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The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the celebrated author of Operation Mincement and The Siege comes the thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War.
“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine.
He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain’s obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.
Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre has crafted an electrifying account of an international hero. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, The Spy and the Traitor brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine.
He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain’s obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets.
Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre has crafted an electrifying account of an international hero. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, The Spy and the Traitor brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.
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Community Reviews
I found the book very interesting. It was a bit long and an area is a bit dry, but it was a good read.
Absolutely loved this book—certainly the best spy book (fiction or non) that I’ve read lately, and it’s a genre I spend a lot of time in. I’m normally pretty disciplined in my listening—I always have several books going simultaneously, plus a lot of podcasts, and I spread them pretty evenly—but I found myself pushing everything aside to listen to the last four or five chapters of this. It really is an exceptionally compelling story, very well told (and by the way, beautifully read in the audio version). Very, very highly recommend.
Such an extraordinary spy non-fiction, so much so that it reads like a fiction. It was a completely insane and unreal experience to read this book! Oleg Gordievsky's story as KGB double agent for MI6 is told in riveting details, rich in emotions, suspense and revelations. Elaborate web of operations with one codename after another, KGB's stifling bureaucracy (that in the end saved Oleg's life), suffocating politics with many actors over the years are told brilliantly in this book. It's a one-man show and an orchestra at the same time. The technological difference back in the 80s added nuance to the book, that in a world where you can't trust no one... you still gotta trust that the right people get you.
I don't recommend you to read this unless you absolutely got time, because it will keep you at the edge of your seat flipping one more page, one more time. Easily one of the best read so far this year.
I don't recommend you to read this unless you absolutely got time, because it will keep you at the edge of your seat flipping one more page, one more time. Easily one of the best read so far this year.
Hard to listen as an audiobook because of all the Russian names. They would’ve been easier to tell apart if I could’ve seen them in the print version - but that’s on me. Just a tip for future readers considering the audio though.
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