First of all: RIP Oleg Gordievsky. I picked this up unaware he died earlier in March. Or maybe I had heard it and my subconscious urged me to read it. Either way, hope he rests in peace.
Yeah the “reads like a thriller” tag is accurate here. I really do need to read more Ben MacIntyre.
I’ve tried with MacIntyre before and while his books are good, I need to be in a specific headspace to read non-fiction and stuff kept getting in the way. When I got on another espionage kick, I decided to research some good true life spy tales. This one came recommended by non less than the great John Le Carré as the best non-fiction spy story he’s ever read.
And boy, is it.
You really feel for Oleg Gordievsky in this one. MacIntyre, who had no access to the man himself, really captures the tension he must have felt in playing off both Britain and Russia during the height of the Cold War on the front it was fought: espionage. And it captures how human real life spies were/are. No James Bonds or Jason Bournes or Jennifer-Garner-from-Aliases in this one. These are regular people doing a dangerous job in service to their countries.
I have some small bones to pick: MacIntyre, like many British historians, is fully in the tank for his homeland so criticisms of it are sparse. And I think he overplays Gordievsky’s contributions to defusing the Cold War just a tad.
Nevertheless, this is a great story, not just of a man who did what he thought was right, but of how two nations prosecuted the Cold War between each other.