The Spy and The Traitor -- by Ben MacIntyre

 

The best plotting was by the MI6 and MI5 people in diligently helping Oleg Gordievsky defect to the UK, despite his KGB colleagues, and the certain execution that he would have faced.

The background was very educational, even if you lived through the Cold War, and saw every spy movie ever made. So many little, but important things were covered in Ben MacIntyre's book -- one of many espionage books he has written. Near the end, he notes that almost all of those mentioned were given aliases because they are still living, and their lives could still be jeopardized. 

Gordievsky, who also adopted an alias, unfortunately, saw his second marriage collapse after finally seeing his wife and daughters join him in England. 

His escape was worthy of the fiction-based spy movies. He had to meet his UK contacts by following a strict, and uncomfortable, schedule. He had to strip down to his underwear, and silently ride in a sweaty car trunk across the Finnish border. That journey took him all the way up to northernmost Norway. A plane then flew him to England. 

Evading an already suspicious KGB first in Moscow was another hair-raising adventure, too. 

The information he shared and brought with him proved highly valuable to leaders in the UK, and the U.S. in dealing with the USSR. They could understand Kremlin viewpoints. Not all spies can acquire that type of perspective. Vladimir Putin was mentioned several times.

The Spy and the Traitor was a good read, conservatively taking eight and a half points of ten.