GORBACHEV, MIKHAIL SERGEYEVICH (1931– ).While leader
of the Communist Partyand president of the Soviet Union, Gor-
bachev presided over the dismantling of the USSR. He had been
brought into the Politburo by KGBchief Yuri Andropovand rose to
general secretary of the party in 1985. He was president of the Soviet
Union from 1988 to 1991 and introduced a period of liberalization.
Gorbachev made use of the security services for antireligious cam-
paignsin Central Asia. His efforts with MVD head Vitalii Fe-
dorchukto purge and reform the police were unsuccessful, and Gor-
bachev’s reform policies, including glasnostand perestroika, were
resisted by KGB figures such as Viktor Chebrikov and Filip
Bobkov. Conservative bureaucrats and senior police officials sought
to replace him through the August putsch of 1991but were forced
to back down, although Gorbachev was left a weakened figure, over-
shadowed by Boris Yeltsin.GORDIEVSKIY, OLEG ANTONOVICH (1938– ). One of the most
important defeats for the KGBin the Cold Warwas the defection of
Colonel Oleg Gordievskiy, who volunteered to work for the British
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) when he was stationed in Denmark.
He apparently acted out of deep anger with the Soviet decision to in-
tervene in Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968. He agreed to work
without payment, claiming that he worked for ideological reasons.
On his assignment to London in 1983 as deputy rezident,
Gordievskiy provided the SIS with thousands of KGB documents.
Gordievskiy’s reporting allowed London and Washington to defuse a
crisis in the fall of 1983 when the Soviets, collecting information
through their RYaNprogram, suspected the West of planning a covert
nuclear strike against the Soviet Union.
In 1985 Aldrich Amesprovided the KGB with information to
identify Gordievskiy as a British agent. (More recently, Russian in-
telligence officers have claimed that Gordievskiy was identified by
other Soviet agents.) Gordievskiy was tricked into returning to
Moscow and confronted with evidence of his behavior. The KGB left
Gordievskiy a week to consider his treason and confess. He used a
danger signal to alert the British, and with the direct approval of
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the British service rescued
Gordievskiy from certain death.GORDIEVSKIY, OLEG ANTONOVICH (1938– )•9906-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 99