The Defector: The untold story of the KGB agent who saved MI5 and changed the Cold War - 'Reads like le Carré', Robert Verkaik

by Richard Kerbaj

'Beautiful. It looks and reads like a novel . . . all queuing up to lavish praise upon [this] book." James O'Brien

'An absolutely thrilling read based on deep research which brings this MI5 asset's importance to life.' Gordon Corera, co-host of The Rest is Classified

'Kerbaj is well-placed to recount the facts of this forgotten story . . . one of the most sensational episodes of the Cold War.' Sunday Times

'A truly gripping, untold story... The Defector reads like Le Carre but uncovers important truths that are being played out in Putin's Russia today'. Robert Verkaik

'Extraordinary' - Hugo Rifkind, TimesRadio

'Inspired . . . seamless, and a thrill to read.' The Scotsman

'Compelling', Evening Standard

'Highly entertaining . . . Certainly the stuff of thrillers.' Sydney Morning Herald

'This magnificent book reads like a thriller but it's all true. It has big lessons for today and tomorrow.' The Australian

'Reads like a spy novel', Express

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 Defector 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.

Lyalin led MI5 to rethink its relationship with the CIA. And his defection discredited a previous KGB defector, Anatoly Golitsyn, the darling of the CIA, and ultimately destroyed the reputation of the US agency's head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton.


As Richard Kerbaj 'There was a poetic irony in Golitsyn's loss of credibility. It came, as he had previously feared, at the hands of a KGB defector. Except Oleg Lyalin had not been sent by the KGB - he was running away from it.'

At the heart of Lyalin's story is a narrative entwined with lies, disinformation, Kremlin deception campaigns, intelligence failures by the CIA and MI5, and a tangled love life. Told in full here, for the first time, by one of this country's leading commentators on national security, it reveals how during the darkest moments of the Cold War one of the West's greatest achievements transpired as a result of MI5's break with the CIA.

The disclosure of the inside story of this historic event also comes at a time when there is a renewed interest in the relationship between transatlantic spy services - from the intelligence they share or hold back, to the way they respond to their political masters and stand up to threats from Russia.

Genres: History, Espionage, Nonfiction

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Peter Jerram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books brings perspective and clarity to a fascinating subject. A major addition to Cold War literature and exposes the destructive paranoia of JJ Angleton whose obsession with mythical traitors for 20 years hamstrung the battle between the democracies and the KGB. Terrific.

[Kevin Riehle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kerbaj starts with a story about KGB defector Oleg Lyalin, who offered himself to the UK government in 1971. He then weaves into it the story of another KGB defector from a decade earlier, Anatoliy Golitsyn. Kerbaj ends up spending much more time talking about Golitsyn than about Lyalin.

Kerbaj dismantles the Angleton/Golitsyn "Master Plot" conspiracy mindset. That is a welcome contribution. However, Kerbaj takes his argument a step further by claiming that Golitsyn and Angleton might have been Soviet penetrations, rather than Yuriy Nosenko. That is a step too far. While no one did more damage to the CIA's ability to operate against the Soviet Union than Angleton and Golitsyn did, that does not mean they did it on instructions from Moscow. They were more likely psychologically unfit for their jobs, not Moscow plants.

The predominance of material about Golitsyn looks like a substitute for the lack of material available about Lyalin. Lyalin's story is probably not sufficient to fill a whole book, so Kerbaj had to overlay his story with another one.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is an interesting time much of time. better in the last hundred pages initially I got the feeling that this was going to be more like a long newspaper article like the features in weekend American newspapers. There was a lot of irrelevant padding about the grandfather's and fathers of some of the future protagonists that in the added no great inspired context or helped the story in any way whatsoever. like with books about recent German history. even if they are about the 1980s several chapters are wasted giving a potted history of Germany since the 18th century. So here, the wartime exploits, the Tsarist actions of fathers and grandfathers gave no insight, no context and we're totally different to the actions of the majority characters themselves. they only served to pad out the book.

[Julian Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the Cold War which vividly brings to life the attitudes, fashion, and style of the times which provided a backdrop to an extraordinary true life spy story.

Highly readable and absorbing, I enjoyed this immensely.