The Spy and the Traitor was published by Viking in 2018. Oleg Gordievsky was a KGB officer stationed first in Copenhagen and then in London who, from 1974 to 1985, passed intelligence to MI6. He was the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer ever to work for the West during the Cold War.
Gordievsky’s information was critical during the most dangerous phase of the Cold War — 1983, when the Soviet leadership genuinely believed that NATO was preparing a first nuclear strike (operation RYAN) and considered a pre-emptive attack. Gordievsky’s intelligence, passed to Margaret Thatcher and through her to Ronald Reagan, helped convince Western leaders that Soviet fear was genuine, not a bluff, and contributed to Reagan’s decision to tone down his anti-Soviet rhetoric.
In 1985, Gordievsky was recalled to Moscow — betrayed by Aldrich Ames, the CIA mole. The KGB drugged and interrogated him but could not break him. MI6 activated an escape plan that had been in place for years: Gordievsky jogged away from his KGB surveillance during his morning run, was picked up by a British car, hidden in the trunk, and driven across the Finnish border while KGB sniffer dogs circled the vehicle at the checkpoint.
Collecting The Spy and the Traitor
First edition (Viking, London, 2018): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $20–$40
- Signed first: $40–$80