(modern). The cash went to fund the magazine Tribune. It charts his recruitment by the KGB, where his older brother Vasili served as a deep-cover illegal, and Gordievskys growing disillusionment with the grey totalitarian world of 1960s Moscow. It was to be another six years before Gordievsky was reunited with his family. Its author was Veronica Price a senior intelligence officer, working out of Century House, MI6s unattractive HQ. But she Did Elton Johns mother poison him against the father he The Spy And The Traitor is published in paperback, with a new afterword, on May 30 (Penguin), 8.99. According to The Times, the couple met in secret trysts at various Copenhagen hotels every few weeks, but he could not divulge his life as a double agent to her and said half of my existence and my thoughts had to remain secret. It went some way towards exorcising the Cambridge spies, who a generation earlier had travelled in the opposite direction. It wasnt as easy as turning up outside his front door., Security is still tight, particularly after the poisoning of the double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last year. Foot fiercely challenged the story and won a famous libel victory against the newspaper. Macintrye had no access to MI6s archives, which remain secret. gordievsky said he did not meet Mrs Thatcher until several months after the attempt to get his family released. Haydn : One of the composers. When he escaped to Britain his family remained behind in Russia, and were only allowed to. 'She was the first person I saw as a free man.'. He left them on the swings, went behind the hedge and dropped a brick with the notes, wrapped in a plastic bag., But, of course, Gordievsky had told the British too. I fell in love at first sight, [and] our love flared. Since settling here, he has worked as a security adviser and has often appeared on TV as an expert on Russian espionage. The Kremlin genuinely believed the West was going to launch a first nuclear strike.. In later life, Gordievsky has been cantankerous and reproving. Gordievsky was forced to leave his second wife Leila and their two children behind in the USSR. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, 'How can I fix this?' [5] The CIA told of MI6's high-level informant but not his name or position gave him the codename TICKLE. But attempts to get his family out of Moscow by diplomatic means failed. Oleg Gordievsky, writes Ben Macintyre, is a brave man, and a lonely one. 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. He was promoted while in Moscow, but all he could think about was how he could go abroad. [29] He accused MI6 of forcing Special Branch to drop its early investigations into his allegations;[29] according to him, the investigation was only reopened due to the intervention of former MI5 Director General Eliza Manningham-Buller. [12] Nevertheless, biographer Ben Macintyre and most people involved in the Gordievsky case believe that during his first visit with the KGB in Washington in early May 1985, Ames provided sufficient information to prompt an investigation by Colonel Viktor Budanov, the KGB's top investigator, and trigger Gordievsky's recall. An MI6 officer would acknowledge the call for help by walking close by with a green Harrods bag while eating a British chocolate bar - a KitKat or Mars Bar. [2], After he learned to speak English and lobbied heavily for a position that opened up in London, the KGB posted Gordievsky to London in June 1982. A campaign to release Leila Gordievsky and daughters. Under death sentence Oleg Gordievsky in London, 1997. leg Gordievsky was the most significant British agent of the cold war. Gordievsky was posted in London as the Deputy Chief of the KGB at the embassy. No one like Bond ever existed., After years building up contacts through his work as a journalist, Macintyre had help in approaching Gordievsky. Russian spy Gordievsky, widely acknowledged to be the most valuable secret service mole at the heart of the KGB, with his ex-wife Mrs Leyla Gordievsky The next stage of the plan would see. According to one officer present Pettit was visibly moved, 'her expression a mixture of recognition and love', despite usually disapproving of emotional outbursts. Menu. And when former spies think of spilling their secrets and telling their amazing stories at last, Ben Macintyre is clearly the man they trust. Gordievsky graciously accepted the award from the Queen, wearing top hat and tails. Even more astounding was that in summer 1985 after Gordievsky was hastily recalled from London to Moscow by his suspicious bosses British intelligence officers helped him to escape. PressReader. Gordievsky managed to escape in July 1985, while his wife and children were on a vacation. This was the time when a mass exodus from East to West Berlin was taking place and the infamous Berlin wall was getting built. This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 03:32. Yelena Akopian was a 22-year-old German girl training to be a teacher, when Gordievsky met her in 1960s. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the Settings & Account section. A skilled intelligence officer, he had been promoted a few months before to rezident, or chief, of the KGB station in the. When he tried it for the first time, it went unnoticed. By this point Gordievsky was a junior spy abroad, working for the KGBs first directorate, and living in Copenhagen. It was a hair-raising journey featuring a KGB pursuit, a smelly nappy and a bag of crisps. [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. Work in recent years included being a consultant editor for the journal of National Security, co-hosting a TV show titled Wanted in the Nineties and writing content for Literary Review. As soon as he arrived he realised he had been rumbled. What he didn't tell her was about the secret life that awaited him. He became outraged by the USSR's cruel crushing of the Prague Spring reform movement in Czechoslovakia in August 1968, and began sending covert signals to Danish and British intelligence agents and agencies that he might be willing to cooperate with them. Oleg Gordievsky in his KGB uniform (left); his wife Leila (right) Gordievsky had been brought up a loyalist, the son of a KGB agent, but his stomach was turned by the sight of the Berlin. MI6 was waiting. The execution order on him has never been rescinded., Mikhail Gorbachev meets Margaret Thatcher at Chequers in 1984; Gordievsky had briefed them both, Macintyre believes Putin and the other former KGB officers who run Russia now are still up to their old tricks. All realised Gordievsky was unique. He was telling Thatcher what to say to Gorbachev and he was telling Gorbachev what to say to Thatcher. He lost his marriage. These mutual signals indicated that the escape plan was to be activated immediately. Gordievsky got disenchanted with the KGB and by Russia after their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Macintyre wrote: It [the dog] wolfed it down before being yanked away by the unsmiling handler.. He was presented with the prestigious Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007. Gordievsky described to Leila the Englishmen he'd met in Copenhagen witty, sophisticated people, full of laughter and generosity. Of course they are still at it. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. [5] MI6 gave him the codename SUNBEAM. Once the car reached safety the officer who was driving put Sibelius's Finlandia into the cassette player, and turned it up to full volume. Lying down in the boot of a Ford Sierra saloon, he was smuggled across the border into Finland. Gordievsky. But in 1985 Aldrich Ames, an irate CIA officer, called the KGB in Washington. 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? Telemann : One of the composers. Women played a crucial part. At 7.30pm on Tuesdays British officers would watch a bread shop next to Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a diplomatic complex. Gordievsky, who studied history, geography, economics, and international affairs, wanted to learn English as a language. Gordievsky fled the country by triggering an audacious escape plan dreamed up by MI6. expert analysis, our dedicated Brussels Briefing newsletter. Victoria Hislop doesnt care if men read her novels. 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. He was made to learn the principles of communism at school. However, he now became sceptical. A refresher memo was concealed in an OUP edition of Shakespeares sonnets. Check if your In 1981, the chairman of the KGB mistook a NATO exercise as the first nuclear strike by America and its allies. For an extraordinary period he was briefing British and Soviet spies and Margaret Thatcher, who referred to him as Mr Collins. 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. No spy had ever done that for Britain before., Gordievsky worked undercover for the KGB the Soviet secret service in London in the early Eighties, sending reports back to Moscow. Pettit (second right) stood next toGordievsky (left) as they stopped for a photograph on their way through Finland during the daring escape, Russian spy Gordievsky, widely acknowledged to be the most valuable secret service mole at the heart of the KGB, with his ex-wife Mrs Leyla Gordievsky. After completing his escape, he would not see his family again until the collapse of the Soviet regime six years later, although their marriage soon ended due to their prolonged time apart. At lunchtimes he would slip out of the embassy and hand over microfilm strips to his case officer for copying. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. There has been only one sinister episode during this gilded life in the stockbroker belt. First he shook off his KGB tails, then made for the border with Finland, hiding in remote undergrowth until he was picked up by a rescue car driven by two British agents who, astonishingly, had brought along their baby. 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. An FBI report later stated that Ames had not advised the Soviets about Gordievsky until 13 June 1985; by that time, Gordievsky was under KGB surveillance but he had not yet been charged with treason as of 19 July 1985 when MI6 agents began the process of his escape. What it's REALLY like being married to a healthy-eating fanatic: Dr Chris van Tulleken banned ready meals, tuts at his wife's favourite Pret sandwich - and then he came for her peanut butter, Cops discovered a bone fragment on a hacksaw dumped in the trash by accused killer Brian Walshe - along with his missing wife's vaccination card and car keys, court documents reveal, Just WHY are people sending more and more voice notes? [2] The escape plan was code-named "Operation Pimlico", and was devised by an MI6 officer named Valerie Pettit.[14][15]. In The Spy and the Traitor, an account of the Gordievsky case by the Times writer Ben Macintyre, she was disguised with the pseudonym 'Veronica Price'. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Foot, he said, had met his KGB handlers over lunch at the Gay Hussar, a Hungarian restaurant in Londons Soho, and received the equivalent of 37,000 in todays money for being a confidential contact. He was trained thoroughly in every aspect of intelligence service, including, intelligence, counter-intelligence, surveillance, and combat. 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. [6][2] After returning to Moscow on 19 May 1985, Gordievsky was drugged and interrogated, but not yet criminally charged; instead he was placed in a non-existent desk job in a nonoperational department of the KGB. At an early age he learned German. Gordievsky's second wife, Leiladaughter of a KGB generaland their two daughters were sent back to Moscow, causing panic in MI6. [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. organisation Summoned back to Moscow, he survived a KGB interrogation, despite being drugged. The following day, Gordievsky kissed his wife Leila and his two daughters and flew to Moscow, having been summoned back to face his masters, who suspected him of treachery. Oleg Gordievsky developed a love for Western classical music during his early days in the KBG in East Germany. For tickets, go to, Chalke Valley History Festival 24th 30th June 2019 The largest Festival dedicated entirely to History in the UK, Do not sell or share my personal information. He would re-establish contact with MI6 as soon as it was safe to do so. [2] After being recalled to Moscow under suspicion, he was exfiltrated from the Soviet Union in July 1985 under a plan code-named Operation Pimlico. They underestimated just how furious the KGB was. This averted a nuclear war between the two super powers. , updated He began reading western newspapers. An operation named RYAN was put in place to find out the details of the attack. MI6 had shared intelligence with the CIA, concealing its source, but the US had carried out its own investigation to identify Gordievsky. Soon afterwards, the Soviet government invited a prominent American, Donald Trump, to visit Moscow. You could say it was the family business. 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 methods are just different. The comments below have not been moderated. Sophia : Casey's wife. While in London, his MI6 code name was NOCTON. He worked as a double agent for the British secret service during the Cold War, between 1974 and 1985. Gordievskys manner during these early encounters was oddly calm, leading the Brits to wonder if they were the victims of a classic KGB dangle. That does ring true. This was after Stalins death and during the brief period of relaxation Russia witnessed. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. [26], In the Daily Telegraph in 2010, Charles Moore gave a "full account", which he said had been provided to him by Gordievsky shortly after Foot's death, of the extent of Foot's alleged KGB involvement. It included details of the KGBs attempts to influence western elections through active measures. In contrast to Gordievskys wife, Yelena, she was shy and unworldly, but when she relaxed her laugh was loud and infectious. 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. 894646. The University of Buckingham bestowed upon him an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters in 2005. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. As soon as the family completes the usual passport and exit paperwork, I think they will be able to go. Paul Bracchi for the Daily Mail The double agent was MI5's greatest asset between 1982 and 1985, when he passed. Gordievsky has told the story of his own improbable survival in a gripping 1995 memoir, Next Stop Execution. Customise your myFT page to track [30], In Gordievsky's opinion, the culprit was a UK-based Russian business associate who had supplied him with pills, which he said were the sedative Xanax, purportedly for insomnia; he refused to identify the associate, saying British authorities had advised against it. [31] Gordievsky accused MI6 of trying to suppress the incident from being known. Gordievsky had been recruited by the West in the late 1960s while stationed with the KGB in Denmark and had been persuaded to become a double agent during a game of badminton. MI6s top spy within the KGB made an amazing escape to the west thanks to the quick-thinking wives of British agents sent to protect him, a new book has revealed. Gordievsky in his student days at Moscow's elite Institute of International Affairs where he was first recruited by the KGB. Macintyre touches only briefly on the unprecedented download of information given by Gordievsky to the west. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. The two officers' wives were forced to deploy tactics of distraction. That he managed to deceive his KGB colleagues during this time was remarkable. ' our meeting lasted four hours and after that i met her several times again,' he said. This is where Gordievsky carried out his last dead-drop, hiding 8,000 in the bushes for a newly arrived Soviet spy. Gordievsky, who was under constant surveillance, fled to a meeting point around 26 miles from the Finnish border and hid in a ditch until his MI6 handler referred to as Viscount Roy Ascot in the book arrived as part of a small convoy. The MI6 officer would walk past him munching a Mars bar or a KitKat. Covert surveillance photographs of Gordievsky taken by the Danish intelligence service PET during his postings to Copenhagen. MI6 boosted Gordievskys career by feeding him real, low-grade intelligence and by removing rival spies who threatened to expose him. [2] After his arrival, he was taken to a KGB safe house outside Moscow, drugged, and interrogated. Pettit was the architect of Operation Pimlico, an operation that smuggled KGB colonel Oleg Gordievsky out of Moscow when he was betrayed by a disgruntled CIA officer in May 1985, The Times reported. Im told Vladimir Putin has a personal axe to grind when it comes to Oleg. They talk about their new life in England now Leila and the children have been allowed to join him after 6 years, and the possibility of a return to Russia and Moscow, their home town. Unable to do so, he took his elder brothers advice and learnt Swedish. Gordievskys brother, Vasili, who was training to be an illegal spy, told the officials that his brother would be interested in the service. He lost his marriage. [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. [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. If Oleg had been caught he would have been tortured and executed, and most of his family would have been rounded up as well., Oleg Gordievsky today. After a long period of no contact MI6 was delighted when Moscow sent Gordievsky to London. [13], An elaborate escape plan from the USSR had been already devised for Gordievsky by MI6 in 1978, when the KGB called him back to Moscow for a few years after his second three-year stint in Copenhagen. Leila, his second wife, was a typist and was completely different from his first wife. It comes as the book The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre - revealed the daring Operation Pimlico plan was almost scuppered when British officials struggled to get then prime minister Margaret Thatchers approval while she was visiting The Queen at Balmoral because the phone line was engaged for 20 minutes while the monarch tried to borrow her mothers video recorder to watch Dads Army. There is, he insists, nothing in Russia that he misses. After defecting to the UK in 1985, Gordievsky did not meet his family for 6 years, till they were allowed to leave Moscow in 1991, and join the spy. They were married before his first foreign posting in Denmark. Seven years earlier, as deputy to the head of MI6's Soviet Operations section, a 48-year-old Pettit devised a cunning way for British intelligence officers to get Gordievsky - recruited by MI6 in Copenhagen in 1973 - out of Moscow if he was ever under suspicion. 2: Handel : One of the composers. After his escape, Gordievsky was given a safe house in the suburbs, where he still lives. 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. Like Oleg, Leila came from KGB stock: her father, Ali, had risen to the rank of major in the KGB, before retiring to Moscow. Valerie Pettit may have seemed to her neighbours in the village of West Clandon, Surrey, as an ordinary churchgoing elderly woman, but with her death came revelations of her central role in organising the escape of a Russian spy. He was informed that he would never be posted overseas, and in June 1985, his family was brought back to the USSR. Paul Bracchi for the Daily Mail, The Mars Bar defector: How MI6's greatest ever KGB mole was smuggled out of Moscow thanks to a chocolate bar, a Safeway bag and a very secret dash to Balmoral, Britain may have MISSED the real 'novichok assassins' by concentrating on pair caught on CCTV who may only have been 'watchers' spying on Skripal family home, Saboteurs wreck Russian train cut power cables 37mi from Ukraine, Moment large saltwater crocodile snatches pet dog off beach in QLD, 'We're not your enemies!' Description. All rights reserved. He brought his kids as cover. They were reunited six years later but the marriage didn't survive. One MI6 officer, years later, revealed he never wanted to see another KitKat because those monitoring the spot got used to carrying around a chocolate bar just in case. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/oleg-gordievsky-45102.php, 20th Century Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century Film & Theater Personalities, 20th Century British Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century British Film & Theater Personalities. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordievsky was at the pinnacle of his career. After three years, Gordievsky had to go back to Moscow. By then, he had been made the chief of KGB at the London embassy. 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. [3], The son of an officer of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police and precursor to the KGB), Gordievsky was born in 1938. [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). If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for $69 per month. Gordievsky was almost discovered at a checkpoint after sniffer dogs were used to inspect the vehicles, only for the diplomats wives to put off the hounds with the distinctive smells of a bag of cheese and onion crisps and a babys soiled nappy.