The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre

This is an espionage book about a spymaster and former KGB official known as Oleg Gordievsky who was born in a KGB family. He defected to London after being suspected that he was committing treachery. His motives for betraying his country and communism are based on his ideological convictions. The author briefs that there are three motives in espionage for treachery, money, ego, and ideology.

The first time Oleg being contacted by a handler was in Denmark where he was working for KBG in the residentura. Oleg agreed to spy for Brits after seeing how the Soviets dismantled the Czechoslovakia Revolution in 1968 known as Prague Revolution, whereby the intention was to liberalize the country and relax controls on travel, speech, and censorship. The KGB saw the revolution as a threat to communism and therefore invaded the country.

Another KGB ideology that ired Oleg is the construction of the Berlin wall, separating and limiting the free movement of the people and associations. Oleg was a mole inside KGB and the information he provided to the MI6 (UK/London security organization) helped to reduce tensions during the cold war which could have brought a disastrous third world war since involved countries possessed nuclear weapons.

The first chapters of this book are a bit hard to comprehend but as the reader goes on, he/she will find the book to be very riveting. There are so many interesting encounters that cannot be included in this brief summary. For instance how Oleg escaped from Moscow to London after being summoned by the KGB, how he had abandoned his family (wife and two kids) after noticing that (litmus test) his wife didn't respond well towards his idea of defecting to London. In the end, it seems that Oleg did not know who betrayed him by exposing his treachery. The author however portrays an officer from the CIA known as Amis who provided critical information which caused KBG to suspect Oleg. Oleg had several code names such as SUNBEAM, NOCTON, PIMLICO, and Mr. Collins, a preferred name by Mrs. Thatcher (Prime Minister) since she didn't know his name by then.