R.I.P Comrade George Blake. The last remaining Cold War double agent (that we know of.)

[tim]

It seems somehow appropriate that the death of John LeCarre should so quickly be followed by the last of those who made his reputation. Betrayal spurred by idealism topped of by capture, a classic prison break and a heroes welcome in the USSR, what more does a good spy yarn need?

George Blake: Soviet Cold War spy and former MI6 officer dies in Russia

Blake speaks (in Russian)



And in English

The latter includes a fairly recent interview and one he gave after being released from captivity in North Korea after the Korean War.

 

[JimW]

He was the one the Spies for Peace sprang? Remember a few dusty pamphlets on them.

 

[Spymaster]

Shame he wasn't caught and hanged.

Merry xmas.

 

[brogdale]

Shame he wasn't caught and hanged.

Merry xmas.

That's a Priti awful thing to say.

 

[Spymaster]

That's a Priti awful thing to say.

Tell that to the families of the hundreds of people he got killed.

 

[The39thStep]

Shame he wasn't caught and hanged.

Merry xmas.

He’d already been sentenced to 40 odd years but I suppose he could have had a few more for the escape.

 

[krtek a houby]

Tell that to the families of the hundreds of people he got killed.

Sounds like a top fella

 

[DotCommunist]

I read 'A Spy Among Friends' recently, all about philby mainly but everyone else appears in the telling. It tells how Blake was given the sentence whereas philbys was offered far better ways out of his situation because philby was one of the Establishment proper whereas blake was not. Even after all he'd sold out they still wanted to handle Kim like 'one of us'.

 

[ska invita]

1966: The Blake prison escape

A short history of the miraculous prison break of Soviet double-agent George Blake from a British jail, organised by two libertarian activists.

libcom.org

 

[Argonia]

What a life

 

[tim]

Tell that to the families of the hundreds of people he got killed.

He was supposedly given a year in Gaol for everyone who was executed as a result of his actions. However, it seems that that figure was, itself a bit of propaganda. The BBC documentary below claims that a trawl of the Stasi archive suggests that there was one probable execution and lots of long and unpleasant prison sentences.

Anyway, these agents were traitors too. Do you think the leniency of their sentences was an unforgivable example of the Stasi going soft?

 

[brogdale]

Spies spying; whatever next?

 

[Spymaster]

He was supposedly given a year in Gaol for everyone who was executed as a result of his actions.

Fuck him. Glad he's dead. I wasn't going to drink today but think I'll crack a bottle of Merlot on the strength of this.

 

[SpackleFrog]

Shame he wasn't caught and hanged.

Merry xmas.

You want everyone to be caught and hung.

 

[Spymaster]

You want everyone to be caught and hung.

Hanged.

 

[SpackleFrog]

Hanged.

Hung.

 

[nogojones]

hunged

 

[Spymaster]

Hung.

Dung

It's a common mistake though so not surprised to see you making it

 

[tufty79]

This is a Hanging argument

 

[tufty79]

Well dung all

(I'm not really sure what's going on on this thread any more, so I'm carving my own special path)

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Dung

It's a common mistake though so not surprised to see you making it

You want to get on to the Priti Patel thread, rumours there she’s investigating the death penalty for the glorious post-Brexit Britain...

 

[tufty79]

Well. That's Priti shitty, if true (and yeah I know that's probably bindun)

 

[Argonia]

well hung

 

[platinumsage]

Fled to Russia but ended up under Putin

 

[tim]

Hung.

In his heart of hearts Spymaster would prefer to see traitors hung drawn and quartered rather than a namby-pamby hanging. Slow methodical disembowelment is the only language that sort understand.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Fled to Russia but ended up under Putin

Was given a luxury apartment in Moscow and a dacha, plus loads of honours, Putin spoke very highly of him and he of Putin. KGB brethren business.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

In his heart of hearts Spymaster would prefer to see traitors hung drawn and quartered rather than a namby-pamby hanging. Slow methodical disembowelment is the only language that sort understand.

I only found out last week that castration was an integral part of hang-drawn-quartered punishments, happened just before the disembowelling, supposedly symbolic to demonstrate that you will not breed any more, or something.


edit: was cock and balls sliced off, not just the nads.

 

[Argonia]

What a wonderful job, lopping off some poor bastard's cock and balls. Wish such a job were still available, I'd apply faster than a shinkansen.

 

[platinumsage]

Was given a luxury apartment in Moscow and a dacha, plus loads of honours, Putin spoke very highly of him and he of Putin. KGB brethren business.

Sure but it must have been galling to know what his beloved socialist dictatorship has degenerated into.

 

[weltweit]

He was naive to think many of the spies he gave to the Soviet Union wouldn't be executed.

As I understand it, many were.