The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
The “higher-ups” that received Gordievsky’s high-quality intelligence included President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Historian and writer Ben Macintyre recently met with Gordievsky and came out with 130 hours of conversations with the solitary ex-spy. It was this material that formed the basis of Macintyre’s 2018 book The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War.
Oleg Gordievsky. Photo by Ilpo Musto / Shutterstock
“He lives alone, but under heavy protection and the tightest possible security,” Macintyre said about Gordievsky. “He is not scared of the Russian government. I am not sure he is scared of anything.” The book’s nearly 400 pages reveal all kinds of new details about the affair and give new insights into the hidden underworld of espionage and intelligence-gathering.