What is the main message of The Spy and the Traitor?

The main message of The Spy and the Traitor is the gripping true story of a double agent who risked his life to defeat the KGB and change the course of history.

How long does it take to read The Spy and the Traitor?

The reading time for The Spy and the Traitor varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Is The Spy and the Traitor a good book? Is it worth reading?

The Spy and the Traitor is a must-read for fans of espionage and thrilling narratives. It offers a unique perspective on the Cold War and the actions of a courageous spy.

Who is the author of The Spy and the Traitor?

The author of The Spy and the Traitor is Ben Macintyre.

The Spy and the Traitor Summary of Key Ideas and Review

Name: The Spy and the Traitor
Rating: 4.6 (114 reviews)
Author: Ben Macintyre

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Put a face to the Cold War, and be entertained by a good adventure story.

The showdown between the USSR and the West in the second half of the twentieth century could have escalated into nuclear war at any moment. It was a terrifying time to be alive. As part of the confrontation, both sides developed huge networks of spies and technologies to monitor what the other was up to.

Of course, spying is a risky business. Spies can change sides any moment, sometimes for money, sometimes on principle. The life of KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky is a case in point. He turned to the West and became a double agent. Eventually, his actions changed the world as we know it, and arguably even assisted in bringing the Cold War to a close. In these blinks, you’ll follow the life of Oleg Gordievsky, learn how he became an intelligence officer and how he was seduced by the West.

Along the way, you’ll learn

how to distract sniffer dogs at international borders;
what information helped Margaret Thatcher communicate better with Soviet leaders; and
how the Danish Intelligence Service matches up to its British and American counterparts.

Key idea 1 of 10

Oleg Gordievsky seemed destined to join the KGB but became disillusioned with communism from an early age.

The communist Soviet Union’s reputation for its terrifyingly effective state apparatus has barely dimmed since its dissolution in 1991. One name still instantly recalls the pervasive fear that riddled the country: The KGB. The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or Committee for State Security, was the country’s primary security agency. To put it mildly, it was ruthlessly efficient.

Oleg Gordievsky’s father, Anton Lavrentyevich Gordievsky was a lifelong member of the KGB. Although the exact details are scarce, he likely identified many “enemies of the state” during the Great Purge of 1936-8. This state campaign under Stalin resulted in the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Though he never spoke of these atrocities, Gordievsky was proud of his role in the KGB, even opting to wear his uniform on the weekends.

Oleg Gordievsky was born 10 October 1938. It seemed that he, like his brother Vasili, was assured of employment at the KGB thanks to his father’s membership. That was just how it worked with the children of KGB members. Gordievsky’s career path to the KGB was settled, but his conscience was not. From early on, there were signs that he was discontented with the communist ideology fueling the organization.

Two early influences on Gordievsky were his mother, a gentle nonconformist who kept a quiet distance from Soviet ideology, and his grandmother. The latter kept her religious beliefs secret, an absolute necessity in a country where religious faith was illegal. By the time 17-year-old Gordievsky enrolled at Russia’s most esteemed university for diplomats, politicians and spies – the Moscow State Institute of International Relations – a change was in the air. After Stalin’s death in 1953, his successor Nikita Khrushchev began to liberalize some of the Soviet Union’s most oppressive practices, for example, allowing foreigners to visit, as well as making previously banned publications and magazines available.

Gordievsky was thus able to learn more about the West from foreign newspapers and periodicals in the institute’s library. At night, he began tuning his radio to the BBC World Service and Voice of America, even though that was still forbidden. Around this time, he found a companion at the institute, Stanislaw Kaplan. Like Gordievsky, he was skeptical about communism. The two became fast friends, and often went out jogging together. Though neither Gordievsky nor Kaplan had yet dropped their loyalty to communism, it was clear that this friendship would shape the rest of their lives.

Key idea 2 of 10

Gordievsky’s first experiences outside the Soviet Union reinforced his disillusionment with communism.

Despite Khrushchev’s push for reform, in the mid-1950s, the country’s 280 million inhabitants were still essentially living in a colossal prison. The government saw Western capitalism as an existential threat and deemed it essential to shield the populace from the influence of the West. All citizens were therefore monitored by members of the KGB, who numbered more than 1 million in total. The political climate was rife with brainwashing and conspiracy theories. Gordievsky saw this in action, and his doubts about communism started to resurface.

Specifically, he experienced a change of heart when he completed his studies in 1961. He was interviewed for a position at the KGB and was posted for six months to East Berlin before officially starting. During this time he witnessed the construction of the Berlin Wall, which literally sprung up overnight.

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Key idea 3 of 10

Gordievsky attempted to signal his dissent to the Danish intelligence services, who misread the situation.

After two years of living in Denmark, Gordievsky had turned a corner. What had once been simple alienation from Soviet ideology had become loathing. His mind was made up to act on this feeling.

The watershed moment came when Danish protesters assembled in front of the Soviet Embassy in outrage that the Soviet Union had crushed the so called Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968, a push to liberalize and democratize the country. In response, the Soviet Union sent in the tanks.

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Key idea 4 of 10

In 1970, Gordievsky was flagged as a person of interest and approached by MI6 to spy for the British.

No one becomes a double agent overnight, and Gordievsky was no exception. It took prolonged and meticulous effort to get him to spy on Mother Russia. Gordievsky returned to Moscow in 1970, disgruntled that no foreign power had made contact with him. Little did he know, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, already had their eyes on him.

MI6 had first encountered Gordievsky’s name in a debrief written by Stanislaw Kaplan, Gordievsky’s old friend from university. Kaplan had himself defected while on a sojourn in France, before settling in Canada. In the document, Kaplan identified Gordievsky as showing “clear signs of political disillusionment” while the two were at university. Consequently, MI6 flagged the Gordievsky as a “person of interest.” He was given the codename SUNBEAM.

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Key idea 5 of 10

As he began life as an MI6 double agent, Gordievsky also embarked on a love affair.

Soon, Gordievsky’s double life at the embassy was complemented by a similar arrangement in his private life. In an apartment on the other side of Copenhagen, far from the Soviet Embassy, Gordievsky arranged to regularly meet his MI6 case officer twice a month for up to two hours at a time.

Gordievsky’s new KGB role involved gleaning intelligence and attempting to “undermine Western institutions.” This is exactly what the MI6 were interested in. They knew the USSR was trying to bring Western institutions down but had no idea what their method was. And they wanted to set up bulwarks against it. Consequently, thanks also to his training as an intelligence officer, there could not have been a better double agent than Gordievsky for this task.

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Key idea 6 of 10

Back in the Soviet Union, despite MI6 being ready to engineer his escape, Gordievsky masterminded a route to London.

In the spring of 1978, Gordievsky’s time in Denmark was coming to a close. Knowing it would be too dangerous for them to rendezvous with Gordievsky in Moscow, MI6 came up with an escape plan for him. The plan, code-named PIMLICO, was devised by Veronica Price, a specialist in emergency escape plans for undercover agents.

PIMLICO involved Gordievsky loitering by a bakery in Moscow holding a British Safeway plastic grocery bag. He’d be wearing a grey cap and trousers.

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Key idea 7 of 10

Gordievsky's role in the Cold War was crucial, as he provided insight into Soviet leaders’ psychology.

The idea of spying may sound romantic, but most spies aren’t actually that effective. This was not so with Gordievsky. His work for MI6 was critical in determining the course of the Cold War. Gordievsky supplied MI6 with more than just a few names. He was actually able to provide a conception of the psychology that moved the Soviet masterminds at the head of the government and in the KGB.

One pivotal piece of information that Gordievsky supplied was the perception prevalent in the KGB that the West would strike first in a nuclear war. In fact, the Soviets leaders were terrified of it. Beginning in 1981, they tasked the KGB with interpreting possible signs of an imminent attack. This was operation RYAN, the largest Soviet intelligence operation to take place during the Cold War.

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Key idea 8 of 10

A CIA double agent blew Gordievsky’s cover, and he was sent back to Moscow.

Being a double agent is a high stakes game. Sometimes it may seem best to call it a day, defect and get the hell out. Other times it’s better just to keep playing those cards.

MI6 had been feeding Gordievsky information to ensure he could rise up the ranks of the KGB. The idea was to impress the KGB while simultaneously discreetly removing barriers to his success. For instance, they expelled Arkadi Guk, Gordievsky’s superior at the Soviet embassy, from Britain.

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Key idea 9 of 10

Gordievsky succeeded in escaping the Soviet Union, but had to leave his family behind.

The question for both MI6 and Gordievsky was plain enough. Could PIMLICO, the intricate plan for smuggling him out of the Soviet Union, actually work? MI6 had no idea where their man was. He had vanished somewhere behind the Iron Curtain. Then, a few weeks after his interrogation by the KGB, Gordievsky realized that he simply had to risk making an escape, even if that meant leaving his family behind.

MI6 had not seen him for weeks and didn’t even know if he was still alive. But suddenly, on July 16, 1985, a man wearing a grey cap and holding a Safeway bag was spotted in front of a bakery. It was Gordievsky. The Moscow-based MI6 agents leaped into action.

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Key idea 10 of 10

Gordievsky found solace in the suburbs of London, protected by MI6.

Gordievsky’s story is a fascinating one, but not all stories end happily. Safe in London, but apart from his family, depression soon set in. Things were also difficult for Leila and the children. Embarrassed by Gordievsky’s treachery, the KGB effectively held his family hostage in the Soviet Union. It was brutal revenge. For years after, MI6’s operation HETMAN attempted to reunite the family. Margaret Thatcher even pushed for their extradition whenever she met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Needless to say, stuck in the Soviet Union, Leila was enraged at her husband, especially since he maintained the lie that he was just an innocent, loyal KGB officer. Of course, she had already figured out the truth. Vadim Bakatin, the new and final head of the KGB, was determined to make his first act a symbolic one. The terror associated with the agency would be no more. Therefore, finally, the family was reunited in London on September 6, 1991, just three months before the Soviet Union itself dissolved. But there was too much to forgive. The pair divorced in 1993.

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