EPISODE · Nov 9, 2021 · 52 MIN
“The Happy Traitor” – A Conversation on George Blake with Biographer Simon Kuper
from SpyCast · host SpyCast
He was a Soviet agent who was “turned” by Karl Marx after reading Das Kapital – which led him to give up the important operations, a host of MI6 agents and a treasure trove of secret intelligence… George Blake was a courier in the Dutch resistance, an MI6 intelligence officer, a language student at Cambridge, a “Vice-Consul” in South Korea, a prisoner in North Korea, and a hero returning to Britain in 1953. He would escape from a British prison after getting caught and would live out the rest of his life as “The Happy Traitor” in Moscow before dying in 2020. What did author Simon Kuper think when he sat down to personally interview Blake before his death? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out. SpyCast listeners can win free copies of the book by entering here: https://bit.ly/3mW1YmL
What this episode covers
He was a Soviet agent who was “turned” by Karl Marx after reading Das Kapital – which led him to give up the important operations, a host of MI6 agents and a treasure trove of secret intelligence… George Blake was a courier in the Dutch resistance, an MI6 intelligence officer, a language student at Cambridge, a “Vice-Consul” in South Korea, a prisoner in North Korea, and a hero returning to Britain in 1953. He would escape from a British prison after getting caught and would live out the rest of his life as “The Happy Traitor” in Moscow before dying in 2020. What did author Simon Kuper think when he sat down to personally interview Blake before his death? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out. SpyCast listeners can win free copies of the book by entering here: https://bit.ly/3mW1YmL
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“The Happy Traitor” – A Conversation on George Blake with Biographer Simon Kuper
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