An Exalted Place in Cold War Spydom

摘要

The safe arrival in the West of a long-serving spy is itself eloquent proof of the integrity of an espionage organization. Oleg Gordievsky operated for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) within the Soviet KGB for a dozen years, He was, of course, immensely valuable because of his access to political information at critical moments in the Cold War, and his role as a senior member of the rezidentura in London made him especially useful. But his successful exfiltration from Moscow in 1985 served to exorcise the ghosts of Kim Philby and George Blake, the high-level moles who inflicted lasting reputational damage on MI6. Even after Blake's conviction in 1961, his escape from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 had served to prolong the agony and undermine MI6's self-confidence and perceived competence. Put simply, MI6's ability to recruit, run, and finally rescue an agent of Gordievsky's caliber demonstrated that it could keep secrets and manage successful operations.