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The KGB Officer Who Risked Everything for the Truth
Inside the moral crossroads of a KGB agent who chose truth over silence
Oleg Gordievsky was no ordinary spy. Conditioned since childhood to become the epitome of the perfect KGB officer. His colleagues and superiors could never have known that he was a man troubled by his own conscience.
Underneath the cool exterior of a self-disciplined, intelligent and committed KGB officer thoughts of morality and justice troubled him.
He was appalled as the Soviet Union put a sharp stop to the 1968 Prague Spring Uprising in Czechoslovakia. The brutality of the invasion shocked him. It caused him to fully question the mission that he served.
As time passed, each meeting he gave, briefing taken, and the praise for a job well done caused him more anguish; his conscience became a battleground between his integrity as a KGB officer and a simple human being.
After Stalin’s death in March 1953 the new Secretary of the Central Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, began to soften policies towards more liveable conditions. Media was relaxed to allow access to parts of Western culture and information. Farming policies improved and more meat and produce became available.
