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The Shadow Dossier — The Exfiltration Code-Named Pimlico · The Shadow Dossier

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  the shadow dossier act i the colonel who changed
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  sides oleg gordievsky was a career officer of
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  the kgb the soviet union's intelligence service
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  and the son of a kgb officer himself But in the
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  1960s, while stationed in Denmark, he watched
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  Soviet tanks crush the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia
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  in 1968, and something in him broke with the
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  system he served. In the early 1970s, while still
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  in Copenhagen, he began working secretly for
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  Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. For
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  more than a decade, he passed information to
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  the British from inside the KGB. In 1982, he
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  was posted to the Soviet embassy in London, which
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  gave MI6 a spy inside the KGB's own station in
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  the British capital. His value was enormous.
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  Among other things, he helped the West understand
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  how frightened the Soviet leadership had become
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  during the Able Archer crisis of 1983, which
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  this dossier covered in an earlier file. His
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  reporting helped convince Western leaders that
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  the Kremlin genuinely feared a surprise nuclear
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  attack. In early 1985, he was promoted to become
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  head of the KGB's London station. In May 1985,
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  just as he was about to take up that post, Gordievsky
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  was suddenly called back to Moscow. He knew it
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  could be a trap, but refusing would have exposed
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  him. He went. Soon after arriving, he was taken
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  to a KGB dacha outside Moscow, given brandy laced
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  with a drug meant to loosen his tongue, and interrogated.
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  He managed not to confess, but he understood
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  that he was under suspicion, that he was being
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  watched, and that eventually they would come
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  for him. He had been betrayed. We now know that
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  Aldrich Ames, the CIA officer whose treachery
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  this dossier has also examined, had given his
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  name to the KGB that spring. Act 3. Pimlico.
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  Years earlier, MI6 had prepared an escape plan
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  for exactly this situation. It was codenamed
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  Pimlico. and it had to be triggered by a signal.
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  On a particular evening, Gordievsky was to stand
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  on the pavement of a street in central Moscow,
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  holding a plastic bag from the British supermarket
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  Safeway. If a British officer walked past him
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  eating a Mars bar, it meant the signal had been
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  received and the escape was on. In July 1985,
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  he stood at the spot with his Safeway bag. For
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  what felt like a very long time, nothing happened.
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  Then a man walked past, looked at him, and bit
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  into a Mars bar. On the morning of July 19th,
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  Gordievsky went out jogging, as he often did,
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  and slipped his KGB watchers. He made his way
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  to a Moscow railway station and took a train
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  toward Leningrad, and from there headed toward
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  the Finnish border. At a lay -by near the border,
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  two cars carrying British diplomats pulled over,
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  as if for a picnic. Gordievsky climbed out of
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  the undergrowth and into the trunk of one of
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  the cars. The diplomats had brought their own
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  families, including a baby, as cover. At the
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  border, Soviet guards with dogs stood close to
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  the cars. One of the diplomats' wives is said
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  to have changed her baby's diaper on the trunk
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  of the car. The smell and the fuss helping to
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  keep the dogs and guards distracted. The cars
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  were waved through into Finland. Inside the trunk,
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  Gordievsky heard music playing from the car's
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  stereo. Sibelius' Finlandia, the signal that
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  he was out. He was taken on to Norway and then
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  flown to Britain. Gordievsky had escaped, but
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  he had to leave his wife and two young daughters
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  behind in Moscow. The Soviet authorities sentenced
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  him to death in his absence. His family was kept
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  under watch and not allowed to leave for six
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  years. They were finally allowed to join him
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  in 1991 as the Soviet Union was coming apart,
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  but his marriage didn't survive the separation.
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  In the West, Gordievsky became one of the most
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  valuable sources of the late Cold War, advising
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  British and American leaders, including Margaret
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  Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, on how the Soviet
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  leadership thought. He lived the rest of his
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  life under protection in England and died there
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  in 2025. Operation Pimlico is still considered
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  one of the most daring escapes of the Cold War.
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  A spy smuggled out of the Soviet Union in the
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  trunk of a car. to the sound of Finlandia. This
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  concludes declassified file number 0046 of the
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  Shadow Dossier, the exfiltration code named Pimlico.
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  What dangerous secrets await in our next file?
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  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or SS .com.
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  and YouTube so you never miss an official declassification.
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  This is the Shadow Dossier. Thank you for listening.