Gordievsky’s library on intelligence services arrives at  Buckingham

The University’s Library has received a gift of approximately 60 titles from the personal library of the late Oleg Gordievsky CMG DLitt, strengthening its Security and Intelligence collection.

The Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham runs undergraduate and postgraduate courses on a range of topics including security, intelligence, cyber, international law and diplomacy. The collection will be valuable to students, researchers, and practitioners studying intelligence history, Cold War international relations, security policy, authoritarian systems, and democratic resilience. It also complements existing holdings within the University Library’s security-focused collections.

This contribution includes books on the history of intelligence services and operations, memoirs and academic journals focusing on this field, published in both the United Kingdom and the United States. The distinction of this collection is its incredible provenance: it comes from the highest-ranking KGB officer who had ever worked for the British. Gordievsky, arguably, was the most important intelligence source of both British and Americans during the final years of the Cold War.

In 2007, the late Queen conferred the honour of a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) on Gordievsky for “services to the security of the United Kingdom”. It was the same honour as was “given” to the fictional hero James Bond.

Sergei Cristo MA, a friend of the late Mr Gordievsky, and a PhD Researcher in Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham, who organised the transfer of books, spoke at the ceremony:

“Oleg was a real British hero. He risked his life every day for 11 years, from 1974 to 1985, to provide intelligence of exceptional strategic value to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), which was also shared with the Americans at the highest level. What drove Gordievsky was his desire for Russia to be free from totalitarian oppression, and to become democratic. In 2005, speaking at the ceremony to accept his honorary doctorate degree at this university, Gordievsky spoke about the importance of advancing and defending democratic values, even, and especially, at moments of profound geopolitical danger. His words ring true with strength today.

His legacy will live on here at Buckingham through this collection of specialist literature, which provide historical and intellectual context for understanding how democratic states have previously confronted systemic authoritarian threats. They will help raise a new generation of security professionals and defenders of democracy.”

Also speaking of the donation, Professor Julian Richards, Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, stated:

“It was an honour to receive the collection of books from the personal collection of the late Oleg Gordievsky. Thank you to our doctoral candidate Sergei and friends for making the offer, which we were so grateful to accept, and to Malcolm Meaden-Pratt and the Library Team for facilitating the collection. These books will assist the studies and reflections of a new generation of students at Buckingham in the months and years to come.”