| Title | : | The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0771060335 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780771060335 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published September 18, 2018 |
| Awards | : | The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (2018), ALCS Dagger for Non-fiction (2019) |
The man was a spy for MI6. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia.
So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever...
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War Reviews
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Warning: Do not start the final third unless you have nothing else to do.
Literally could not stop—I was at the edge of my seat.
What. A. Story. Riveting and unputdownable. Reads like a movie instead of a real life tale.
Will be reading more Ben Macintyre.
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*EDIT* I've since read FIVE more Macintyre books:
A Spy Among Friends (5 stars),
Operation Mincemeat (5 stars),
Rogue Heroes (5 stars),
Agent Sonya (5 stars), and
Double Cross (3 stars)
— and I'm still looking forward to reading the rest of his books. -
5 " superb, exciting, edge of your seat" stars !!
10th Favorite Read of 2018 Award
Mr. MacIntyre has written a superb and thrilling book about one of our foremost living spies.
Mr. Oleg Gordievsky was Russian KGB that became an agent for M-16 in England and over the course of the Cold War was able to feed England important information that may have led not only to our world being safe from nuclear disaster but perhaps also to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The author was able to interview Mr. Gordievsky over several visits as well as many other M-16, KGB, CIA and other European secret agents. He also read countless other source materials but was not privy to secret documents held by the superpowers.
Mr. Gordievsky's two ex wives, colleagues, friends and enemies were also given a voice in this riveting and information packed book.
This reader was enthralled, thrilled and riveted. Mr. MacIntyre has a supreme ability to write a true story with both a factual and compassionate touch injecting just enough humor about some of the antics and errors that occurred by various players along the way. I also loved Margaret Thatcher's involvement in this story and her admiration and support of this gentleman and who was known to her as Mr. Collins. Mr. Gordievsky greatly assisted her in improving Anglo-Russian relations.
Do yourself a favor and pick this up for your favorite Uncle at Christmas but read it before you gift it. Shhhh I won't tell.
Mr. Oleg Gordievsky -
“The spy and the traitor” is a marvelous story of a double agent’s professional and personal life during the Cold War named Oleg Gordievsky.
Oleg was born in 1938 in a Family which all it’s members was KGB officers so he lived his predetermined destiny to become a successful KGB agent in order to gain respect of his family and community. But he had an enormous difference with his colleagues from the very beginning of his career because he was open minded, a keen history and economy reader, a perceptive observer of soviet oppression and above all, he adored western values like liberty and democracy. As a result of his detest toward KGB and Soviet Union government , when he sent to the soviet embassy in Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark), an MI6 agent contacted him and proposed him to work for them as a double agent. He immediately accepted the offer and started to shed light on The whole KBG operation abroad, the organization hierarchy, KGB spies in western countries and every other possible useful information. These highly valuable intelligence that Gordievsky passed to MI6 over 11 years made a great advantage for them and led the KGB to a huge embarrassment and destruction from within.
Living under the reins of a totalitarian regime in Iran, I personally sympathize with Gordievsky’s feelings to the marrow. He was not a traitor at all, on the contrary he was a splendid soldier of liberty who damaged the most wicked organization on earth severely in the sheer hope of bringing his people some freedom over time. I strongly admire him and would do the same if I were him.
The book is quite intriguing, enthralling and extremely stressful ( especially when the author explains the operation PIMLICO which was a complex plan implemented by MI6 to bring Gordievsky out from Moscow to Finland, and finally to London). -
Undoubtedly, relations between Russia and the UK are at their lowest for many years, which, perhaps, makes this book even more relevant. Ben Macintyre takes us back to the 1980’s and the Cold War, with his usual brand of, almost schoolboy, enthusiasm and ability to give the most important, political events, the human angle necessary to make you care about those involved. This, then, is the story of ‘Operation Pimlico;’ an emergency escape plan by which MI6 planned to remove Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer, and British spy, from Russia and spirit him away to safety in England.
We begin with the biography of Gordievsky, the son of a KGB officer, who grew up all too aware of how those around him often lived a double life and whose fascination with foreign countries, led him to do his best to take up a posting abroad. When dissatisfaction and disillusionment, with the Soviet Union, led to him being flagged as a ‘person of interest,’ it was not long before the British made a move to recruit him.
What follows is the fascinating tale of how the British managed to move their spy into better, and more useful, posts – even undertaking to do his daily work, when he was posted in London, so he could spend more time spying. However, when Gordievsky found himself recalled to Russia, and with a traitor about to reveal his identity, it was essential that the British rescue him – something that Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was keen that MI6 do their best to do, regardless of the danger.
Of course, being an escape plan hatched by the British, this is less about spy planes and more about Safeway carrier bags, Kit-Kats and a baby’s dirty nappy… This is full of tension, with a great understanding of the world of espionage, as you would expect from Ben Macintyre, including the rather competitive alliance between the British and the Americans and the real human cost of Gordievsky’s decision to lead a double life. This audio edition was delightfully told by Ben Macintyre and it was a joy to have the author read his own book. I have never read a book by Mr Macintyre that I have no loved and, I am glad to say, this was no exception.
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Absolutely riveting!
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With the current state of affairs between Russian and the UK, this story is more relevant than ever, and I suspect it will always be of interest to those who enjoy this genre. Ben MacIntyre is a fantastic writer and knows exactly how to grab the reader and hold them in place from first page to last. I found this as compelling and thrilling as any fiction book would be. Accurate and meticulously researched, this is a book not to be missed. I will be sure to look out for any future work the author decides to publish as it is evident he is a very gifted writer. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this book.
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4.5 ☆
Paranoia is born of propaganda, ignorance, secrecy, and fear.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War is an easy book to recommend. For those interested in Cold War history, this book presented it from the perspective of the intelligence community. For fans of espionage novels, here's a true-life account that delivered all the fear and nail-biting tension to rival any fictional thriller.
Why does anyone spy? Why, in particular, would someone join one intelligence service and then switch loyalty to an opposing one?
For many years, the KGB used the acronym MICE to identify the four mainspring of spying: Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego.
Author
Ben Macintyre described a double agent - a KGB Colonel - who passed secrets and political insights to Britain's MI6 during the Cold War. Despite the fear of capture by his paranoid agency, Oleg Antonyevich Gordievsky became a traitor because he could no longer tolerate the ideology of the USSR and he wanted to actively subvert it.
"My new role gave a point to my existence." That role, [Gordievsky] believed, was nothing less than undermining the Soviet system, in a Manichaean struggle between good and evil that would eventually bring democracy to Russia and allow Russians to live freely, read what they wanted, and listen to Bach.
This was my first book by
Ben Macintyre, and it won't be my last. For the most part, the author seemed fairly objective as he described Gordievsky's life and the geopolitical events behind the Iron Curtain which shaped him. This book was a great blend of factual reporting and psychological and political insights into events of the mid to late 20th century. I had no idea that the world had truly been teetering on the precipice of nuclear warfare in the 1980s.
Spies tend to make extravagant claims for their craft, but the reality of espionage is that it frequently makes little lasting difference.
Yet very occasionally spies have a profound impact on history. The pantheon of world-changing spies is small and select, and Oleg Gordievsky is in it.
Although superfluous of melodramatic writing tricks to heighten the tension, there was palpable suspense in this narrative. The KGB was not a tolerant organization. Unlike western democracies, when a person was convicted of spying, the USSR believed in the death penalty. Gordievsky lived under the constant threat of exposure for his duplicity. In 1985, Gordievsky received an urgent summons to return to KGB headquarters. He was awaiting the formal announcement of his promotion and hoped the order was related to that. When Gordievsky arrived at his Moscow apartment, however, he realized that he had had intruders.
The KGB was watching him. The spy was being spied upon by his fellow spies.
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Macintyre's best yet! A truly staggering story told by a consummate storyteller. That being said, it's pretty clear that the book's sources are fairly biased towards Gordievsky, and while Macintyre does a good job noting where his sources are displaying overt nostalgia or actively misremembering motivations, there's not a strong voice to counteract the overall tone of the narrative SIS officers and agents are providing here. Still, that's not really why I read Ben Macintyre: I read him for the pulse-pounding "you are there" writing, the amazing stranger-than-fiction details, and the brave actions of individuals in shaping the course of history. On all of those metrics, this book delivers and delivers and delivers. There were two moments that literally had me holding me breath here. The courage and intelligence of those involved in this story are truly inspiring. Not to be missed.
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Another fascinating spy story from Ben Macintyre! "The Spy and the Traitor" focuses on Oleg Gordievsky, who was a KGB agent but was also secretly spying for the British intelligence service in the 1970s and 80s.
I didn't know much about Gordievsky before starting this book, which made the true story seem all the more incredible. Previously I had read and enjoyed Macintyre's "A Spy Among Friends," which was about Kim Philby, a British agent who was secretly spying for the KGB.
If you are interested in Cold War history, this is a great read. Highly recommended.
Opening Passage of Chapter 1
"Oleg Gordievsky was born into the KGB: shaped by it, loved by it, twisted, damaged, and very nearly destroyed by it. The Soviet spy service was in his heart and in his blood. His father worked for the intelligence service all his life, and wore his KGB uniform every day, including weekends. The Gordievskys lived amid the spy fraternity in a designated apartment block, ate special food reserved for officers, and spent their free time socializing with other spy families. Gordievsky was a child of the KGB." -
This is this the second book by Ben Mcintyre I have listened to recently. The first one was
Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy. Again, this book focuses on a real life spy story. In this case, the focus is a Soviet agent who becomes a double agent and provided secrets to the British government during the 1980s.. Macintyre traces the agent’s background, how he changed sides and how he was betrayed. I liked Agent Sonya a bit more — perhaps because she was a woman and such an unlikely spy — but I still thought this was well worth listening to. The history is really interesting and Macintyre does a great job of getting into everyone’s personal history and motives. -
The Spy and the Traitor is the true tale of Oleg Gordievsky, a high-level KGB agent, who worked as a double agent for Great Britain and MI6. Gordievsky helped bring about the demise of the Soviet Union, and The Spy and the Traitor details his career and the story of how a CIA agent was almost his downfall. It is a fabulous, nail-biting read that flows like a fast-paced thriller especially as the author carefully unveils the details of Gordievsky’s exciting escape from Moscow in 1985. In an era where relations with Russia are sinking lower and lower, Macintyre’s tale hits close to home.
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The true story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB agent for the USSR who turned spy and provided information to the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1974 to 1985. This book reads like a spy thriller and I had to keep reminding myself that the events described here actually happened. In fact some of the coincidences, mistakes and lucky turns of fate feel so unlikely that had it been a novel penned by John le Carré I’d have been crying foul, moaning about how contrived the story was. This truly is an amazing tale.
Gordievsky’s father was an officer with the NKVD, the agency responsible for the execution of untold numbers of citizens and the administrators of the Gulag system of forced labour camps. Oleg’s elder brother also became a Soviet agent so it was expected that he too would follow the same career path, which he duly did. But after spending time in Berlin in 1961 and later learning of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia he became disenchanted with the Soviet system. As a result, during a posting to Denmark he responded positively to an approach from Britain’s MI6 – he became, in essence, a double agent.
The Russian’s career continued to develop and in 1982 he was assigned to the Soviet embassy in London and became responsible for espionage and intelligence gathering in the UK. But just as his career seemed about to land the jackpot for MI6 Gordievsky was ordered to Moscow for a meeting. Could it be that he’d be rumbled or was this just a piece of bureaucracy to nail down his new position as station head? As the net potentially started to close a decision needed to be made: to stay in the UK and defect or gamble and return to meet his senior officers with the chance he might be arrested and ultimately tortured and executed.
The book is written in a well-constructed way, so that for people (like me) who are unfamiliar with Gordievsky’s story it really does become a cliff-hanger. The first two-thirds of the book is interesting enough but the final third really is edge of your seat stuff. What a brave man, what a story! -
Amazing book, and even more amazing that it's a historical nonfiction and all TRUE! And I couldn't put it down it was so compelling and well written. I'm a huge fan of the spy genre in general, and I think this is one of the best I've read. You certainly get a very real sense of what it is like to be a spy and what Gordievsky's life must have been like.
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Karo skaitinys, toks kaip būna true-crime, tai čia true-thriller. Apie buvusį KGB šnipą, kuris iš idėjinių paskatų (nekentė sovietų, norėjo demokratijos) pradėjo šnipinėti Britanijai, paskui, kai jau buvo išaiškintas, vos išsikapstė iš SSRS - tam buvo vykdoma didžiulė operacija. Dėl išdavystės jam taip ir neatleido žmona, dabar jis gyvena Londone su netikra pavarde ir vienas (sad). Dėl jo perduodamos info tipo Thatcher ir Gorbačiovui buvo lengviau megzti santykius, ir šiaip pasaulyje nekilo atominis.
Kadangi mano žinios apie šnipus visiškai menkos (be "Ieškokit Gudručio"), buvo daug naujo - kaip dirba tarnybos, kaip konkuruoja tarpusavyje, ką veikia. Labai juokiausi, kaip vienas agentas Danijoj trolindavo KGBistus - pvz, nuseka vieną iki supermarketo, tada per garsiakalbį kviečia: prašom KGB darbuotoją tokį ir tokį prieiti prie informacijos punkto. Dar labai įspūdingos visos slaptų ženklų sistemos, pvz:Gukas turi palikti ženklą, kad nori bendradarbiauti, Pikadilio metro stotyje, įspausdamas plokščiagalvį smeigtuką ant laiptų, vedančių nuo trečios ir ketvirtos Pikadilio linijos platformų, dešinio turėklo viršaus. Koba patvirtins, kad gavo signalą, užvyniodamas gabaliuką mėlynos lipnios juostelės ant telefono ragelio laidos vidurinėje iš penkių vienoje eilėje stovinčių būdelių Adam & Eve Court gatvėje, visai šalia Oksfordo gatvės. (p. 161)
Nu ir turbūt labiausiai juokiausi, kai tas svarbiausias šnipas Gordijevskis bandė verbuoti vieną parlamentarą, bet nesuprato nė žodžio iš to škotiško akcento :D
Nuimtos žvaigždutės - už liaupses Gordijevskiui, kad tas vis dėlto rinkosi Tiesą, Gerąsias Vertybes, ir už tai, kad tas net per extra pavojingą jo gelbėjimo iš SSRS planą, kuris buvo sukurtas ir repetuojamas keliolika metų, vis tiek vos visko nesušiko, kai laukdamas gelbėtojų sutartoj vietoj miške išėjo į kaimyninį miestelį dasimušt. Wtf, gal jis ir rusas, bet čia ne Šuriko nuotykiai, aš tai būčiau pasiutus tų gelbėtojų vietoj. -
A must-read for fans of The Americans and Homeland, The Spy and the Traitor tells the remarkable story of a KGB agent working for MI6 who helped end the Cold War. The details regarding the inner workings of intelligence agencies is fascinating. However, Macintrye's narration is, at times, as melodramatic as a prime-time investigative news show.
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Excellent account on life of
Oleg Gordievsky (if you want to check for his autobiography - check
Next Stop Execution: The Autobiography of Oleg Gordievsky).
Ben Macintyre knows how to write about spies - what make them moving and doing stuff they did. Another great books just finished recently is
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Both are highly recommended. -
Another excellent spy story by Macintyre. This one was harder to get into for me than his others- so many Russian names, places, organizational schools or government entities. But it's still an enthralling review of this man's family, life, associations etc. It is SO telling that he (and his mother in a former era) had huge misgivings about Russian authoritarian systems and found that they could never express them openly. Or only in rare tangents to those who they loved, most trusted etc. And that's just NOT or ever more than a person or two in decades of smiling affirmations. Wise counsel his mother gave him with her example.
All the missing people and stunted and destroyed lives in Communism and Socialist dictates of actions. How do they NOT or become NOTICED by the comrades? Or now in reflections of desire for copy either?
This is the reality of the Cold War as I remember it all too. Non-fiction at its best. -
Oleg Gordievsky is one of the most valuable spies ever recruited by a Western intelligence agency. He provided Britain’s MI6 with invaluable information for over ten years beginning in the mid 1970’s when the “Cold War” was being waged between the East and West. Because he was a colonel in the KGB, Gordievsky was privy to highly secret information which he then passed on to MI6. This information had repercussions which lasted well into the future, and was beneficial to numerous Western countries.
Unlike novels which portray the lives of spies as glamorous and action packed, Ben Macintyre’s account of the life of Oleg Gordievsky reveals the real day to day activities of a counterintelligence agent. It is full of suspicion, fear of discovery or betrayal, and enormous stress. It’s a fascinating view into the lives of counterintelligence agents. Gordievsky was betrayed by someone in the intelligence community, and his hair raising, almost miraculous, escape from Russia will keep you on the edge of your seat! It took years to discover his betrayer. Oleg Gordievsky was sentenced in absentia to death by the Russian courts. He remains on the “hit list” to this day.
Macintyre’s well written, well documented and researched book is a thrilling account of drama and intrigue. It is also a tribute to the man whose life was irrevocably changed because of his belief in the ideas of democracy. This is a book that’s well worth reading! -
I wish I could bottle the feeling of exhilaration I had while reading this atmospheric, tense, unbelievable but true spy thriller. It's the kind of story John le Carré wrote, the kind of geopolitical map that still animates strategy games decades after the end of the Cold War, and the kind of slow burn that every TV showrunner is trying to conjure up. I don't want to spoil it by summarizing, but as for why it's not a bestseller, I can only hypothesize that it is a fairly long book that requires a decent knowledge of history. If this is the kind of book you read, you should read this one.
2020 reread: I'm glad I read this again, even though it hasn't been that long since my first go, because while it is tense and exciting as I originally said, especially , it also has a very warm side that I recognized more now. Macintyre writes early on about how spying starts as a sort of romance between the prospective agent and the soliciting handler. This is a story of profound devotion--not between two romantic partners, but between a spy and his chosen country. He takes a huge leap and trusts that they'll catch him. While Cold War espionage always has the threat of violence in the frame, at the heart of this thrilling nonfictional thriller, there is something wistful and sweet. -
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (2018) by
Ben Macintyre is an astonishing story about a Cold War superspy.
Oleg Gordievsky was recruited by MI6 whilst working for the KGB and was Britain’s most important foreign agent during the 1970s and 1980s. His intelligence was extremely helpful to Britain and her allies during the Cold War era. Inevitably his luck ran out and the KGB became almost certain he was a spy. Oleg Gordievsky's recall to Moscow in 1985, and subsequent rescue, makes up the final third of this account and it's a gripping read. The actual escape has to be read to be believed.
As usual the excellent Ben Macintyre has uncovered an extraordinary story and, it’s fair to say, that without Oleg’s intelligence the Cold War could all too easily have tipped over into nuclear war.
We also learn of the political figures from the 1970s and 1980s who were compromised by the Soviets, for example Trade Union leader Jack Jones and Labour leader Michael Foot. All manner of interesting names are brought to life in this account of Oleg Gordievsky's career, not least CIA operative Aldrich Ames, who alerted the KGB about his treachery.
4/5
More information...
On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.
The man was a spy for MI6. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia.
So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever.
Some reviews...
The best true spy story I have ever read -- John le Carré
Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else. He has a remarkable ability to construct a narrative that is as taut and urgent as it is carefully nuanced. Here the pace never slackens and the focus never drifts, while Macintyre's insight into his subject's tangle of contradictions never loses its sharpness. It's a tough call, but The Spy and the Traitor may well be his best book yet. -- John Preston ― Evening Standard
A real-life thriller, as tense as John le Carré's novels, or even Ian Fleming's ― Economist
A dazzling non-fiction thriller and an intimate portrait of high-stakes espionage -- Luke Harding ― Guardian
[A] captivating espionage tale. In a feat of real authorial dexterity, Macintyre accurately portrays the long-game banality of spycraft-the lead time and persistence in planning-with such clarity and propulsive verve that the book often feels like a thriller. Macintyre has produceda timely and insightful page-turner. ― Publishers Weekly
It has become a cliché to say that real-life spy stories read like John le Carré, but Gordievsky's personal history makes the comparison irresistible... Macintyre tells the story brilliantly. His book's final third is superbly done -- Dominic Sandbrook, Book of the Week ― Sunday Times
The fact that parts of The Spy and the Traitor read like a pacey thriller is a bonus, but it is based on serious research, including interviews with Gordievsky and anonymous British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officers... This is a remarkable story of one man's courage, and of the skill of our much traduced security services. Ben Macintyre tells it very well indeed ― The Times, Book of the Week
You can always rely on this author to tease out fascinating details on the second oldest profession ― Sunday Express
Writing about cases of British espionage success that the public knows little about, he says - 'It takes an investigator of consummate talent and a narrator of equal skill to unearth one of these triumphs and explain it clearly. Ben Macintyre, who is both, has done exactly that. -- Frederick Forsyth ― Literary Review
Macintyre's account brings it to life in vivid technicolor with fascinating new details. He tells it with all the verve we have come to expect from such an accomplished writer ― Spectator
[An] exceptionally rewarding book ― Observer
He writes like a novelist, introducing richly drawn characters whose lives intersect with Gordievsky's. One of the last chapters is as tense as any thriller. No wonder Le Carré liked it ― Daily Express
Thrilling... A real heart-in-the-mouth book ― New Statesman
Reads like a thriller. . . truly nerve-jangling ― The Times Books of the Year
One of the most exciting things I have ever read -- George Osborne ― Evening Standard, Books of the Year
An impeccably researched, compelling read ― Independent -
Ben Macintyre is in the top ten of my all time favourite authors...although possibly that should say 'favourite reporters'. Because report is what he does...and he does it really well. Taking both well known and 'new to me' episodes and events of the past 100 years and retelling/reporting them in riveting style. Crimes, wars, politics, people, espionage- I just checked out his list of titles and I would or have, given all of them well deserved five star reviews. All well deserved for their meticulous attention to detail, and that detail, reported in really 'can't put it down style' but without the brash repetitive nonsense of today's modern TV documentaries, where the 'backstory/reasons we are here' get repeated each ten minutes- just in case we do have the attention span of the gnats the producers have assumed to their viewers. As it happens I didn't like this book- because it presented nothing new about what is, as it claims, reasonably justifiably 'The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.' The story has been well told before - in great detail- particularly well by Gordon Corera. So for me Bens latest work is a real disappointment - the first in his folio-but it's more my fault, than his...as I have read so much on this matter already, researching other aspects of the event as an author myself. Hence me giving, a well deserved five star review to a book that disappointed...I really do recommend it and would urge you to also check out his other work...I eagerly await his next offering. I read the kindle version. The hard back cover design shown here is appalling...and is I suspect of the US edition...the European one (or possibly the softback) is way better. The publishers should be ashamed-I assume nepotism, or an amateur playing at the design game-and their meddling will cost him sales.
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What is happening to me with my recent love of dad nonfiction? Between this and
Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin's Spies last year I now actually enjoy spy stories? Life will surprise you like that sometimes.
Anyway I didn’t love this one as unconditionally as I loved that book, but I see why Ben MacIntyre is so popular. The escape part of this was pretty tense, although reading it while on the subway probably heightened the anxiety somewhat. Even though we know he’s still alive! It was THAT intense.
Really fascinating story, so well told, his characterizations of people were both vivid and often hilarious, and he set up the Cold War context around these events perfectly. I don’t know what Aldrich Ames sounds like but I always imagine the voice of Templeton the rat. Gordievsky is truly a hero and the last page almost made me cry. If I lived in England I would leave baked goods outside the door of his electronic tripwire-guarded house. -
Ben Macintyre is John le Carré's literary heir. But his stories are real. His newest, and best, book perfectly captures the tedium of most spy work alleviated only the the heart-thumping terror of when things go wrong. And spies being human, things always go wrong in the most mundane of ways.
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When you stay up all night finishing a book you know it's good. I couldn't put it down.
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"בבוקר שלאחר נחיתתו הלך גורדייבסקי ברגל את 400 המטרים מביתו אל השגרירות, הציג לפני השומר את תעודת המעבר החדשה שלו והוכנס אל הרזידנטורה של הקג"ב: מובלעת מבוצרת, צפופה, רוויית עשן בקומה העליונה של בניין השגרירות, אכולה אי־אמון הדדי ונשלטת בידי מנהל חשדן עד כפייתיות, ששמו הצורם והבוטה גוּק. פרנויה היא תולדה של תעמולה, בורות, חשאיות ופחד. תחנת הקג"ב בלונדון בשנת 1982 היתה אחד המקומות הפרנואידיים ביותר עלי אדמות, ארגון ספוג כל־כולו בהלך רוח של מצור, שרובו פרי הדמיון. מאחר שהקג"ב ייחד משאבים ומאמצים אדירים לרגל אחר הדיפלומטים הזרים במוסקבה, שיערו אנשיו שמן הסתם גם אם־איי-5 ואם־איי-6 עושים כך בלונדון. לאמיתו של דבר, אף על פי ששירות הביטחון הבריטי אמנם פיקח על פעילות הקג"ב ועקב אחר מי שנחשדו כמרגלים, לא היה הפיקוח הזה דומה כלל בהיקפו למה שתיארו להם הרוסים בדמיונם. אבל הקג"ב היה משוכנע שהשגרירות הסובייטית כולה היא יעד למבצע ענקי ומתמשך של האזנות סתר, ועצם העובדה שלא נמצא כל סימן וזכר לכך העידה שהבריטים בוודאי עושים את מלאכתם נאמנה. לפי ההשערה היו שגרירויות נפאל ומצרים השכנות "עמדות האזנה", וקציני קג"ב הונחו שלא לומר דבר בקרבת הקירות המשותפים של השגרירות עם הבניינים הסמוכים; הסובייטים שיערו שמרגלים לא־נראים מצוידים בעדשות טלסקופיות מתעדים כל מי שנכנס אל הבניין ויוצא ממנו, ושהבריטים חפרו מנהרה מיוחדת מתחת לקנסינגטון פאלאס גרדנס והתקינו ציוד האזנה מתחת לבניין השגרירות; בתוך השגרירות נאסר אפוא השימוש במכונות כתיבה חשמליות בטענה שהמצותתים עשויים לשמוע את קולות התקתוק ולפענח אותם, ואפילו מכונות כתיבה ידניות לא התקבלו בעין יפה שמא יסגירו הלחיצות על המקשים סודות כלשהם"
סיפורו האמתי, המדהים והבלתי יאמן של אולג גורדייבסקי, סוכן ה קג"ב הבכיר ביותר שריגל עבור ה- MI6 הבריטי במשך יותר מעשור. בכתבה משובחת בקצב מסחרר, מתאר בן מקנטייר את מעלליו ועלילותיו של גורדייבסקי, החל משנות הכשרתו הראשונות בקג"ב, עובר בהתפתחות הקריירה שלו, התגייסותו לריגול למען בריטניה והעולם המערבי וכלה בחילוצו המדהים והבלתי יאמן מברית המועצות באמצע שנות ה- 80 כשהצטברו נגדו ראיות להיותו סוכן כפול.
ביד אמן ובתרגום משובח (יש לציין), מקנטייר מתאר את המניעים האידיאולוגים והאישיים של גורדייבסקי למעשה הבגידה שלו. הוא מתאר את האקלים הפוליטי והחברתי ברוסיה ובעולם. הוא נותן מקום נרחב למערכות היחסים בין גופי הריגול השונים בעולם ולשיתופי הפעולה שלהם.
קראתי את הספר בנשימה עצורה, יש בו חלקים שעולים על כל דמיון וכמעט לא ניתן להאמין שהאירועים שמתוארים בו קרו במציאות. בחלק האחרון של הספר הסיפור מרגש ומפעים. סיפור של אומץ אישי, נאמנות לערכים ומוסריות חסרת פניות. דמותו של אולג גורדייבסקי, אדם צנוע, מוכשר בטירוף, בעל חזון מותירה את רישומה ומעוררת השראה. פעילותו סייעה למערב לכלכל את צעדיו בתקופה רגישה של המלחמה הקרה וסייעה להימנע מגלישה למלחמת עולם שלישית. ��במקביל זהו סיפור הצלחה מסחרר של שימוש במידע מודיעיני באופן מושכל מבלי לשרוף את הסוכן שמסר אותם.
ספר מפעים ומומלץ בחום. -
6.5/10
Las notas que ponemos a los libros siempre son subjetivas, pero en este caso creo que todavía lo va a ser más. Me explico, este es un libro muy interesante si te gusta el mundo del espionaje, basado en la vida real del mayor espía de la guerra fría. Hay multitud de datos e información, aunque sin llegar a abrumarnos, está bien escrito y el ritmo narrativo es bastante lineal y no acaece de una bajada en ningún momento.
Entonces, ¿por qué 3 estrellas? Lo cierto es que a mi se me ha hecho algo larga la lectura y por ese motivo no puedo ponerle 4 estrellas, que por calidad y demás creo que se las merece. Pero desde la mitad hasta el último cuarto, me pareció más de lo mismo y se me terminó haciendo un poco bola.
En cualquier caso, no me arrepiento ni mucho menos de su lectura y si tuviera 100 páginas menos, seguro que su nota hubiera sido mucho mejor. -
A man dressed in a drab grey suit standing in a street corner in the middle of Moscow looking like the other citizens passing him by would have been almost unnoticeable, but because he was holding a plastic bag from the British supermarket, Safeway, for the people looking out for him he stood out like a beacon. He was not a regular Soviet citizen, he was a senior KGB officer and he had just activated his escape plan. He now had to hope that his signal had been noticed by those who needed to see it and not by those that were hunting for him.
In the world of smoke and mirrors that constitutes the fragmented world of the intelligence agencies, the truth is often stranger than fiction and often way beyond that. No one would have thought that pillars of the establishment would have spied for the Russians, but when Philby and his cohorts defected it was realised that your background was not a passport to trust. The same logic could have been applied to Oleg Gordievsky. His father and brother were KGB officers and staunch supporters of the regime but he carried a secret that not even his KGB wife knew. For the past eleven years, he had been a spy for MI6.
In this book, Macintyre takes us right through Gordievsky's life, from his earliest days in the KGB, his realisation that the regime that he worked for did not suit his growing liberal outlook the horror he experience when he was there when the Berlin Wall went up. He has his first contact with MI6 in the early 1970s when he was based in Denmark. For MI6 it seemed too good to be true and they took a while to realise that he was not going to be a double agent, but he was for real and had a genuine and personal reason for passing on the information that he did. As he rose in the rank he managed to get a posting to the UK, ideal for MI6 as they could meet him under much more relaxed circumstances. That was until he was recalled to Moscow suddenly, he knew he had been betrayed, but he didn't know just by who or how much.
MI6 knew that things were not right and set about implementing the escape plan that they had codenamed Pimlico to snatch Gordievsky right from under the noses of the KGB and spirit him across the border to freedom.
The book is pieced together from a series of interviews that Macintyre has completed with the people involved in his unique case. The actual files concerning Gordievsky are still secret and I guess that they will remain that way for a long time. It reads like an actual spy thriller most of the time, including a stunning ending as they try to get him out of the Soviet Union. Gordievsky is still alive and well and living under an assumed name somewhere in the home counties. Given the reach of the FSB, his home is under 24-hour surveillance. One countries spy is another countries traitor, but from the accounts in here, it could be said that he helped stop nuclear war and bring about the demise of the totalitarian state. Another stunning book from Macintyre. 4.5 stars -
“Paranoia is born of propaganda, ignorance, secrecy and fear.”
“In a craven and hierarchical organization, the only thing more dangerous in revealing your own ignorance, is to draw attention to the stupidity of the boss.”
There's a quote on the cover of The Spy and the Traitor by the great British spy novelist John Le Carré that reads: "The best true spy story I have ever read." Ben Macintyre's book on KGB careerist-turned-spy for the British Oleg Gordievsky is exactly that. The gripping story covers Gordievsky's rise in the KGB against his inner turmoil of the decay of life that the Soviet Union brought on it's people, and his realisation that through his actions he could enact change. His pre-career path takes him to East Berlin, and upon seeing the Berlin Wall be complete, begins his disillusion at the system him and his family had become such proponents of. Further adding to that disillusionment would be the Prague Spring of 1968. Assigned to Copenhagen in 1963, Gordievsky feels the freedom of a Western-based set of ideals, and eventually begins spying for the English and MI6 after initial assessment by Danish security services.
Gordievsky eventually ends up in London as head of the KGB station, which is remarkable considering what he really was and was doing. His actions proved him as one of the spies during the Cold War who really was enacting a great level of change during key political moments of this time, including the Able Archer NATO exercise and the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev. Gordievsky's insights in the upper echelons of Soviet leadership led to a better understanding of the vast Soviet Union and a period of cooling that was becoming too outwardly hostile. However, due to the traitorous Aldrich Ames working for the CIA and spying for the Soviets, great suspicion was cast at Gordievsky over his activities and the great losses the KGB was suffering, leading him being called back to Moscow in 1985.
Drugged and forced to confess, Gordievsky was in trouble. Luckily MI6 had a plan to extract him, using the signal of a plastic Safeway bag and well thought out route from Moscow all the way to the Russian/Finnish border. These chapters were real nail bitters and need to be read to be fully appreciated. Gordievsky and his English/Danish handlers and agents are perhaps some of the coolest and most determined people in any piece of Cold War non-fiction. -
Antes de ler este livro já adorava histórias de espiões. Mas se livros de ficção são bons, livros de não ficção são ainda melhores. Este livro é fantástico, bem escrito, muito interessante e de rápida leitura.
