clock surveillance by the agency. A strident figure of a man, Alexander Litvinenko widow accuses William Hague of sabotaging inquest. Mrs. Gordievsky, speaking in English, said as long as the KGB followed her she knew he was alive. Fifteen minutes later, a border guard appeared with their four passports, checked them against the occupants, handed them over and politely bid them goodbye. Covert surveillance photographs of Oleg Gordievsky taken by the Danish intelligence service PET during his postings to Copenhagen. They had watched him leave, then lost him, but were too scared to report it. Staying close to the bushes to avoid detection by a surveillance vehicle, he quietly slipped across to an adjacent street. After he sobered up at home, Oleg Gordiyevsky turned to his last resort -- an emergency escape plan devised by the British intelligence services that was hidden in invisible ink in a collection of Shakespeare sonnets. The KGB sped forward to catch up, but the British cars had waited by a small hill out of sight and the KGB overshot them. The future defector entered the KGBs First Chief Directorate in 1962, at the peak of the Cold War between the Western and Socialist blocks. And then in November, NATO conducted a massive military simulation involving 40,000 troops. Oleg Gordievsky worked as a double agent for at least a decade until July 1985, passing information to Britain's intelligence service. The reason two cars were making the journey was that MI6 believed Gordievsky was bringing his wife, Leila, and their two small daughters with him. There are some dachas in the woods. Click here to find out more. Fear and adrenaline can have a strange effect on the mind and the appetite. Gordievsky should have remained hidden in the undergrowth. Anyone can read what you share. Posing as tourists, his MI6 handlers from London had come to meet him and made a phone call to headquarters with a coded message: The fishing has been very good here. He became upset at not being promoted - feeling that he should be a general - so offered his services to the West. A dog-handler appeared and stood eight yards away, looking intently at the British cars and stroking his Alsatian. It was not until 1974 that he began his career as a double agent in Denmark. The intelligence he provided was so important it was being passed all the way to the Oval Office, but without MI6 ever revealing where it came from. Theoretically, he suggested, he might return to Moscow if there were a democratic government but there is little prospect of that. They surrounded the English: 'Right, that's it, now they're going to arrest us,' they thought. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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. 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. It would require only a phone call from the Soviet side to stop them even now. They'd been on duty since about 7 that morning and let us go through to the border point without checking us.". I had to procure documents of deceased people or those who left [the country], so that [KGBs] Directorate C [illegal intelligence] could use them. His father, Anton, was a devoted Communist Party member and KGB agent who took part in Stalins paranoid purges of enemies of the state. As a result of his fathers position in the KGB, Gordievsky grew up well fed, privileged, and secure in a Moscow apartment block reserved for the intelligence elite, according to Macintyre. He shot into it and came to a stop, with Gee just a few yards behind. Fast asleep on sedatives, hed apparently fallen out of his bunk. Please complete your account verification. "It was an open secret in the Soviet embassy. Now the Soviets are on to him. There, in a cafeteria, he sat down to a lunch of two bottles of beer and a plate of fried chicken. Ascot swung round a bend, and hit the brakes. In London he warned that the politburo erroneously believed the west was planning a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. He was on the run. Im lucky to call Bono a friend. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. It's all in order.". He left no note of explanation or justification. Vladimir Putin is the FSB's former boss. He called it a personal triumph and said, There was a real threat that we would never be able to see each other again. Moment commuter blasts eco-zealots, Royal superfans camping on The Mall ahead of King's Coronation, Historic chairs to be reused by the King for the coronation service, Hundreds of Household Division members rehearse for coronation, Russian freight train derails and bursts into flames after explosion, Women's rights activists and pro-trans campaigners separated, Cambridge students party in the park during annual celebrations, Moment bull suffers catastrophic injuries after leaping from bridge, LGBTQ+ supporters demand Ryan Webb resign at council meeting, Braverman: People crossing Channel are 'at odds with British values'. 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. MOSCOW (AP) _ The new chairman of the KGB said today that the family of KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky will be allowed to join him in Britain. 0:00 / 10:46 Oleg Gordievsky's secret life as a spy | Interview with Ben Macintyre | SVT/TV 2/Skavlan Skavlan 367K subscribers Subscribe 504 31K views 2 years ago Author Ben Macintyre talks. Miraculously he had come in from the cold. They agreed to abandon attempts to free Gordievskys family and expel 25 identified Soviet intelligence officers. Published: 18:12 EDT, 27 November 2018 | Updated: 18:31 EDT, 27 November 2018. But something snapped inside Gordievsky when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, in 1968. They seemed to be closing the net. 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. He set about memorizing them. In what became known asthe big dump,Ames unmasked at least 25 spies, and many believe that Gordievsky was among them. 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. Ascot expected to be stopped, but the surveillance squad simply slotted in behind, just as before. 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 hed selected from the back of the wardrobe in the hope that they might have escaped contamination by radioactive chemicals used by his KGB watchers to track him. Send me the weekly Top of Mind newsletter. ", "I dived into the trunk of one of the cars. We will never share your information. Click the link below to begin the account deactivation process. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. MI6 bought him a house in the London suburbs, where he lived under a false name. They were able to get out of the KGB escorts sight behind a curve for a mere minute. Communism eventually collapsed, but the Russian intelligence services have never forgiven the man who comprehensively deceived them, and helped to bring about the end of the Cold War. 32 never-before-seen variants have been detected in 13 states - and they are so mutated they could trigger 'concerning' outbreaks, Houston holds week-long NUCLEAR training exercise led by the FBI and the military to learn how best to deal with a nuke dropped on a US city, CBS 'was LOSING as much as $20 million a year on James Corden's The Late Late Show' where he earned up to $5M a year: 'The network couldn't afford him anymore', Scientists discover what happens seconds before you die - activity in the brain and heart RAMPS UP, Canceled? If the enemy has spies in your camp, and you have spies in his, the world may be a little safer, but essentially you end up where you started, somewhere on the arcane and unquantifiable spectrum of I know that you know that I know. "I realized I was going toward death's embrace. Gordievsky became MI6s most valuable agent within the KGB, providing a torrent of useful intelligence at incredible risk to himselfnot to mention his wife and two daughters, who knew nothing of his life as an informant. I am very grateful to the British government, especially Prime Minister John Major, she said. He reasoned: "Nobody would dare to carry out an assassination abroad in an important country like Britain without authorisation." If youve changed your mind about deleting your account, you can always hit cancel and deactivate instead. Mrs. Gordievsky also praised Britains efforts to reunite the family. I dived into a boot and the cars continued before the KGB car appeared from around the corner.". Gordievsky on the Baltic coast with Mikhail Lyubimov, a Russian novelist and retired colonel in the KGB. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. He remains a passionate fan of Britain; he reads the Spectator and writes for the Literary Review. The couple divorced soon thereafter. Mrs. Gordievsky, speaking in English, said as long as the KGB followed her she knew he was alive. Photograph: News (UK) Ltd/Rex Features, Downing Street files reveal how Oliver Letwin kept poll tax plans alive, Thatcher considered UK chemical weapons programme, documents show, Home Office dismissed nuclear winter threat as scaremongering, files show, TheGuardian view of the poll tax papers: judgment on Oliver Letwin, Archive files show how Thatcher vetoes shaped 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement, National Archives: revelations from the released documents, Cabinet papers show Thatcher advisers struggle with Heseltine over Westland. The KGB also produced a fantastic collection of [fake] foreign passports. Already, as they sped on the highway out of Moscow, KGB surveillance cars routinely tucked in behind them. Back then, the KGB's goal was to cultivate leftwing and trade union contacts, and to acquire British military and Nato secrets. For more than a decade, Gordievsky had. It led to him being compromised. 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. A Ukranian. However, the arrest of a CIA turncoat cast a shadow on Gordievsky and made his superiors in Moscow suspicious of his true allegiance. He was being accused of treason, and yet was being sent on holiday. The marriage did not survive this long separation. I was hardly able not to lose the remainder of my clear mind. How VERY stylish! Gordiyevsky blames Aldrich Ames, a KGB mole in the CIA, who he says told Moscow there was a leak in the KGB London station where Gordiyevsky was posted. By contrast, he praises William Hague. Soon thereafter, the British intelligence officer wishing to work for the Soviets was arrested in the UK. The Soviet officers scrutinised the passports for what seemed an age, before the barrier lifted and they were through. In an act of monumental bravery, he decided to return with catastrophic consequences. Gordievsky has little contact with his two grown-up daughters, Maria and Anna, or his ex-wife Leila. He would run for miles. Tonight the great and the woke will honor Karl Lagerfeld at the Met show-off-athon, even though he was a major sexist, fatphobe and callous racist. I dived into a boot and the cars continued before the KGB car appeared from around the corner. "Everything here is divine, compared to Russia," he said. But Gordiyevsky suspected something was up. As they clambered out, they heard Lada engines screaming past on the other side of the trees. Finally, over drinks in an elegant hotel, Bromhead made his ask, and Gordievsky crossed over. I said: Dont do that, get my family It was very, very, difficult.. Documents released by National Archives show British officials saw efforts to free Oleg Gordievskys family as a lost cause, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. What's more, Gordievsky had to make the heartbreaking choice of whether to leave behind his wife and two young daughters. Slipping into the crowd, he bought bread and sausage at a stall. Oleg Gordievsky - The Traitor and the Hero - YouTube Oleg Gordievsky was a high-ranking KGB officer turned spy for MI6. After what seemed like an eternity, the border guard returned, yawning, and raised the barrier. The image you are trying to upload is either too big or is an unacceptable format. In order to unsubscribe you will need to sign-in to your Gates Notes Insider account. He liked their traditions and independence.". Illustrated. They poured me some cognac and I felt like someone else. Many felt Russia's blundering espionage ring was more of a joke than a threat to US security. Gordievsky was already disillusioned with the Soviet system; from this point he decided to conspire against it. This brutal attack on innocent people made me hate [my own country], he later wrote. Surprisingly, the plan worked. hree decades ago, Oleg Gordievsky was dramatically smuggled out of the Soviet Union in the boot of a diplomatic car. He looked a terrible sight, just when he wanted to be inconspicuous. Mass media reported that the order has not been rescinded, even after the collapse of the USSR. Gates Notes will never share and distribute your information with external parties. Or in the light of the Soviet response so far, do we give up? But 1983 could have been far worse. Bill may send you a welcome note or other exclusive Insider mail from time to time. 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. 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. Physically, he is a shadow of the once-vigorous man who briefed Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan on the Soviet leadership. The pantheon of world-changing spies is small and select, and Oleg Gordievsky is in it: he opened up the inner workings of the KGB at a pivotal juncture in history, revealing not just what Soviet intelligence was doing (and not doing), but what the Kremlin was thinking and planning, and in so doing transformed the way the West thought about the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the KGB was divided into the SVR and FSB, Russia's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies. An inquest into Litvinenko's murder will take place later this year. In the summer of 1985, Gordievsky managed to evade his captors and was smuggled out of Russia. Oleg Gordievsky is listed among the most damaging double agents in the history of the KGB. The MI6 getaway cars would not arrive for another four hours. and defected to Britain. In 2010, 10 Russian agents, including the glamorous Anna Chapman, were caught in the US, and swapped for a Russian scientist convicted of working for Washington. Gee posted the passports through the grille. We will never share or spam your email address. Soon after the Skripal poisoning, Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB bodyguard accused of murdering the defector Alexander Litvinenko a decade earlier, offered an intriguing response when asked whether Russia had also poisoned Skripal: If we had to kill anyone, Gordievsky was the one. Rachel turned up the music, and Only Sixteen by Dr Hook echoed incongruously around the Soviet border post. From 1982-85 he was stationed at the Soviet embassy in London. [2] Unless he could shake them off, he was going to have to abort the mission and leave Gordievsky to his fate. You can sign back in at any time to reactivate your account and restore its content. The government was determined to expel them but hesitated as it bargained over the fate of Gordievskys family. Today, in the wake of events in Salisbury, the spy-threat from Moscow is a more pressing concern to the British government than any other international danger. I didnt know where exactly I was supposed to meet the British, I only had a description of the meeting place, he said. Photograph: Steve Pyke. He read it with growing apprehension. The British ambassador in Moscow sent a strongly worded telegram opposing further efforts being made to secure Hetmans family. "I was surrounded by woodland where I laid down waiting for the diplomatic car of the [British] embassy. The Alsatian circled the Ford Sierra, snuffling at the boot, and Caroline Ascot reached for a weapon never deployed before in the Cold War. "Leonid Brezhnev was nothing special. My driver turned on loud music which took my mind off of sad thoughts, said Gordievsky. To this day, he is still regarded as a potential target. Select interests to personalize your profile and experience on Gates Notes. Recruited in 1974 in Copenhagen by MI6, Gordiyevsky, a KGB colonel, was an unparalleled source within the secretive Soviet state, passing reams of information to the British, who shared it with the CIA. He also came with Marina [Litvinenko's wife]. Gordievsky said the operation to slip radioactive polonium-210 into Litvinenko's teacup was approved from the top. "They were able to get out of the KGB escorts sight behind a curve for a mere minute. Using sophisticated spycraft I enjoyed learning about, Bromhead spent the next year probing Gordievskys loyalties. Thousands of young Leftists from 157 countries were pouring into Moscow for the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students. Politicians treasure classified information because it is secret, which does not necessarily render it more reliable than openly accessible information, and frequently makes it less so. 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. Gordievsky, who began working for British intelligence in the early 1970s, fled from the Soviet Union to Finland in 1985 when his superiors began questioning him about intelligence leaks. Yelena Akopian, his first wife. The First Directorate was responsible for covert operations abroad, foreign intelligence and management of covert agents. Oleg Gordievsky, Soviet spy and double agent. 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. 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. Gordievsky met "Dick", a British agent. Gordievsky, 53, was not at the airport to greet them, saying he preferred to meet them in private. Deactivating your account will unsubscribe you from Gates Notes emails, and will remove your profile and account information from public view on the Gates Notes. She placed her baby, Florence, on the car boot, directly over the hidden spy, and began changing her nappy which Florence, with immaculate timing, had just filled. Documents released to the National Archives in Kew expose the complex calculations shaping cold war espionage, while politicians cultivated a thaw in personal relationships with Mikhail Gorbachev. Lugovois remark was, in a way, a backhanded compliment to the most successful undercover agent of modern times, a complex sort of hero, a spy and traitor. The KGB surveillance team at his flat had not reported him missing. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin agreed to allow Gordievskys wife and daughters to join him in UK. This video tells his story, including how he prevented the outbreak. Please check your email and click the link provided to verify your account. For more information see our. The most successful Soviet intelligence operation during World War II, A Cold War SEX SCANDAL that involved a Soviet Spy and a toppled British politician, This Soviet sabotage maestro orchestrated political killings abroad & spied for the USSR. Five years later, an undercover officer in MI6Britains equivalent of the CIAnamed Richard Bromhead met Gordievsky at an art exhibit in Copenhagen. As the last military vehicle trundled across, he hit the accelerator, and drove like fury, with Gee on his tail. He rose to become head of the KGB in London. In Moscow, as double agentOleg Gordievsky walked through the airport, he saw signs of peril everywhere. Hetman the codename under which Gordievsky operated had disclosed that at least 25 Russian and east European diplomats based in London were spies. ', Six people are killed and at least 30 hospitalized after massive 40-car pile-up on Illinois Interstate 55 during dust storm, REVEALED: Bud Light owners hired ex-GOP staffers as Capitol Hill lobbyists on the SAME DAY the brewer released Dylan Mulvaney partnership that caused sales and stocks to plummet, Is a 'cryptic' COVID strain lurking in YOUR area? 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. This is my personal blog, where I share about the people I meet, the books I'm reading, and what I'm learning. Then, Operation Pimlico entered the execution phase. A skilled intelligence officer, he had been promoted a few months before to rezident, or chief, of the KGB station in the. In 1968, when he was working as a KGB spy in Copenhagen, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. As the bus pulled away, Gordievsky bent over the roadside ditch, pretending to retch. Oleg Gordievsky the KGB Colonel turned British spy. MI6s agent, however, eventually fell under suspicion, and was ordered back to Moscow and interrogated by the KGB. In the USSR, he was sentenced to death in absentia for treason. Gordievsky said he had no regrets about betraying the KGB. Passing multiple Soviet checkpoints, the British agents relied on the diplomatic plates for the cars not to be checked at the border crossings. Gordievsky became MI6's most valuable agent within the KGB, providing a torrent of useful intelligence at incredible risk to himselfnot to mention his wife and two daughters, who knew nothing of his life as an informant. Gordievsky climbed into the boot of the Sierra and lay down.