By definition, spies lead a double life, so this is arguably the book’s main theme. Gordievsky leads a double life professionally and, in the end, personally. Macintyre hints at this theme early on, when he describes Gordievsky’s family: His father worked for the KGB and its predecessor organization, the NKVD, taking part in Stalin’s purges. He never talked of that time, however, and Gordievsky eventually believed that his father had regrets or at least doubts even though he claimed that “[t]he NKVD is always right” (9). Gordievsky’s mother was less sure about that, and her parents secretly harbored religious beliefs, which were outlawed at the time under the Soviet system. The family thus had hidden “layers of deception beneath the surface” (9).

Gordievsky’s own double life started to form during his university years. When his good friend Standa Kaplan, from Czechoslovakia, was openly critical of the Soviet model, Gordievsky kept quiet, “flattered to be the recipient of such dangerous confidences” (17). In addition, he began secretly listening to the BBC and Voice of America on the radio at night. When he finally did start spying for the British intelligence agency

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