Just finished reading The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre. It is the true story of KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky and is touted as the greatest espionage story of the cold war. For ideological reasons, including his revulsion of the violent put-downs of the Hungarian and Czech attempts to break away from Soviet domination and the construction of the Berlin wall, Gordievsky became a spy for British MI6 during the cold war. He did this to break the grip of Soviet Communism, which he came to see as evil, on eastern Europe and Russia. During his years as a spy, he shared many highly classified secrets that positively impacted the course of modern history, including helping avoid nuclear holocaust during the Yuri Andropov era. Gordievsky reveals the far-reaching power and fear of the KGB but also its weaknesses (political infighting, bureaucracy, inefficiency, and occasionally incompetence). His insights into Kremlin leaders and their paranoia about "the west" is fascinating.
The book is well-researched and very well-written. It reads much more like a fiction spy book in the mold of Le Carre, Clancy, De Silva, and others.
I very highly recommend this as a fascinating, captivating read and sobering reminder of what we could have experienced were it not for this brave individual.

Thank you. On it.

Was just about to start The spy in Moscow station...

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