24. A Decision to Drink and Drive Led to The Cold War’s Biggest Mass Expulsion of Spies
Oleg Lyalin agreed to defect to Britain, seek political asylum, and disclose information about KGB activities. In exchange, he wanted a new life for him and his Soviet secretary Irina Teplyakova, with whom he had been having an affair. Once the deal was struck, Lyalin admitted that he was a KGB agent sent to London in the 1960s under the guise of an official with Soviet embassy’s Trade Delegation. His real mission was to carry out espionage missions focused on the Midlands, under the guise of a textiles purchaser.
Among other things, Lyalin also blew the lid on a KGB plan to sneak agents disguised as official messengers into Whitehall – the center of Britain’s government – to release poison gas from capsules. He gave MI5 a list of 105 KGB spies in Britain posing as Soviet diplomats and trade officials. All of them were promptly expelled, in the biggest such action taken against the USSR by a western government throughout the entire Cold War. Lyalin was given a new identity, married his secretary, settled in northern England, and worked for MI5 as a paid employee until his death in 1995.