By then, he had been made the chief of KGB at the London embassy. Gordievsky heard all about it as a senior KGB operative, but quickly passed word on to his handlers, who took it to the highest level. One opened a bag of cheese-and-onion crisps while another dropped her child's dirty nappy under the boot to disguise Gordievsky. However, the marriage was effectively dead by then and eventually it foundered completely. Fake news there was plenty of that sloshing around. PressReader. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. And she is still looked after by MI6. ' our meeting lasted four hours and after that i met her several times again,' he said. The MI6 officer would walk past him munching a Mars bar or a KitKat. [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. His accusations over the years have proved controversial and his claims have been interpreted very differently by the right and left in Britain. Macintyre's book claims he was also the source of the information that alleged former Labour leader Michael Foot was giving information to the Russians in the late 1980s. [22], On 26 February 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Buckingham in recognition of his outstanding service to the security and the safety of the United Kingdom. [2] He steadily advanced in rank there with the help of secret aid and manipulation by MI6, which handed him abundant non-damaging information and contacts; MI6 also steadily banished his direct superiors back to Moscow on trumped-up charges so that Gordievsky took their place. The result is a dazzling non-fiction thriller and an intimate portrait of high-stakes espionage. The family went with Gordievsky when he was posted to London in 1982 and they quickly settled, enjoying British culture and never realising what the double agent was actually up to as he divulged secrets to MI6 on a weekly basis. Paul Bracchi for the Daily Mail . This was the most embarrassing failure in KGB history., Macintyre describes the former spy in his book as one of the loneliest men he has met. "[32], In 2018 Ben Macintyre published a biography of Gordievsky, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. In 1981, the chairman of the KGB mistook a NATO exercise as the first nuclear strike by America and its allies. When he tried it for the first time, it went unnoticed. 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. The corner was monitored by agents every week for seven years, even when Gordievsky was called over to work from the Soviet embassy in Britain in 1982. [2] Gordievsky felt, given the huge benefits MI6 would reap if he remained rezident of the embassy, that he was being encouraged by MI6 to return to Moscow as ordered, and decided on that;[2] MI6 began to revive a plan to extricate him if necessary. Joseph Curtis For Mailonline Hes paid an enormous cost. His father, his brother, and his first wife were all members of the infamous organization. The cash went to fund the magazine Tribune. offers FT membership to read for free. 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. Moment commuter blasts eco-zealots, Royal superfans camping on The Mall ahead of King's Coronation, Women's rights activists and pro-trans campaigners separated, Ukraine drone strike hits major fuel depot in port Sevastopol, Russian freight train derails and bursts into flames after explosion, Historic chairs to be reused by the King for the coronation service, Hundreds of Household Division members rehearse for coronation, Braverman: People crossing Channel are 'at odds with British values', 'You motherf***ers don't understand': Bam Margera details 'turmoil', Cambridge students party in the park during annual celebrations, Revealed: woman who sprang Gordievsky from KGB clutches | News | The Times. After days of interrogation, Mr. Gordievsky knew the only answer was escape, and on July 19, 1985, he began a long and dangerous jog to freedom, in the process leaving behind one life and. Stalins Russia did not offer a normal childhood to Gordievsky or his elder brother, Vasili. Oleg was assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the job of supporting "illegals" in the . As soon as he arrived he realised he had been rumbled. Although he joined at a young age, his heart was never really in it. Its author was Veronica Price a senior intelligence officer, working out of Century House, MI6s unattractive HQ. Most people have no idea how close we were to nuclear war at that time, says Ben Macintyre, author of The Spy And The Traitor, which tells the extraordinary true story of a KGB agent turned British informant called Oleg Gordievsky. Gordievsky was asked to sit for an interview in German. He was put through grueling questioning for hours, but he did not divulge any information. This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 03:32. Published: 07:37 EDT, 24 March 2020 | Updated: 08:20 EDT, 24 March 2020. Thus, by one swift stroke of fate, he was inducted into the dangerous world of spies, in 1961. IfGordievsky found himself in trouble he was told to arm himself with a Safeway shopping bag and stand at a certain central Moscow street corner at exactly 7.30pm on a Tuesday. [3], In April 2008, the media reported that on 2 November 2007, Gordievsky had been taken by ambulance from his home in Surrey to a local hospital, where he spent 34 hours unconscious. He spoke extensively to Gordievsky, who is now 79 and living in the home counties a remarkable figure, proud, shrewd and irascible. Actually, Gordievsky had already decided to switch sides a betrayal Macintyre calls whole-souled and righteous. Description. Macintrye had no access to MI6s archives, which remain secret. Gordievsky would go on to meet his British handlers once a month; he didnt want money and said he was spying out of ideological conviction. 'She was the first person I saw as a free man.'. Paintings hanging on the walls of his home in Surrey reflect his love of avant-garde art. [23], Gordievsky was appointed Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for "services to the security of the United Kingdom" in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours (in the Diplomatic List). But when they got to the border sniffer dogs detected Gordievsky in the boot of the car and began circling. He sold info on all double agents in KGB working for CIA and then this new info about Oleg. Both of them had high aspirations in life. Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent who became a mole for the KGB. They dont know where the other is., In 1997 the Queen made Gordievsky a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George, the honour awarded to James Bond in Ian Flemings books. After a long period of no contact MI6 was delighted when Moscow sent Gordievsky to London. [2], He studied at a prestigious Moscow University Moscow State Institute of International Relations and later undertook NKVD training, where in addition to espionage skills he mastered German and also learned to speak Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. According to one officer present Pettit was visibly moved, 'her expression a mixture of recognition and love', despite usually disapproving of emotional outbursts. In 1990, he was consultant editor of the journal Intelligence and National Security, and he worked on television in the UK in the 1990s, including the game show Wanted. The daughter of a Russian. [2], The value of MI6's recruitment of such a highly placed and valuable intelligence asset increased dramatically when, in 1982, the KGB posted Gordievsky to London, and he rose through the ranks there, gaining the ability to access higher and higher levels of Soviet secrets, which he passed easily to MI6 via a London safe house. Gordievskys mother was not thrilled when she was told that her younger son was following in his fathers footsteps. Then in a completely spontaneous and highly effective move, Mrs Ascot began changing her daughters full nappy on the boot where Gordievsky was hidden, with the smell enough to offend the dog and cause it to move away. It went some way towards exorcising the Cambridge spies, who a generation earlier had travelled in the opposite direction. expert analysis, our dedicated Brussels Briefing newsletter. So Im walking with Macintyre, a short, bespectacled 55-year-old with a tweed jacket and a fierce intelligence, through Corams Fields near Holborn. While in London, his MI6 code name was NOCTON. It worked, due mainly to the quick thinking of the wife of one of the MI6 drivers, who changed her baby . In 2007, Gordievsky was made a Companion to the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to the security of the UK. 'I was betrayed,' he told her. 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. Published: 22:02 BST, 18 May 2019 | Updated: 09:18 BST, 19 May 2019, Were walking through a park in London where a Soviet spy once carried out a secret drop just before he saved the world. Gordievsky. Oleg Gordievsky in 1980, when he was still a double-agent 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 . Cassettes of these conversations were sent back to London in a diplomatic bag. On 13 June, Ames named After that, he was released and told that he would never work abroad again. He informed his handler, James Spooner of the MI6, of Soviets paranoia. The babys mother dropped cheese and onion crisps to distract them, then got out and changed her daughters nappy on the boot, letting the stinky results fall to the floor. His two books on Soviet intelligence operations with historian Christopher Andrew are invaluable. Gordievsky fled the country by triggering an audacious escape plan dreamed up by MI6. You could say it was the family business. It included details of the KGBs attempts to influence western elections through active measures. This signal would trigger a plan to smuggle Gordievsky into Finland in the boot of a diplomatic car. Airport officials said the British. There were huge protests outside the Russian embassy in Denmark, which made him feel ashamed. We use [3], The son of an officer of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police and precursor to the KGB), Gordievsky was born in 1938. Work with us; Blog At lunchtimes he would slip out of the embassy and hand over microfilm strips to his case officer for copying. 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. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. It set out the characteristics it was looking for in a potential agent: narcissism, vanity, greed and marital infidelity. Gordievsky's second wife, Leiladaughter of a KGB generaland their two daughters were sent back to Moscow, causing panic in MI6. Gen Z says telephone calls are microaggressions and sending an audio clip is more personal than a text, FBI joins manhunt for Texas killer who has been on the run for 36 hours after murdering family of five - including eight-year-old - after they asked him to stop firing his AR-15 rifle in his backyard, 'Vaping is the crack cocaine of tobacco': Experts say ultra-concentrated hit of nicotine makes devices WORSE than smoking - as data shows cigarette use at historic low, Could YOU spot a murderer? Though he left school with a silver medal and as head of the Komsomol, the secretive undertone in the Gordievsky family had already left an indelible mark on him. This averted a nuclear war between the two super powers. He still kept the truth from his loved ones, telling them there was a plot against him by jealous colleagues, which doubled up as a way to convince the agents watching him he was still loyal. 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]. Ames first met and sold classified information to a KGB agent on 15 May 1985, in Washington, DC; the following day Gordievsky received the telegram from KGB leadership recalling him to Moscow. It was obvious to me that I had been poisoned.. The blanket would stop him being seen by infrared cameras as the car passed across the border into Finland. However, he does view him as stunningly naive. All rights reserved. Gordievsky has told the story of his own improbable survival in a gripping 1995 memoir, Next Stop Execution. He lost his marriage. 894646. Meanwhile, the book also reveals how years earlier Gordievsky had lived more than one double life after he began an affair with a typist Leila Alieva, the daughter of a high ranking KGB agent herself, while based in Copenhagen. Gordievsky in his student days at Moscow's elite Institute of International Affairs where he was first recruited by the KGB. and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, Reunited: Oleg Gordievsky and wife Leila in 1991 Newspapers in English Newspapers from United Kingdom. Covert surveillance photographs of Gordievsky taken by the Danish intelligence service PET during his postings to Copenhagen.
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