George Blake

Early Life

George Blake was born in Rotterdam , Netherland en 1922 . When he was 13 , george was sent to live with relatives in Egypt , where he continued his education at the English School in Cairo . While in Cairo , he was close to his cousin Henri Curirel , who was later to become a prominent member of the Communist Party of Egypt . In 1991 Blake said that his encounter with Cureil , who was a decade older and already a communist , shaped his views in later life .

When He returned to England , he worked for the Special Operation Executive

Blake Said later that he switched sides during the Korean War after being greatly influenced by it . In answering the question in an interview , “ is there one incident , that triggered your decision to effectively change sides ? “ Blake responded “ it was the relentless bombing of Small Korean villages by enormous American flying fortresses . Women and children and old people , because the young men were in the army .

Espionage activities

For the duration of world war two , blake's work involved translating german documents captured by british agents ; and interrogating Germans captured in France following the D-Day landings . At the end of the war , he was posted to Himburg and put in charge of the interrogation of German U Boat captains . Following a crash-course in Russian he was recruited by MI6 in 1948 and was posted to the British Embassy in Seoul , the capital of the Republic of Korea . Blake had been given the task of trying to establish an agent network within Korea

Within Months of his arrival in Seoul , on 24 june 1950 , the city was captured by the advancing Noth Korean Army and Blake was taken prisoner by the communist forces , while he was the British legation . After capture by the North Koreans , and after reading the works of Karl Marx during his three-year detention , he became a Marxist . Following his release in 1953 , Blake returned in Great Britain as a hero . In