English spy Oleg Gordievsky

The name of this person often sounded in the media in the first half of the nineties. And the attitude towards him was very ambiguous. For some, Oleg Gordievsky was a hero, for others a traitor. At the present time, it has been forgotten. Let's try to remember about this extraordinary figure.

The facts of the biography of the former scout

Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, whose biography became the subject of close study of several leading special services of the world, was born October 10, 1938 in Moscow in the family of an NKVD officer. This circumstance in many respects predetermined for him the choice of the life path. After graduating in 1962 from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Oleg Gordievsky began his service in the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. For several years, under diplomatic cover, he worked in a number of Western European countries for the exploration of the Soviet Union. Until a certain moment the career was developing quite well. But at this stage his unremarkable Soviet biography ends. Oleg Gordievsky would not be interesting to anyone today, if he had not made a sharp turn in his destiny. However, this remained for all a secret until 1985.

Turn

In early 1969, an employee of the consular department of the Soviet Embassy in Denmark, Oleg Gordievsky on his own initiative came into contact with the British special services in Copenhagen and offered them their services. His proposal was accepted. From that moment the Soviet part of his biography ends. In Moscow, Oleg Gordievsky returned as an English spy. And the more successfully his career developed, the more valuable he represented for British intelligence.

Motivation

Oleg Gordievsky himself says that a coup in his mind occurred in 1956 after he read the speech of N.S. Khrushchev at the twentieth congress about the crimes of Stalin. And the final decision to work against the political regime ruling in the Soviet Union took after the introduction in August 1968 of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, when the events of the Prague Spring occurred . Whatever selfish motives of his act the former Soviet intelligence agent categorically denies. Which, however, did not prevent him from regularly receiving a salary for many years from a British bank account.

Failure and escape

Outwardly everything was quite well. Oleg Gordievsky returned to Copenhagen to the same place with promotion. In the early seventies he served in Moscow in the central apparatus of the intelligence department. After that, under diplomatic cover, he was appointed to a Soviet residency in London, which he then headed. Nevertheless, under the pretext of being appointed to a leading position in the KGB, the USSR was recalled to Moscow. In the capital, Oleg Gordievsky realized that he was unmasked and under surveillance. The expectation of an imminent arrest pushes him to a desperate step. With great difficulty, the exposed spy manages to contact his resident in Moscow. It is believed that it is difficult to escape from the Soviet Union, he could do it by Oleg Gordievsky. From the country, he left the Finnish border in the trunk of a car belonging to the British Embassy. Diplomatic numbers allow you to cross the border without inspection.

Effects

The escape of the failed spy has caused considerable resonance in the diplomatic environment and in the Western media. For a while, Oleg Gordievsky was in the center of much attention to his person. He was not going to hold his tongue behind his teeth, so he gladly handed over all the intelligence information to the British secret services. This led to retirement, revelations and criminal cases against a number of prominent British figures who collaborated with Soviet intelligence. In the fall of 1985, based on information from Oleg Gordievsky from the British capital, 31 employees of the Soviet embassy were deported. As it is customary to formulate in the press, "for activities incompatible with diplomatic status." As a reciprocal symmetric measure, only 25 employees were expelled from Moscow, apparently there was not enough spies in the embassy for an even account. This was the largest exchange of this kind in the history of the diplomatic relations of the Soviet Union with the states of Western Europe. Of course, the betrayal of the former Soviet spy did not remain without attention in his homeland. For treason, Oleg Gordievsky was sentenced to the highest penalty - shooting with confiscation of property. Of course, in absentia. Subsequently, the confiscation of property at the request of the spouse spouse was canceled. The defector's family, his wife and two daughters, was able to reunite with him only in September 1991. Currently, Oleg Gordievsky lives in London, leads an active social life, is taken at the highest level.

Memoir book of Oleg Gordievsky

Defectors and spies in retirement often write memories of their life-filled adventures and dangers. There is always a certain demand for such literature. Oleg Gordievsky was no exception. "The next stop - the shooting" - the so-called his book, published in London. It details the methods of work of security officers inside the country and far beyond its borders. It can not be said that this book has become a bestseller, but it has enjoyed some success. She was translated into foreign languages and even went to Russia.