His first tentative step was to call his then wife Yelena from an embassy phone bugged by the Danes, and to declare: “They’ve done it! Summoned back to Moscow, he survived a KGB interrogation, despite being drugged. In 1972 Gordievsky went back to Denmark for a second tour. The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (Penguin, £25). At lunchtimes he would slip out of the embassy and hand over microfilm strips to his case officer for copying. With Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi. There were close shaves, including an approach to the Soviet embassy by Michael Bettaney, a renegade MI5 loner. Gordievsky was forced to leave his second wife Leila and their two children behind in the USSR. A Czechoslovak spy, Standa Kaplan, had defected to Canada. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. All realised Gordievsky was unique. Macintrye had no access to MI6’s archives, which remain secret. Gordievsky, MI6 discovered, was a star asset. It was at this tricky point that MI6 came up with a plan to smuggle him out of the USSR, should the need arise. The spy and the traitor relates the “true” story of Oleg Gordievski, a KGB colonel who betrayed to the British near the end of the cold war. Gordievsky’s double life started after a junior MI6 officer saw his name while leafing through a personnel file. The plan was simple, and almost comic. To order a copy for £21.50 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. The cash went to fund the magazine Tribune. His two books on Soviet intelligence operations with historian Christopher Andrew are invaluable. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. It included details of the KGB’s attempts to influence western elections through “active measures”. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. To order a copy for £21.50 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. It had a beginning, it will have an end." Macintyre has also written and presented BBC documentaries of his work. Free UK … That isn't just publisher hype. MI6 was waiting. It charts his recruitment by the KGB, where his older brother Vasili served as a deep-cover “illegal”, and Gordievsky’s growing disillusionment with the grey totalitarian world of 1960s Moscow. In 1985 the KGB circulated a top secret “personality questionnaire”. In later life, Gordievsky has been cantankerous and reproving. Ben Macintyre’s wonderful The Spy and the Traitor complements and enhances Gordievsky’s first-person account. The Spy and the Traitor The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (Book) : Macintyre, Ben : NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with his greatest spy story yet, a thrilling Americans -era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War. The Spy and the Traitor The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (Book) : Macintyre, Ben : Traces the story of Russian intelligence operative Oleg Gordievsky, revealing how his secret work as an undercover MI6 informant helped hasten the end of the Cold War. Lunch followed. He escaped to Moscow after being found out and it is there that, a few years later, a group of Western journalists come in search of his story. Soon afterwards, the Soviet government invited a prominent American, Donald Trump, to visit Moscow. Spy Podcasts – Our Top 10 Espionage and Best Spy Podcasts. Aiming to be the center of attention isn't exactly a good quality for a spy.