Skip to main content
Thumbnail for The defector : the untold story of the KGB agent who changed the Cold War and saved MI5

The defector : the untold story of the KGB agent who changed the Cold War and saved MI5

Kerbaj, Richard2025
Books, Manuscripts
'The Defector' is the untold account of how, in 1971, the defection of a KGB saboteur in London led to the expulsion of more than a hundred Soviet 'diplomats' from the UK. Drawing on newly declassified intelligence documents and dozens of interviews with spymasters, the book tells a startling story of a Soviet mission to plant fake Kremlin agents within British and American intelligence services, the paranoia that ensued, and how the actions of a genuine turncoat, the former KGB officer Oleg Lyalin, and the secrets he revealed resulted to one of the most dramatic and pivotal moments in the Cold War.
View my active saved list
0 items in my active saved list