The spy and the traitor
by Ben Macintyre, Efrén del Valle · first published 2018
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Gripping true story of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky spying for MI6, with detail on daily KGB life and his escape. Reads like a le Carré novel but real; suits Cold War and spy-fiction fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Traces the story of Russian intelligence operative Oleg Gordievsky, revealing how his secret work as an undercover MI6 informant helped hasten the end of the Cold War.
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…series. Thinking Fast and Slow is probably one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. It’s on human decision making and psychology. If you want to read some history, I highly recommend these two: The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre The Splended and the Vile by Erik Larson Both of these books are page turners. I couldn’t put them down. If you’re software person, I…
on “Ask HN: Book Recommendations” ↗If you're interested, the Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre is all about that operation, and is as gripping as any spy novel.
on “Bugger: Maybe the real state secret is spies aren't good at their jobs (2013)” ↗Obviously HN always knows better, this reminds me of the Dropbox post. There's a great book that covers every single aspect of this escape, "The Spy and the Traitor" by Ben Macintyre. Rest assured that the British embassy had plenty of Mars bars and Harrods bags for this signal!
on “C.I.A. Lacing (2014)” ↗There is a good book on a different defector, Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky. The story is excellent - The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37542581-the-spy-and-the...
on “KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov 1985 Interview – Idealogical Subversion” ↗…Clement Top 5 non-fiction - Boom Town by Sam Anderson - The Second Founding by Eric Foner - The Club by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson - The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel by Douglas Brunt - The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗I can strongly recommend the book "The Spy and the Traitor" about Oleg Gordievsky and MI6: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/279/279582/the-spy-and-the-t... It goes into quite a lot of detail about what it was like to work in the KGB at that time.
on “A military exercise staged 35 years ago almost triggered World War Three” ↗…interested (slowly building up a library) in cold war espionage If anyone hasn’t read the below account of Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky’s life and defection, it’s well worth the time. Ben Macintyre (2018), The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
on “Soviet Posters” ↗I think a couple of Macintyre's other works even top The Spy and the Traitor in terms of "craziness". Particularly Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat (out of those I've read). They're both thoroughly worth a read if you enjoyed this one.
on “Good Books for a Lousy Year” ↗"The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War" by Ben Macintyre is an amazing story, very well written.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗You should check out any of the books written by Ben Macintyre, especially "The Spy and the Traitor". It turns out a lot of spy novels aren't that far off from reality.
on “Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon” ↗Even if it probably isn’t exactly what you were looking for, I’d wholeheartedly recommend The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre, documenting the story of Oleg Gordievsky, the soviet spy that crossed over to the MI5 during the Cold War. It gave me a glimpse into the secret war at the time, the stuff that inspired…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…Bregman (p:104) Comedy: The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams (p:336) History: Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose (p:432); The Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins (p:413) +; The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (p:384) +; De Heineken Ontvoering by Peter R. de Vries (p:347); Red Famine by Anne Apllebaum (p:384); Night by Elie Wiesel (p:115) + Science, Technology, Mathematics: Fermat's Enigma…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗I've read The Spy and the Traitor, and it was quite good. I had just come off a binge of spy novels written by John LeCarre and it was amazing to read the same exact sort of craziness, but in a real life situation. I would actually recommend…
on “Good Books for a Lousy Year” ↗Highly recommend reading the book 'The spy and the traitor' for a similar case where western spy / intelligence failed but somehow managed to save the asset. (Book recommended by Bill Gates) It's a fascinating read on a long forgotten era, now replaced by hackers…
on “The most sensational Western spy failures in the USSR” ↗I recently read "The Spy and the Traitor" which was an excellent book all about Gordievsky, who is the UK-recruited KGB agent that alerted the US to the risk. Although the book is a great read and makes Gordievsky out to be a hero, I couldn't…
on “Nuclear Close Calls: Able Archer 83 (2018)” ↗