George blake film

Biography of George Blake

George Blake, one of the most successful agents working for the Soviet Union, was born on November 11, 1922 in Rotterdam, in the family of English businessman Albert William Bihar. After the occupation of the Netherlands by German troops in 1940, he was interned but managed to escape. At the age of 18, he joined the Dutch Resistance movement. In 1943, to avoid falling into the hands of the Gestapo, he crossed Gibraltar under the name Peter de Vries and moved to England, where he became George Blake. In 1944, he voluntarily joined the Royal Air Force and, thanks to his knowledge of German and Dutch languages, was transferred to the Social Operations Department to train Dutch paratrooper agents before their deployment behind German lines.

In 1944, he served as a translator in the Allied Forces High Command. He was promoted to lieutenant and eventually became the commander of the Air Force Counterintelligence Unit. In 1947, Blake's career in the British Foreign Office began. He studied Russian at Cambridge, and in 1948 he was appointed Vice Consul at the British Embassy in Seoul. Within a year, Blake reported on the North Korean army's preparations for invasion of South Korea. In 1950, the Korean War began, and when North Korean forces occupied Seoul, Blake, along with other British diplomats, was interned.

On April 21, 1953, Blake returned to England. It was later revealed that during this time he began working for Soviet intelligence. When and why he was recruited remains unknown. However, his colleagues did not notice any changes in him after his return from captivity. In 1955, Blake was assigned a new role as the head of the MI6 network in East Germany. Officially, Blake held a position in the British command in West Berlin. His position was so valuable to the Russians that they even sacrificed their own agents and handed them over through Blake to Western intelligence agencies, providing him with excellent cover. In 1956, Blake informed Soviet intelligence about the existence of the Berlin tunnel for tapping phone conversations. He revealed the names of all British intelligence agents in Eastern Bloc countries known to him (about 40), provided the KGB with documents containing information on the size and structure of the armed forces of Western countries, and compiled detailed dossiers on all senior MI6 officials. Thanks to this information, Soviet intelligence successfully countered the activities of British intelligence for many years.

Blake worked for Soviet intelligence entirely selflessly. From 1956 to 1959, when Blake returned to the Foreign Office, he maintained relations with Horst Eitner, a former agent of "Organization Gehlen" who worked for British intelligence. During this period, Blake and Eitner discovered that they were both agents of the KGB. Eitner was arrested in 1960, and in February 1961, he revealed Blake's activities, but he was not believed. It was only after the testimony of Polish defector Michal Goleniowski (the resident of the Polish military intelligence in East Berlin, who was also an agent of the CIA) that the British opened their eyes. Goleniowski's testimony was confirmed by another defector, Colonel Alster, who headed the Polish secret police. On March 10, 1961, Blake was arrested. After his exposure, the KGB dealt a heavy blow to the British agent network in Eastern Bloc countries. In East Germany alone, this cost the freedom or lives of 40 agents.

On May 3, 1961, Blake was sentenced to 42 years in prison. On October 22, 1966, Blake escaped from prison with the help of Irish terrorist Sean Alphonse Berk, whom Blake befriended in prison. After his release, Berk arranged for Blake's escape and hid him in his own home. The apartment rented by Berk was located very close to the prison, and although experienced specialists were searching for Blake, no one thought that he would be hiding so close to his former place of captivity. On January 7, 1967, Blake flew to Hamburg, and from there KGB agents smuggled him to Moscow. A few days later, Berk followed him to Moscow.