In 1983, during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, an intelligence leaked about the readiness of nuclear weapons, so they began to investigate the ghosts. Although the inner ghost was locked, and he was arrested. But this man managed to escape to England. What's going on?
This inner ghost is the famous ace double-sided agent Oleg Gordievsky. He was received by U.S. President Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and was awarded the Order of St. Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II. So why would this man be a double agent?
First, I have wanted to be a KGB since I was a child.
Gordievsky was the second generation of officials who were in the red. His father and brother were both veteran KGB agents, and with the baptism of the Soviet-German war, he set his ambition to become a KGB from an early age.
In order to realize his ideals, Gordievsky worked hard and studiously. At the age of 17, with excellent results, he was admitted to the Moscow Institute of International Relations. The Moscow Institute of International Relations is known as the "Cradle of Diplomats" and is one of the highest universities in the Soviet Union. Many high-ranking cadres are proud to be able to enter this school. However, due to the very harsh enrollment conditions, the students who can enter this school are all dragons and phoenixes.
In school, Gordievsky continued to practice hard, studying history, economics and international relations, as well as becoming proficient in German and English.
At university, Gordievsky also made a good friend from the Czech Republic. The two not only read a lot of books describing Western society together, but also often listened to radio stations in Western countries. This kind of listening had a considerable impact on his thinking.
Second, conscientious work.
In 1963, after graduating from university, Gordyevsky entered the KGB as he wished, while his Czech friends returned to work in the Czech Intelligence Service.
Since Both Gordyevsky's father and brother were agents and were sent overseas for espionage, in order to reduce the risk of defection, Gordievsky was placed in a civilian position in the archives department of the headquarters after a series of special agent training. Although his work is very trivial, he has been exposed to a large number of encrypted files because of his working relationship. This, in turn, allowed him to know more about the soviet situation than the average KGB personnel.
Working in the civil service in the bureaucracy was obviously not the life of an agent that Goldievsky wanted. So during that time, he didn't have a good time. Fortunately, at that time, he met Yelena, who worked as a translator in the KGB, and the two entered the palace of marriage after a brief love affair. This happy married life gave him a lot of comfort.
In 1966, Gordyevsky's brother died while on a mission. Gordievsky, a family member of the martyrs, was cared for by the KGB. At his request, his superiors transferred him to the foreign intelligence service, and then assigned him to work at the Soviet Embassy in Denmark, where he was mainly responsible for the Soviet union's underground espionage intelligence network in Denmark.
Third, faith is shaken.
At first, Gordievsky was passionate about his work. Every day he spends a lot of time gathering intelligence. However, he soon discovered that his colleagues were very different from him, who, in addition to drinking alcohol every day, tried to fictitious informants and defrauded funds, which made him tired of his work.
In 1968, a "Prague Spring" of political and democratic reforms swept through the Czech Republic. For the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic wanted to completely abandon the "Soviet model" politically and economically. The Soviet Union could not sit idly by. In order to kill the budding reforms of the Czech Republic, the Soviet Union quickly launched an armed invasion of the Czech Republic and soon occupied all of the Czech Republic. Faced with the hegemonic intervention of the Soviet Union, Czechs took to the streets to protest. Among them, Gordyevsky's college friend was involved in a conspiracy to subvert the government in the process. However, due to the exposure of the operation, he had to flee abroad.
The incident struck Gordievsky so much that he cast doubt on the beliefs he had always held.
At the same time, after Gordievsky began intelligence work in Denmark, he also had more contact with the rich life of Western countries. This made him realize that the West was not in the depths of the waters as described in the Soviet Union. On the contrary, due to the long-term Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, the arms race, coupled with the serious corruption of officials, made the lives of ordinary people worse and worse, and people more and more lost hope.
Again, Goldievsky was also unhappy with the KGB's mechanism. His colleagues, for example, are lazy and take advantage of small things, yet they operate politically and are promoted. And he worked hard, but he kept standing still.
Family life also made him feel very unsatisfactory. His father obeyed the KGB, his brother died in the line of duty, and his marriage to Yelena lit up with red lights. All of this made him feel that his existing life was too depressing, and he was eager to get rid of it.
Fourth, it is not a defection for money.
In the midst of anger, repression and dissatisfaction, Goldievsky finally chose another path, that is, to use the convenience of his position to serve Britain.
At first, MI6 was not a trust in Goldievsky's surrender. However, as Gordievsky provided more and more information from Denmark and the Nordic countries, and was reliable, they began to believe that Gordievsky genuinely wanted to serve British intelligence. Since then, Goldievsky has officially joined MI6 as a double agent.
Interestingly, Before joining the company, Gordievsky made three requests to MI6:
One is not to leave photos or videos in MI6's archives;
Second, during his intelligence provision to Britain, he did not want the KGB intelligence officers at the site he was responsible for to be harmed;
The third is that he doesn't want money, he just works for Britain out of ideology.
After that, Goldievsky provided a large amount of intelligence to the British for six years. At the same time, he provided Britain with a list of Soviet spies developed in various classified branches of the British government. According to the list, the British launched a hoe rape operation and arrested and sentenced the spies one after another, which undoubtedly caused great losses to the Soviet Intelligence Work in Britain.
He has been very cautious in the process of transmitting intelligence to Britain. As a result, he has not been suspected by the KGB. Even his wife, Yelena, was unaware of his actions.
After 6 years at the Danish Embassy, Gordievsky was transferred back to Moscow according to internal regulations of the KGB. At that time, the British, fearing the loss of his excellent intelligence officer, persuaded him to defect to Britain, but he refused. Just in case, though, before returning to Moscow, he asked British intelligence to devise an emergency evacuation rescue plan around him. After the two sides determined the evacuation code, Gordyevsky returned to Moscow.
After returning to China, Gordievsky was transferred to the archives department of the KGB headquarters, and he also took the opportunity to record a large number of top-secret archives in case of emergency.
It was also during this period that The marriage of Goldievsky and Yelena came to an end. After the divorce, he quickly married his second wife, Lyra, and had two daughters.
In 1982, the Soviet intelligence network in Britain was severely damaged. So Gordievsky, who had extensive experience in overseas espionage and was fluent in English, was sent to the Soviet Embassy in Britain as an intelligence chief. Naturally, upon arriving in London, he quickly reconnected with MI6.
By this time, Gordyevsky had been promoted to the rank of colonel, and with his many years of service in the KGB, he had accumulated a wealth of contacts, and he was also the head of the Soviet underground intelligence station in London, so he had access to a large amount of classified information. And he unreservedly provided all this information to Britain.
On one occasion, he also received a letter from a British MI6 official who planned to defect to the Soviet Union. He quickly contacted MI6, and a minute before the officer was about to walk into the Soviet embassy in Britain, they arrested the officer, thus avoiding losses to British intelligence.
5. Disclosure of top military secrets.
In 1983, NATO conducted a military exercise on the Soviet border.
After showing some muscle to the Soviet Union, US President Ronald Reagan said that the United States would deploy medium-range missiles in NATO allies to ensure the safety of NATO allies on the grounds that "the Soviet Union violated the medium-range missile agreement between the two countries". It was also threatened that if the missile was launched, it could destroy the Soviet Union in 6 minutes.
In the face of U.S. provocations, the Soviet Union also showed no weakness and ordered all nuclear weapons to enter a state of war readiness.
Originally, the United States wanted to scare the Soviet Union through military exercises. However, when Gordievsky passed on the information that the Soviet Union was in a state of nuclear war readiness to Britain, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was really shocked. After all, if a nuclear war is really launched, it is possible to put the entire world in a state of collapse. Margaret Thatcher hastened to forward the information to the United States. After confirmation, the United States realized that the Soviet Union was clearly serious. The United States, which was still in a state of dismay, immediately actively carried out diplomatic work with the Soviet Union, and finally eased relations with the Soviet Union and prevented a "nuclear war" that was poised to start.
After defusing the crisis, U.S. intelligence agencies proposed to British intelligence that they wanted to obtain the identity of spies who provided intelligence. British intelligence, in order to protect Goldievsky's safety, refused the American request. But that's not hard for the CIA. After a period of investigation, they locked up Gordievsky and secretly approached him. In the course of the contacts, he also arranged for a brief meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
However, while the United States was ascertaining The identity of Gordievsky's spy, the Soviet KGB also realized that there was an internal ghost within the department. So they began to conduct secret investigations internally. Eventually, they set their doubts on Gordyevsky.
Successfully escaped from the Soviet Union.
In 1985, Gordyevsky received orders to return to the Soviet Union. With a fluke mentality, he finally obeyed the order and returned to the Soviet Union. As a result, as soon as he returned to the Soviet Union, he was placed under house arrest.
Goldievsky knew that things were not good, so he activated the emergency evacuation plan he had worked out with the British intelligence services that year, and sent a distress signal to the British intelligence personnel in the Soviet Union at the designated joint location. He was then cleverly hidden in the trunk of a car by the British and transported out of the Soviet border. In Finland, he boarded a plane bound for London and escaped smoothly.
However, although Gordievsky escaped from the Soviet Union, he did not escape trial. In November of the same year, a Soviet military tribunal sentenced Gordyevsky to death in his absence.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gordievsky, who had long ceased to be engaged in intelligence work, finally admitted the fact that he had served in mi6 in the United Kingdom.
Seventh, he won great honors but was spurned by his family.
In 2007, in recognition of Gordievsky's contribution to British security, Queen Elizabeth II received him and awarded him the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
Although, Goldievsky was not only well protected in Britain, but also received a lot of honors. However, because he defected from his homeland, not only did all the Soviets spurn him, but his second wife, Lyra, also chose to divorce him. His two daughters also said they had not seen him since without his father. In response to the assassination of Soviet and Russian agents, Gordievsky has been living in anonymity. Since then, it has rarely appeared in people's field of vision. Although he saved his life, due to the rebellion, he could only spend the rest of his life in loneliness.