George Blake: biography, interesting facts and photos

George Blake is 93 years old. He walks with a cane and is almost blind, but continues to dress with taste and still has an exceptionally sharp mind. This man, who recently lives at his dacha 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 whole history of espionage.

George Blake, an English intelligence officer, was a double agent for more than 20 years. He passed secret information to the USSR, which disrupted a number of plans of the British 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. Do you want to know more about who George Blake is? His photo and biography, presented in the article, will introduce you to this interesting person.

The Origin of George Blake

First, let's briefly tell about the origin of the English intelligence officer, which is rather curious. George Blake was born on November 11, 1922. His father was a native of Constantinople, businessman Albert William Bekhar, and his mother - Kareyeva Ida Mikhailovna. The age of the tree of the family name Béjar, which belongs to the Jewish aristocracy, is more than 600 years old. In the Middle Ages, Albert Bekhar's ancestors lived in Spain and Portugal, succeeding in finance and commerce. In the 15th century, Isaac Abravanel, one of them, served as finance minister under King Aragon Ferdinand V. After a while the family moved to Turkey and Egypt.

Albert Behar during the First World War fought in Flanders on the side of the British army. He received the rank of captain, several times was wounded, earned several military awards. Albert Behar served for some time with Field Marshal Haig at the military intelligence headquarters. In 1919, he met in London with Katarina Gertruda Beyderllen, a charming Dutchman. Her family was also notable. In the 17th century he gave the Netherlands a number of admirals and church hierarchs. Katarina and Albert created a family. They married on January 16, 1922 in London and settled in Rotterdam. Parents named the first child George in honor of George V. In the family after George was born two daughters - Adele and Elizabeth.

Childhood

Albert Behar's illness worsened in 1935, and he soon died. George, after the death of his father, was with his aunt in Cairo for three years, where he studied at an English school. In her house, he made friends with her son Henri Kurel, who professed communism. Later, this man became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Egypt. The views of Henri Kurel greatly influenced George's worldview.

Holland managed to avoid occupation by the Germans during the First World War. The hope for a new success was still preserved in 1939. However, in May of the following year, paratroopers from Germany cut the roads between The Hague and Rotterdam. After that the German tanks moved towards these cities from the eastern border of the country. The planes bombed the city and the port. From Rotterdam there were only ruins.

Arrest and escape from the camp

The Gestapo learned that George Behar, who at that time was 17 years old, is British. He was immediately arrested and placed in a camp north of Amsterdam. In this place the captured Frenchmen and Englishmen (civilians) were kept.

18-year-old George in August 1940, escaped from this camp, guarded by SS troops. Anthony Beyderwell, 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, who collaborated with the secret Dutch army and British intelligence.

Moving to England, change of name and work in MI6

On the day of the invasion, Blake's sisters and mother (in the photo below, George and her mother) managed to leave for England. They got seats on a British destroyer, one of those who arrived to evacuate the Dutch government and the royal family to 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 an employee of the British Foreign Intelligence Service (MI6).

Intelligence officers needed to know the language and ideology of their opponent in order to participate in the Cold War. Therefore, the MI6 leadership 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 a new interesting page. One of the tasks that he faced was the creation of an MI6 agent network in the Soviet Primorye Territory. In June 1950, the war broke out between South and North Korea. George was recommended to work in North Korea as long as this is possible. After some time, the British government decided to send troops to support South Korea. Then the North Koreans decided to intern the consulate staff, including Blake. They were placed in a prisoner of war camp.

New way to Blake

In the spring of 1951, a parcel came from the Soviet Embassy in North Korea. It included the following books: "The State and Revolution" of Lenin, "Capital" of Marx and "The Treasure Island" by Stevenson. The KGB thus ideologically processed the foreign candidates for recruitment.

George Blake, scout, by that time was almost ready to take a new path. George was already thinking about openly joining the movement of communism. He wanted to engage in propaganda work after returning to England. However, another path opened for him - to stay in MI6 and transfer information about operations prepared by British intelligence to the USSR. Blake decided to choose it.

Through a prisoner guarding a North Korean soldier, George handed a note to the Soviet Embassy, in which he requested a meeting with a representative of the KGB. At this meeting, he was offered cooperation. His condition was the provision of information on intelligence operations of Great Britain against the communist countries. Cooperation was not paid.

Listening to military negotiations and transferring important data

In 1953, after three years in captivity, George Blake, recruited by the Soviet intelligence service, traveled across the USSR to London. Here he became deputy head of the department, engaged in listening to military negotiations, which were conducted by the Russians in Austria. Listening was carried out by connecting to military cables. George gave important information to his supervisor, establishing a connection with him.

After the withdrawal of Russian troops from Austria, such operations were decided to resume in Berlin. At the same time, three Soviet cables were used, which passed near the borders of the American sector. The consent of the CIA was required. It started financing the operation.

George Blake gave the Soviet intelligence service the plan of the operation, when the latter had just begun to be developed. In addition to information about the tunnel, George gave important information about other operations against the USSR and its allies.

The danger looming over Blake

British intelligence in 1960 sent Blake to Lebanon to learn Arabic. George wanted to use in the Middle East in the regional residence of MI6. Its head, Nicholas Elliot, summoned him in the spring of 1961 and said that George Blake was invited to London, where a conversation about a new appointment was to be held. At that time in the Middle East was a rather tense situation. Therefore, to withdraw an intelligence officer to London without good reason was impossible. It required the permission of the KGB station. It was not safe, since Blake George could at that time be calculated by counterintelligence. However, Blake was recommended to return to London, as Moscow found no cause for concern.

Arrest on charges of espionage

Blake was given by Mikhail Golenievsky, a Polish intelligence officer who held a high post. He ran to the Americans, taking with him important documents. One of them pointed out that there is a Soviet source in the Berlin residence of the SNA. This document was secret and had a very narrow distribution. Among his recipients was Blake George. Inside the SNA, a small group was set up to investigate the leak. As a result of three months of work, it was proved that it was Blake that was the source.

George was arrested in London. The interrogation took place at the MI6 headquarters. On the first day, George Blake, an English intelligence officer, was charged with espionage. In the evening George was released for a meeting with his mother, and then the interrogations resumed. Dick White, CEO of MI6, personally participated in them.

Court and imprisonment

Blake admitted that he worked for the exploration of the USSR. He said that he did it not under pressure of blackmail, threats or torture, but for ideological reasons. Then Blake was sent to Scotland Yard. In May 1961, a trial took place, in which George was sentenced to 42 years in prison.

Blake met with Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle, members of the Movement for Peace and Nuclear Weapons, inspired by Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher. They received 18 months in prison for organizing and participating in a demonstration at a US military base in England. Patrick Pottle and Michael Randall opposed the installation of bombers with nuclear warheads.

Preparing for an escape

The prison relationship between George and the two activists established friendly relations. They felt sympathy for Blake, and also believed that 42 years of imprisonment was an inhuman term. In 1963, a few days before his release, they said that they were ready to help him if he decides to make an escape. Now Blake knew that he had friends who, importantly, had many like-minded people.

Sean Burke, a young Irishman, was a member of a literary circle organized in prison. He also knew Pottle and Randall well. Sean Burke was sentenced to 8 years for sending a bomb to the policeman, who Sean believed insulted him. The bomb exploded and the policeman's kitchen was destroyed. The guardian of the order, however, remained unharmed. Blake and Burke had a friendship, and George after a while decided that his friend would be ideal for the role of assistant. He was enterprising, courageous, intelligent, and his term was coming to an end.

Second escape of Blake

After Burke was released, he made contact with Pottle and Randle, who agreed to cooperate with him. They found the money necessary for the operation. Burke decided to buy a walkie-talkie and send her to prison Blake through a confidant. At that time, neither the administration nor the police of the prison were equipped with it, so on the radio, George maintained a relatively secure permanent connection with his friend. Burke organized Blake's escape from prison, and Pottle and Randle were in charge of the safe apartment where he could hide, and for his departure from the country in 2 months in a tourist van in which Randall placed his wife and two young sons as passengers. The plan was a success: Blake was brought to Berlin. Here he established a connection with Soviet intelligence.

Interestingly, the apartment in which Blake was hiding was not far from the prison. George was looked for by experienced specialists, but no one allowed the possibility that he was so close to her. Blake even hooliganized, one night, putting a bouquet of chrysanthemums to the threshold of the prison in memory of his own release. Soon, on January 7, 1967, he flew to Hamburg, and then the KGB agents transported him to the Russian capital.

The book and the future fate of Sean Burke

Sean Burke in 1970 published a book, where he presented his own version of events. He only slightly changed the names of Pottle and Randle in his narrative, and also placed in the narrative quite a lot of information about them, 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 believe 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 was having fun with the money received for the book. Sean Burke became an alcoholic and died in 1970 at a fairly young age and practically poor.

George Blake: life in Moscow

The fate of Sean Burke was sad. Unlike him, George Blake became famous. After the trial, the whole world recognized him. George Blake, a former British intelligence officer, was in the Soviet Union a few months after his escape. Blake divorced his wife, who gave birth to his three children, and began a new life. After moving to the USSR, he officially worked at IMEMO as a research assistant under the name of Bekhter Georgiy Ivanovich.

The merits of George were noted by the state. He was given a free apartment in Moscow and a dacha, a pension of a KGB officer was allocated. In addition, he received the title of colonel of foreign intelligence, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and Lenin, and was awarded a number of other awards.

In 1990, published his autobiography George Blake ("There is no other choice"). By the way, this is not his only autobiographical book. In 2005, he wrote another George Blake ("Transparent Wall"). For this book in 2007 he was awarded the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.

November 11, 2012. Vladimir Putin congratulated George Blake on his 90th birthday. The president's telegram says that George always successfully solved the tasks assigned to him.

Blake is 93 now. He still lives in Moscow, enjoys reading historical literature, cycling, classical music (Vivaldi, Mozart, Handel, Bach). George Blake is still a convinced communist. England accuses him of treason, but he rejects these accusations and stresses that he never felt his belonging to this country. According to Blake, the collapse of the USSR does not mean that the idea of communism is utopian or bad. He believes that people have not yet grown to her.