Oleg Gordievsky was a member of the KGB that used to be KGB bureau chief in London, and one of the highest ranking KGB defectors ever. After being stationed in several European capitals, he ended up in London in the mid-1960s; by 1968, he decided to defect to the British Secret Services, who employed him as a double agent.

Gordievsky was eventually found out by the KGB; he was ordered back to Moscow in 1984 and arrested at the dacha of one of his superiors. He was rescued by British Secret Services after a few weeks of interrogation and transported back to London, although the exact information on how this was done is still classified.

Gordievsky's books on KGB operations and history are considered by some to be some of the best sources for reliable information about the secret operations of an obsessively secretive state.

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