Oleg Gordievsky

In the KGB

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesHe was born on 10 October 1938 in Moscow, according to The Boston Globe.²

His father was a career KGB officer. He himself joined the KGB in 1962 and was first posted to the Soviet Embassy in Copenhagen, where he supported illegals.¹

Agent of British intelligence

According to a review in Studies in Intelligence, British intelligence recruited him in 1973, during his second posting to Copenhagen, where he had returned in 1972. He was not cleared to travel to London until June 1982.¹

His reporting covered, among other things, the Soviet operation RYAN – the Kremlin’s fear of a Western surprise nuclear attack in 1982–1983.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAfter his death the British media recalled that his intelligence had guided Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s early contacts with Mikhail Gorbachev.³

Exposure and escape

He was due to become the official KGB rezident in London at the end of April 1985. The review in Studies in Intelligence links his exposure to Aldrich Ames: on 13 June 1985 Ames gave the KGB the names of 25 people, Gordievsky among them.¹

In May 1985 he was summoned to Moscow and returned on 19 May. A meeting at headquarters turned into a brutal interrogation aided by spiked brandy. He was then sent to a sanatorium and kept under heavy surveillance.¹

Operation PIMLICO began on Friday 19 July 1985. Hidden in the boot of a car and travelling via Leningrad, he crossed the Finnish border on the morning of Sunday 21 July and reached Britain via Norway.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to the British media, Prime Minister Thatcher personally approved the exfiltration, which was carried out by two MI6 officers.³

In the West

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesIn 2007 Queen Elizabeth II made him a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).^3,4

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesOn 4 March 2025 he was found dead at his home in Godalming, Surrey. Surrey Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious and that counter-terrorism officers were leading the investigation.^3,4