George Blake is 93 years old. He walks with a cane and is practically blind, but continues to dress with taste and still has an extremely sharp mind. This person, who has been living recently in his country house near Moscow, can be mistaken for an ordinary resident of the village. However, in fact, this is one of the most interesting figures in the entire history of espionage.
George Blake, an English intelligence officer, has been a double agent for over 20 years. He transmitted secret information to the USSR, which disrupted a number of British plans and led to the exposure of several British agents. In 1961, George Blake was arrested for espionage and sentenced to 42 years in prison. However, after 5 years, he escaped. Blake fled to Russia, where he still lives. Want to know more about who George Blake is? A photo and a biography of him, presented in the article, will introduce you to this interesting person.
The Origins of George Blake
First, we briefly talk about the origin of the English intelligence, which is quite interesting. George Blake was born on November 11, 1922. His father was a native of Constantinople, businessman Albert William Behar, and his mother was Kareeva Ida Mikhailovna. The age of the tree of the Behar family, belonging to the Jewish aristocracy, is more than 600 years. In the Middle Ages, the ancestors of Albert Bejar lived in Spain and Portugal, succeeding in finance and trade. In the 15th century, Isaac Abravanel, one of them, served as Minister of Finance under King Aragon Ferdinand V. After some time, the family moved to Turkey and Egypt.
Albert Behar during the First World War fought in Flanders on the side of the English army. He received the rank of captain, was wounded several times, and earned several military awards. Albert Behar served for some time with Field Marshal Haig at the headquarters of military intelligence. In 1919, he met in London with Katharina Gertrude Baderwerlen, a charming Dutch. Her family was also noble. As early as the 17th century, he gave the Netherlands a number of admirals and church hierarchs. Katarina and Albert started a family. They married on January 16, 1922 in London and settled in Rotterdam. Parents named their first child George in honor of George V. Two daughters were born in the family after George - Adele and Elizabeth.
Childhood
Albert Behar's pulmonary disease worsened in 1935, and he soon died. After the death of his father, George spent three years with his aunt in Cairo, where he studied at an English school. In her house, he made friends with her son Henri Curiel, who professed communism. Later, this man became one of the creators of the Communist Party of Egypt. The views of Henri Curiel significantly influenced the outlook of George.
Holland managed to avoid German occupation during the First World War. Hope for a new good fortune still persisted in 1939. However, in May of the following year, paratroopers from Germany cut the roads between The Hague and Rotterdam. After that, German tanks moved towards these cities from the eastern border of the country. Airplanes bombed the city and port. From Rotterdam there were only ruins.
Arrest and escape from the camp
The Gestapo learned that George Behar, who was 17 at the time, was British. He was immediately arrested and placed in a camp north of Amsterdam. In this place the captured French and English (civilians) were kept.
18-year-old George in August 1940 escaped from this camp, guarded by SS troops. Anthony Badervellen, George’s uncle, found a place where the fugitive could hide from the SS. Blake soon began to serve as a liaison in one of the Dutch Resistance groups that collaborated with the secret Dutch army and British intelligence.
Relocation to England, change of surname and work in MI-6
On the day of the invasion, Blake's sisters and mother (in the photo below, George and his mother) managed to leave for England. They got seats on the British destroyer, one of those that arrived to evacuate the Dutch government and the royal family at Hook van Holland.
George in 1942 was forced to leave Holland. In 1943, through Spain and France, he reached England. Here he changed his name to Blake. George enlisted in the Royal Navy as a volunteer. For a short time he served in the submarine fleet, and then became a foreign intelligence officer in the UK (MI-6).
Intelligence officers needed a knowledge of the language and ideology of their adversary to participate in the Cold War. Therefore, the leadership of MI-6 taught them the Russian language and the basics of communist teaching. This theory coincided with the Christian beliefs of George. In 1947 he was sent to Cambridge for a deeper study of the Russian language.
Service in Korea
A year later, in October 1948, George Blake was sent to Korea. His biography continues with an interesting new page. One of the tasks that confronted him was the creation of the MI-6 agent network in Soviet Primorye. In June 1950, a war broke out between South and North Korea. George was advised to work in North Korea as long as possible. After some time, the British government decided to send troops in order to support South Korea. Then the North Koreans decided to intern consulate staff, including Blake. They were placed in a prisoner of war camp.
Blake's New Way
In the spring of 1951, a parcel arrived from the USSR Embassy in North Korea. The following books were invested in it: Lenin's State and Revolution, Marx's Capital and Stevenson's Treasure Island. The KGB thus ideologically processed the foreign candidates nominated for recruitment.
George Blake, a scout, was almost ready to take a new path by then. George was already thinking about openly joining the communist movement. He wanted to do propaganda after returning to England. However, another way opened for him - to remain working in MI-6 and transmit to the USSR information about operations being prepared by British intelligence. Blake decided to choose him.
Through a North Korean soldier guarding the prisoners, George handed a note to the USSR Embassy, in which he requested a meeting with a KGB representative. At this meeting, he was offered cooperation. His condition was the provision of information on British intelligence operations against communist countries. Collaboration was not paid.
Listening to military negotiations and transmitting important data
In 1953, after a three-year captivity, George Blake, recruited by intelligence from the Soviet Union, returned to London through the USSR. Here he became the deputy head of the department that was listening to the military negotiations that the Russians were in Austria. Listening was carried out by connecting to military cables. George passed on important information to his curator, establishing a connection with him.
After the Russian troops left Austria, they decided to resume such operations in Berlin. In this case, three Soviet cables were used, which ran near the borders of the American sector. CIA consent was required. It began to finance the operation.
George Blake handed over to the Soviet intelligence a plan of operation when he had just begun to be developed. In addition to information about the tunnel, George transmitted important data on other operations against the USSR and its allies.
The danger hanging over Blake
In 1960, British intelligence sent Blake to Lebanon to learn Arabic. George wanted to use the Middle East in the regional residency of MI-6. Its leader, Nicholas Elliot, called him in the spring of 1961 and said that George Blake was invited to London, where a conversation about a new appointment was to take place. At that time, the situation in the Middle East was rather tense. Therefore, it was impossible to recall an intelligence officer in London without good reason. It took permission from the KGB residency. This was unsafe, since Blake George at that time could be calculated by counterintelligence. However, Blake was recommended to return to London, since Moscow did not find any reason for concern.
Espionage Arrest
Blake was given out by Mikhail Golenievsky, a Polish intelligence officer who held a high position. He ran to the Americans, taking with him important documents. One of them indicated that a Soviet source was located in the Berlin residence of the SNA. This document was secret and had a very narrow distribution. Among its recipients was Blake George. A small group was organized within the SNA to investigate the leak. As a result of three months of work, it was proved that Blake is the source.
George was arrested in London. The interrogation took place at the headquarters of MI-6. On the first day, George Blake, an English intelligence officer, was charged with espionage. In the evening, George was released to see his mother, and then interrogations resumed. Dick White, MI6 CEO, personally participated in them.
Court and imprisonment
Blake admitted that he worked for Soviet intelligence. He said that he did this not under the pressure of blackmail, threats or torture, but for ideological reasons. Then Blake was sent to Scotland Yard. In May 1961, a trial was held at which George was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
Blake in prison met Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle, members of the Peace and Against Nuclear Weapons Movement, inspired by Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher. They received 18 months in prison for organizing and participating in a demonstration at an American military base in England. Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle opposed the installation of bombers with nuclear warheads.
Escape preparation
In prison between George and these two activists established friendly relations. They sympathized with Blake, and also believed that 42 years in prison was an inhuman term. In 1963, a few days before their release, they said they were ready to help him if he decided to escape. Now Blake knew that he had friends who, importantly, had many like-minded people and acquaintances.
Sean Burke, a young Irishman, was a member of a prison-organized literary circle. He also knew Pottle and Randle well. Sean Burke was 8 years old for mailing a bomb to a policeman who, Sean believed, had insulted him. The bomb exploded and the policeman’s kitchen was destroyed. The policeman himself, however, remained unharmed. Blake made friends with Burke, and after some time George decided that his friend would be ideal for the role of assistant. He was enterprising, courageous, intelligent, and his term was drawing to a close.
Blake's second escape
After Burke was released, he made contact with Pottle and Randle, who agreed to work with him. They found the money needed for the operation. Burke decided to buy a walkie-talkie and transfer it to Blake's prison through an agent. At that time, neither the administration nor the police of the prison were equipped with it, so George kept a relatively safe constant contact with his friend by the radio. Burke organized Blake's escape from prison, and Pottle and Randle were responsible for a safe house where he could hide, and for his departure from the country after 2 months in a tourist van in which Randle placed his wife and two little sons as passengers. The plan was a success: Blake was delivered to Berlin. Here he made contact with Soviet intelligence.
Interestingly, the apartment in which Blake was hiding was not far from the prison. George was sought after by experienced specialists, but no one allowed the possibility that he was so close to her. Blake even laughed, one night putting a bouquet of chrysanthemums on the threshold of the prison in memory of his own release. Soon, on January 7, 1967, he flew to Hamburg, and then KGB agents transported him to the Russian capital.
The book and the further fate of Sean Burke
Sean Burke published a book in 1970 where he presented his own version of events. He only slightly changed the names of Pottle and Randle in his narrative, and also put quite a lot of information about them in the narrative so that the British authorities could understand that they participated in the escape. But they decided not to arrest them, since it was more beneficial for the authorities that people believed that the KGB, and not a group of amateurs, organized this escape.
Sean Burke, who had a weakness for alcoholic beverages, settled in Ireland. He had fun on the money received for the book. Sean Burke became an alcoholic and died in 1970 at a fairly young age and was practically a beggar.
