Oleg Gordevsky, the famous Cold War spy and deployed KGB, dead in 86

Oleg Jordevsky, a high -level KGB officer who spied on the West during the height of the Cold War, died at the age of 86.

Gordevsky died on March 4 in England, where he had lived since his decline from the Soviet Union in 1985. The police said on Saturday that he did not treat his death as suspicious. The BBC reported on Friday that Gordevsky “died safely” at his home in Sari.

The world learned his name four decades ago, when the British Foreign Ministry announced on September 12, 1985 that Gordevsky – who initially described him as a senior KGB – has sought asylum in the UK.

After his defection, then Margaret Tscher’s minister sought an agreement with Moscow: If Gordevsky’s wife and daughters are allowed to join him in London, Britain will not expel all KGB agents who revealed them.

Moscow rejected the offer, and ordered the Tatcher, referring to the information provided by Gordievsky, eviction Among more than twenty people – diplomats, journalists and commercial officials among them – about allegations involved in spying.

This step was announced despite the objections of Foreign Minister Jeffrey Hao, who was afraid to be able to overcome relations just like the reform of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was relieving the stalemate between Russia and the West.

Soviet officials rejected the allegations of espionage, as a spokesman officially told reporters that “all accusations, or hints, regarding the alleged illegal activities of Soviet actors have nothing to do with reality.”

Moscow responded by the expulsion of 25 Britons. However, despite Haw’s concerns, diplomatic ties have not been cut off.

Moscow’s reassurance is tense

Two years before his defection, in 1983, Gordevsky warned Britain and the United States that the Soviet leadership was so worried about the nuclear attack by the West to the point that it was considering the first strike. With the high tensions during NATO military exercise in Germany, Gordievsky helped to reassure Moscow that it was not a prelude to a nuclear attack.

Soon after, Ronald Reagan, the US president at the time, began moves to reduce nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union.

Over time, the audience will learn more about the dramatic conditions that brought Gordievsky to a new life in the West.

He was published in the London office in KGB in 1982, but his term suddenly ended after a few years, when Gordievsky was called to the Soviet Union on suspicion of being a Western size – which was shared by secrets with British intelligence for years.

A bold escape, first heading to Finland

In May 1985, Gordievsky returned to Moscow, as directed, bearing the interrogation but was not charged.

In July of that year, a dramatic fled from the Soviet Union, through a British effort to nominate that he saw, sailing across the border to Finland while he was hiding in the car box.

It is said that the agents participating in his rescue played a cassette registration Finland As a reference to Gordievsky, they made it across the border. Then he was transferred to Britain via Norway.

The Gordievsky family remained under the surveillance of KGB for six years before it was allowed to join him in England in 1991, the year that the Soviet Union was replaced.

“Often, I was telling myself:” It is like a movie, it’s like a movie. ” Watch a history Podcast in 2015He told the story of his escape. “He was incredible.”

The British authorities are highlighting the “prominent contribution” to the country’s national security and to help tensions between Russia and the West during “a critical time for the cold war.”