Secret documents published today by the British government show how the defection of a Soviet KGB agent triggered diplomatic retaliation between Great Britain and the Soviet Union, which is why it was feared that relations between the two countries could end before the very end of the Cold War.
The dispute was initiated in 1985 by the defection of agent Oleg Gordievsky, who had been leaking secrets from the Kremlin to London for more than ten years. When he became suspicious, British agents managed to smuggle him in the trunk of a car.
Intelligence experts consider Gordijevski, who had the code name "Hetman", to be one of the most important agents near the end of the Cold War.
Documents published by the British National Archives under the "30-year law" for declassification show that Gordievsky was so important to the British that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher approved an agreement that would allow the wife and daughters of that former KGB agent to join, and in return London will not expel all the agents it has exposed.
Moscow rejected the offer and Thatcher ordered the expulsion of 25 Russians, despite the opposition of Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, who felt that only nine should be expelled, to avoid a mass expulsion of British people from the Soviet Union just as tensions began to ease under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. between the USSR and the West.
The Soviet Union expelled 25 Britons, triggering a second round of expulsions in which six more officials were expelled by both sides. However, diplomatic relations were not seriously threatened.
The documents show that Margaret Thatcher accepted the Foreign Office's recommendation to "draw a line under the Gordievsky episode" and not expel the Czech, Bulgarian and East German agents who had been exposed.
Gorbachev and Thatcher then built a constructive relationship, and among the documents from 1985 are birthday greetings exchanged between the two leaders.
The Gordievsky family was under 24-hour surveillance by the KGB for six years, until they were allowed to leave for Great Britain in 1991.
In 2007, Gordijevski received the award of Queen Elizabeth II.
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