Ben Macintyre has made a career out of telling true spy stories, including one about the traitorous Kim Philby (A Spy Among Friends), Eddie Chapman (Agent Zig Zag) and this book detailing the life of Oleg Gordievsky, a Russian KGB agent who secretly worked for the British MI6. The real world feats of spies as detailed is usually far more fascinating than that of James Bond or any fictional spook, although I loved Somerset Maugham’s The Third Man.
The motivation of people who make a career out of betraying their country varies, sometimes being pure greed as was the case with the American traitor Aldrich Ames, to the seeking of thrills, to idealism, as was what apparently motivated Eddie Chapman and Oleg Gordievsky. The latter was enormously influential in shaping the course of the Cold War in the 1970s and 80s. The sacrifices his work entailed led to a broken marriage, estrangement from close friends, and a harrowing escape from Russia via Finland and Norway to safety in Britain after he was outed to the KGB by the American counterespionage agent Aldrich Ames.
An Afterword written after the first edition of this work was published details the reaction of many of the characters involved to its revelations. The most significant controversy seems to be the involvement of the late British Labour Party leader Michael Foote who contested a 1983 election against Margaret Thatcher, while secretly accepting money from the KUB. The attempts of foreign powers to influence the outcome of elections is nothing new-the U.S. C.I.A. has engaged in this practice for much of its existence.
I recognized one factual error, relating to the use of paid blood donors.
There are several great quotes.
“The problem with buttering up the boss is that bosses tend to move on, which can mean a lot of wasted butter.”
“The Finnish cartoonist Kari Suomalainen once described his country’s uncomfortable position as ‘the art of bowing to the East without mooning the West.’”
Whether we recognize it or not, we owe deep gratitude to this humble Russian now living a lonely life in some British suburb under an assumed name, and with 24/7 protection, for his major role in preventing a nuclear confrontation in the 1980s, among his other accomplishments. Meanwhile his betrayer languishes in an Indiana federal prison.
A thrilling peak into the strange world of espionage and counterespionage and a great read.
Thanks, Vera.
The Passionate Reader 