{"id":36002,"date":"2024-05-09T11:29:49","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T09:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=266937"},"modified":"2024-05-09T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T11:32:56","slug":"oleg-gordievsky-the-double-agent-who-changed-the-course-of-the-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/oleg-gordievsky-the-double-agent-who-changed-the-course-of-the-cold-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleg Gordievsky: the double agent who changed the course of the Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"

As BBC Two\u2019s documentary series Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game tracks the spies operating behind the scenes in the Reagan era, Jonathan Wright takes a closer look at the remarkable dual life of the double agent that changed global policy, and lived to defect and tell his secret-filled tale <\/p>

By Jonathan Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 09 May 2024 at 09:29 AM<\/p>

\n\n

In the early 1980s, Oleg Gordievsky was arguably the most important spy in the world. This was not primarily because of his work for what was ostensibly his employer, the KGB, but because he was a double agent for MI6. For over a decade, he leaked Russian secrets that would inform international policy in both London and Washington.<\/p>\n

His is an extraordinary story, now outlined in a documentary series on BBC Two, Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game<\/em>, which looks at how espionage shaped the end of the Cold War<\/a>. More than that, it may well have helped save the world from Armageddon at a time when the USSR and the United States possessed, respectively, 33,000 and 22,000 nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n

Who is Oleg Gordievsky and why does he matter?<\/h2>\n

Now in his 80s and living, it\u2019s said, somewhere in the south of England, Gordievsky was a career KGB spy who rose to become bureau chief in London in the early 1980s. Yet by then, he was also committed to passing information to British secret intelligence, fuelled by a disillusionment in the system he was serving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hated the communist system, I wanted to fight against it,\u201d he says in an archive recording, which features in the new documentary.<\/p>\n

While we now know the Cold War was winding down, that\u2019s not how it would have felt to those living through that time, with aggressive rhetoric coming from both sides and when it seemed that one misstep might have led to nuclear calamity. Gordievsky\u2019s insights proved to be invaluable to the British and their US allies as they tried to manage relations with the Soviet bloc.<\/p>\n

How did Gordievsky come to occupy such an important position?<\/h2>\n

To take the long view, espionage was a family business. Born in Moscow in 1938, Gordievsky was the son of an agent in the People\u2019s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD, the Soviet secret police and the forerunner of the KGB. His older brother would also serve in the KGB.<\/p>\n

A talented student with a knack for languages, Gordievsky studied at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations. On graduating, he joined the foreign service and was posted to East Berlin as a diplomatic trainee in 1961, in time to see the wall go up.<\/p>\n

\"Soldiers\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Soldiers of the East German National People\u2019s Army \u00a0erecting barbed wire fences to close off a street in preparation for the construction of the Berlin Wall. The division of Berlin was a decisive moment in the Cold War. (Photo by Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The division of Berlin was a decisive moment in the Cold War, and remained a potent symbol for nearly three decades; for Gordievsky, it was one of the causes for his turn against communism. Still, he joined the KGB less than a year later.<\/p>\n

What persuaded Gordievsky to become a double agent?<\/h2>\n

In 1966, Gordievsky was posted to Copenhagen for his first tour of duty in Western Europe. \u201cThere was so much beauty, such lively music, such excellent schools, such openness and cheeriness among ordinary people, that I could only look back on the vast, sterile concentration camp of the Soviet Union as a form of hell,\u201d he later wrote about his experiences.<\/p>\n

He looked on as the Soviets crushed the Prague Spring, an attempt to reform and liberalise the political system in Czechoslovakia, in August 1968. His aversion to communism grew, especially after he returned home to work in Moscow.<\/p>\n

In 1972, Gordievsky was posted to Denmark again, this time with a willingness to cooperate with the West. Recruited by MI6 officer Richard Bromhead, he began working for the British following \u2013 according to the author Ben Macintyre, speaking on the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast<\/a> \u2013 \u201ca long, complicated dance\u201d.<\/p>\n