British-Soviet double agent George Blake dies aged 98 in Moscow (msn.com)
Britain says he exposed the identities of hundreds of Western agents across eastern Europe in the 1950s - some of whom were executed as a result.
Blake, then family name Behar, was born in
Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1922, the son of a
Protestant Dutch mother, and a
Sephardi Jewish father who was a naturalised British subject.
[2][3] He was named George after King
George V of the United Kingdom.
[4][5] His father, Albert Behar, served in the
British Army during the
First World War. While Albert received the
Meritorious Service Medal, he embellished his war service when recounting it to his wife and children, and also concealed his
Jewish background until his death.
[6] The Behars lived a comfortable existence in the Netherlands until Albert's death in 1936. The thirteen-year-old Behar was sent to live with a wealthy aunt in Egypt,
[7] where he continued his education at the English School in
Cairo. He later attended
Downing College, Cambridge, to read
Russian.
[8]
In 1961, Blake fell under suspicion after revelations by Polish
defector Michael Goleniewski and others. He was arrested when he arrived in London after being summoned from
Lebanon, where he had been enrolled at the
Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies (MECAS).
[21] Three days into his interrogation,
[7] Blake denied he was tortured or blackmailed by the North Koreans. Without thinking what he was saying, he stated that he had switched sides voluntarily. He then gave his MI6 interrogators a full confession.
[22]
The maximum sentence for any one offence under section 1 of the
Official Secrets Act 1911 is 14 years, but his activities were divided into five time periods charged as five offences and, in May 1961 after an
in camera trial at the
Old Bailey, he was sentenced to the maximum term of 14 years consecutively on each of three counts of spying for a potential enemy and 14 years concurrently on both the two remaining counts – a total of 42 years imprisonment – by the
Lord Chief Justice,
Lord Parker of Waddington. This sentence was reported by newspapers to represent one year for each of the agents who were killed when he betrayed them, although this is dubious.
[18] It was the longest sentence (excluding life terms) ever handed down by a British court, until
Nezar Hindawi was sentenced to 45 years for the
attempted bombing of an
El Al jet.
Five years into his imprisonment in
Wormwood Scrubs, Blake escaped with the help of three men he had met in jail:
Sean Bourke and two anti-nuclear campaigners,
Michael Randle and
Pat Pottle. The escape was masterminded by Bourke, who first approached Randle only for financial help with the escape. Randle became more involved and suggested they bring Pottle in on the plan as well, as he had suggested springing Blake to Randle in 1962 when they were both still in prison. Their motives for helping Blake to escape were their belief that the 42-year sentence was "inhuman" and because of a personal liking of Blake.
[23]
Blake later married again in the Soviet Union and had more children. He also reconciled with his other children.
[7] In late 2007, Blake was awarded the
Order of Friendship on his 85th birthday by
Vladimir Putin.
[29] Blake's later book,
Transparent Walls (2006), as reported by the
daily Vzglyad ("The View").
Sergei Lebedev, the director of the
Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation, wrote in the book's foreword that despite the book being devoted to the past, it is about the present as well. He also wrote that Blake, the 85-year-old colonel of Foreign Intelligence, "still takes an active role in the affairs of the secret service."
Blake died on 26 December 2020, aged 98, in Moscow.
[33][34] The RIA news agency first reported of Blake's death, citing Russia's
SVR foreign intelligence agency. “We received some bitter news – the legendary George Blake passed away,” it said.
[35] Russian President
Vladimir Putin, himself an ex-
KGB agent, expressed his "deep condolences" to Blake's family and friends. In a message published on the Kremlin website, the Russian leader noted Blake's "invaluable contribution to ensuring strategic parity and maintaining peace on the planet."
[36]