Ricin secret police: Georgi Markov had defected from Bulgaria some years previously and had subsequently written books and made radio broadcasts that were highly critical of the Bulgarian communist regime. However, it was believed at the time that Bulgaria would not have been able to produce the pellet, and it was also believed that the KGB had supplied it. The KGB denied any involvement, although high-profile KGB defectors Oleg Kalugin and Oleg Gordievsky have since confirmed the KGB's involvement. Earlier, Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also suffered (but survived) ricin-like symptoms after an encounter in 1971 with KGB agents. Ten days before
Waterloo, London Lambeth had significantly increased. After the opening of Waterloo railway station in 1848 via the Nine Elms to Waterloo Viaduct the locality around the station and Lower Marsh became known as Waterloo. The boundary of the ecclesiastical parish of St John Waterloo established in 1824 was formed by the River Thames in the north and west, approximated Westminster Bridge Road in the south, and followed the boundary with Southwark in the east. The public library in Waterloo was constructed in 1893. It remained open until the early 1960s when it was vacated due to its poor condition. The building now