Great Spies of the 20th Century

‘client' visited, another man would coincidentally be present This man was, of course, a British agent. Now the real work could begin. Before winning his confidence and friendship, the Russian had to be assessed: what were his like and dislikes? What were his vices? These questions had to be answered before he could become an agent for the British.

Unfortunately, this ingenious system did not always produced the desired results. Indeed, the Soviets kept a close eye on the operation, even if they did not fully understand what was going on, meaning that the British strategy was a semi-failure. They did believe they had had one success story when they recruited a rather pretty young Russian woman. Sadly, it turned out that this ‘Russian' was in fact working for the CIA and had been trying to uncover the secrets of this clandestine shop! There was clearly a rivalry even amongst the western allies and their intelligence services.

The story of the ‘spy shop' was short-lived. But the quest for information continued, leading to the spectacular appearance of a quite exceptional character: George Blake. A British spy who had spent years working for Moscow and who was probably one of the most important spies of his generation, and who perhaps caused the most damage to the western powers.

George Blake had had an amazing and for the most part uneventful life. He was born in the Netherlands in the early 1920s to a Dutch mother and his father,Albert Behar, had himself led a fairly adventurous life. The son of a wealthy Jewish merchant from Cairo, Behar was a naturalised British subject and had served in the Foreign Legion and the British Army during the First World War. After being wounded and decorated several times, he settled in the Netherlands after the war, where he would meet is future wife. They had three children together before Behar died in Rotterdam in 1936 at the age of forty-five.

With little money, Blake's mother decided to entrust her son's upbringing to his father's family, who still lived in Egypt. The future spy was taken in by an aunt who was married to a wealthy banker by the name of Curiel.³¹ This was the father of Henri Curiel, a revolutionary leader who was murdered in France in 1978. It had been falsely claimed that Curiel was a KGB agent, and a huge press campaign had been built up against him before his death. What is true is that Curiel was the founder of the Egyptian Communist Party. It is therefore tempting to suggest that Blake had been recruited by his cousin, the KGB agent. However, he was only fourteen at the time they met; a rather tender age to become a spy. Blake only spent a total of two years in Egypt and the rest of his story proves that he did not need Curiel to help him become a double agent.

Georges Suffert, the journalist who led the press campaign accusing Curiel of being a KGB agent, published a long article on Blake in Le Point magazine, in 1977. He declared that the young Blake was fascinated by his cousin during his stay in Egypt and they would forever after be rivals. He also remarked that Blake's relationship with his cousin was curiously never referred to in his folder held by the British authorities.

Georges Suffert:

³²

Henri Curiel is the missing piece in the puzzle of George Blake’s betrayal. He is the

key to one of the most formidable cons in the history of intelligence and an enigma

that still exists today. Were George Blake in Moscow and Henri Curiel in Paris always connected? Were they always working together to ‘penetrate’marginal terrorists groups in the western world? Perhaps it is no coincidence that George Blake was helped to escape by the IRA terrorist Sean Bourke, while Henri Curiel was busying himself with subterfuge in Ireland. It is a bitter paradox all the same: ultimately, it was the man who at fourteen had played the fascinated disciple, who now acted as the case agent. While the former leader [Curiel], now had to be told what to do.The unconventional Blake was in Moscow: living peacefully and being honoured and decorated. He could walk openly in the streets, while Henri Curiel had to remain in the shadows.

When the Second World War broke out, Blake was on holiday with his mother in the Netherlands. As a British subject he was interned by the occupying forces for several weeks. Upon his release he wasted no time and joined the Resistance. This was a brave move considering he was only eighteen and half-Jewish and meant that he was taking far greater risks than some of his other comrades.

Blake travelled through France working with the Resistance and managed to cross the Pyrenees before being arrested by the Spanish police. After many misadventures, he finally managed to reach England. Here he had to undergo various interrogations and fill out a variety of forms before eventually starting officer training with the Navy. Upon becoming an officer, Blake expressed a wish to join the intelligence service, presumably because he wanted to act as a liaison between London and the Dutch resistance. After going though intense paratrooper training, Blake was admitted to MI6. However, he would not get to realise his dream of jumping into Holland, as by the time he finally arrived in his native country to help install an antenna for the secret service, the Netherlands had already been liberated.

After the Allied victory, Blake continued his role in the intelligence service and was sent to occupied Germany. Here he was responsible for setting up an intelligence network designed to spy on Soviets in East Germany. As an MI6 officer, he was required to take Russian lessons at Cambridge, a city that had definitely played a major role in the history of espionage, since its prestigious campus had witnessed the recruitments of Philby and many others.³³

George Blake

³⁴

I consider the time I spent at Cambridge as a turning point in my life, which opened