The Defector: The Untold Story of the KGB Agent Who Saved MI5 and Changed the Cold War
In The Defector, journalist Richard Kerbaj weaves together several stories of Soviet defectors from the 1950s to the early 1970s. It is advertised as the story of Oleg Lyalin, a KGB Department V officer sent to the UK at the height of the Cold War to conduct sabotage and assassination operations. Broadly speaking, The Defector is about the disorder and confusion that several Soviet
defectors caused US and UK intelligence agencies during this time frame. Citing new sources from FBI Freedom of Information Act requests, the Lithuanian Special Archives (LYA), and personal interviews, Kerbaj attempts to breathe new life into one of the most important Cold War espionage cases. Oleg Lyalin was one part of this chaos.