George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a spy who worked for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and became a double agent for the Soviet Union. Captured during the Korean War, he was imprisoned by North Korean forces and became a communist, deciding to work for the Ministry of State Security (MGB). Upon returning to the United Kingdom, he resumed work with MI6 while secretly passing classified information to the Soviets, betraying dozens of agents working on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.
Blake was eventually discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, one of the longest terms ever imposed for espionage in Britain. In 1966, with the help of fellow inmates and outside supporters, he escaped from HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs in West London. He fled the country and made his way to the Soviet Union, where he was received as a hero.
Although not part of the Cambridge Five, Blake later associated with members such as Donald Maclean and Kim Philby after arriving in Moscow. He continued to live in the Soviet Union and, after its dissolution in 1991, remained in Russia. Blake was granted citizenship and lived out the rest of his life there, defending his actions until his death in 2020 at the age of 98.
Early life
thumb|upright=1.1|Blake with his mother upon his return to the UK in 1953
George Blake was born George Behar in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1922. He was the son of a Protestant Dutch mother, Catherine (née Beijderwellen), and Albert Behar, a Constantinople-born Sephardi Jew who was a naturalised British subject. He was named George after George V of the United Kingdom. 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 concealed his Jewish background until his death. 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, his father's sister Zephira, in Egypt,
While in Cairo, he was close to his cousin Henri Curiel, who was later to become a leader of the Communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation in Egypt. In 1991, Blake said that his encounter with Curiel, who was a decade older and already a Marxist, shaped his views in later life.
When the Second World War broke out, Behar was back in the Netherlands. In 1940, Germany invaded and quickly defeated the Dutch military. Behar was interned but released because he was only 17, and joined the Dutch resistance as a courier. In 1942, he escaped from the Netherlands and travelled to Britain via Spain and Gibraltar, reaching London in January 1943.
Espionage activities
After he reached Britain, Blake joined the Royal Navy as a sub-lieutenant before being recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1944. For the rest of the war, Blake was employed in the Dutch Section. He intended to marry an MI6 secretary, Iris Peake, but her family prevented the marriage because of Blake's Jewish background and the relationship ended.
He was posted thereafter to the British legation in Seoul, South Korea, under Vyvyan Holt, arriving on 6 November 1948. Under cover as a vice-consul, Blake's mission was to gather intelligence on Communist North Korea, Communist China, and the Soviet Far East.
The Korean War broke out on 25 June 1950, and Seoul was quickly captured by the advancing Korean People's Army of the North. After British forces joined the United Nations Command defending the South, Blake and the other British diplomats were taken prisoner. As the tide of the war turned, Blake and the others were taken north, first to Pyongyang and then to the Yalu River. After seeing the bombing of North Korea, and after reading the works of Karl Marx and others during his three-year detention, he became a communist.
At a secret meeting arranged with his guards, he volunteered to work for the Soviet Union's spy service, the MGB. In an interview, Blake was once asked: "Is there one incident that triggered your decision to effectively change sides?" Blake responded,