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![]() | A news item involving George Blake was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 27 December 2020. | ![]() |
TV Series Secrets of War: The cold war episode 5 Inside the KGB says at around 26 minutes in that he died in 1996. Judging from the article he did not and celebrated his 90th birthday in 2012. I suppose the documentary that interviewed him as well was wrong ?? Was his death faked / mis reported?
I removed this paragraph because, as written, I don't know what it means or why it's relevant to the rest of the article. Someone who understands should clarify the text and add this back to the article. mako ( talk• contribs) 17:53, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
huntley53 ( talk) 17:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
I have attempted to give the article some structure by introducing some headings. I have also rewritten some parts in order to give some clarity, and have removed several wrong assertions which could certainly not have been verified in any of the biographies:
I would like to add that the reference to Holland should be The Netherlands (Holland is not strictly a country)
The escape section is a word-for-word copy of the cited site: http://libcom.org/history/1966-the-blake-prison-escape. hodgetts 04:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
Should i write the escape section here or make a new article for it and just a brief summary in this article?-- Allie cabab ( talk) 14:30, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
Blake was a Soviet Illegal officer, sent by PGU to infiltrate British Intelligence. Konon Molody was his Illegal Resident. http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=10178FE5-3B51-4844-B295-B6E98FC3199F —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.112.136.226 ( talk) 15:15, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
When Mr Blake was in Prison just prior to his escape a 'Walkie Talkie' was smuggled to him to inform him of the plans for the escape. Eventually after being told to wait at the appointed place at the Prison Wall a rope was thrown over. He climbed up the rope and was over the other side when he fell a short distance to the ground. He had injured his ankle but still clambered into a waiting van to escape. After spending a short time in a safe house he was smuggled in a car via the Dover ferry to Europe. From Dover he was driven to East Germany. On his way to East Germany he played 'I Spy' with a child who was in the escape car. After passing through check points to drive to East Berlin, the car stopped at a side road and Mr Blake stepped out. As the car drove away the driver looked back and the last he saw of Mr Blake was him standing in the road, smiling and waving 'goodbye'. Asked why he helped Blake escape, one of the Desperadoes was so drunk during his interview by the Press he gave a slurred unintelligible reply. Another Desperado said he thought the sentence given to a good man was unjust. None of the escape team agreed with Mr Blakes crimes. Johnwrd ( talk) 23:59, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
I knew Sean Bourke after his return to Ireland and this is what he told me about the Escape Plan.
The escape was organised on the outside by Sean Bourke, an anarcharist from Limerick, Ireland. Bourke, a former inmate of Wormwood Scrubs, brought a fixed ladder and a rope ladder to the wall of the prison. Blake, on the inside, threw a pot of jam over the wall to tell Bourke where to place the ladder. Burke climbed the fixed ladder, dropped the rope ladder from the top of the wall and Blake climbed up over and away. A massive police hunt was started within minutes of the escape with black marias with blue lights flashing speeding along both directions of the Harrow Road. A television newsflash said that it was a highly planned KGB operation. Bourke and Blake spent the night at Burke's bedsit and the next day Burke went to the embassy of the U.S.S.R. in London to arrange their escape from the U.K. Eddie Punch ( talk) 14:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
Better still, what about his great escape from Death. According to the documentary program "Inside the KGB - Terror of the Soviet Union", George Blake is actually dead. According to the program he died in 1996 in Moscow. So who is right?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.8.158.131 ( talk) 19:47, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
I have removed this unreferenced section: "He went to his uncle and confidant, Henri Curiel, who recruited him for the KGB." He was recruited while in Korea. Marshall46 ( talk) 22:41, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
In the recent Tom Bowyer documentary on BBC Radio 4, much was made of Blake's early Christianity, his loss of faith and its replacement with Communism. This helps to explain his motivation and ought to be included in the article. Marshall46 ( talk) 22:55, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
I added an unreferenced section tag to the new paragraph on George Blake's escape becuase i think there are several things in it that are wrong or at least i have never heard of before, and i have read a bit about it, mainly reading Michael Randle and Pat Pottle's book. from the edit summary it looks like the informationwas got from an interview that the editor had with Sean Bourke surely this is not a good enough reference?
i would like to know why the tag was removed? was it wrong in wikipedia policy? thanks-- Allie Cabab ( talk) 19:54, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Reference 8: The paragraph near the end of the article that talks about a European Court of Human Rights ruling cites reference 8, but the BBC link contains no mention of that ruling, nor of the £5,000 compensation. Should reference 8 be moved to an earlier part of the paragraph? Also, can we find a reference to that ECHR ruling?
Reference 9: The Times article is behind a paywall. I think the Wikipedia policy is either not to link to paywall-protected websites, or else to mark it with a paywall warning. If that's the case, can somebody either replace the reference or make the necessary changes to the existing one?
Thanks 78.134.60.102 ( talk) 18:32, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
I could see no mention of his adopted Russian name, Georgi Ivanovitch. Was his father called Ivan, or John? 2.24.89.113 ( User:Frank Shailes) 13:29, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
A statement of Blake's current status was fact-tagged, so I have amended it to reflect reports of his 90th birthday. I don't think we need a running commentary on the fact that he is still living in Moscow. When he dies, it will be worldwide news, and obviously that hasn't happened yet, as is verifiable by a simple Google search.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 03:03, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
The article mentions that Blake divorced his wife after escaping to Moscow, but not that he ever got married in the first place. Are any other details known? 94.12.70.74 ( talk) 16:25, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
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Why does the top picture show him cleanshaven, when he has had a beard for most of his life?-- Jack Upland ( talk) 05:58, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
It is a prison photograph, one of two, the other showing him in right-facing profile. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ServeDotty ( talk • contribs) 15:59, 27 December 2020 (UTC)
In the interview cited, Blake says, "My father was a Spanish Jew who came from the Middle East or the Near East". In his book, No Other Choice (p 26), Blake says his father was "Jewish and born in Constantinople where his ancestors found refuge after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century". A Sephardi Jew in other words. Roger Hermiston, however, says Albert was born in Cairo (The Greatest Traitor, ch 1). It is possible that Blake didn't know his father's birthplace. It is certainly true that the Behar family was living in Egypt. We could call him a "Sephardi Jew" or a "Near Eastern Jew" or something like that, but calling him "Spanish" is misleading. He had probably never been to Spain.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 07:53, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
If someone can put their hands on a copy of Hermiston, can they double-check what he says about the number of agents betrayed? Having read the book, I think what we say in the article is wrong or misleading.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 17:43, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
The Quote: "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged." was not said by George Blake but rather Kim Philby to Murray Sale and published in the Sunday Times interview of Philby 17 December 1967. Citation 49 shows a video of Blake, but does not show any example of the quote. The quote is incorrectly attributed to Blake and should be removed from Blake's page.
/info/en/?search=Murray_Sayle Che Guevara and Kim Philby Philby told Sayle, "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged."[1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bidenmytime2024 ( talk • contribs) 00:11, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
So, where is the proof that the first photo's date is correct?
"Blake with his mother upon his return to the UK in 1953"
The text says he also returned in 1943 from, I think, the Netherlands. The photo is from a now deleted eBay auction, so not a reliable source. Interzone826 ( talk) 05:49, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
George Blake article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
![]() | This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | A news item involving George Blake was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 27 December 2020. | ![]() |
TV Series Secrets of War: The cold war episode 5 Inside the KGB says at around 26 minutes in that he died in 1996. Judging from the article he did not and celebrated his 90th birthday in 2012. I suppose the documentary that interviewed him as well was wrong ?? Was his death faked / mis reported?
I removed this paragraph because, as written, I don't know what it means or why it's relevant to the rest of the article. Someone who understands should clarify the text and add this back to the article. mako ( talk• contribs) 17:53, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
huntley53 ( talk) 17:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
I have attempted to give the article some structure by introducing some headings. I have also rewritten some parts in order to give some clarity, and have removed several wrong assertions which could certainly not have been verified in any of the biographies:
I would like to add that the reference to Holland should be The Netherlands (Holland is not strictly a country)
The escape section is a word-for-word copy of the cited site: http://libcom.org/history/1966-the-blake-prison-escape. hodgetts 04:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
Should i write the escape section here or make a new article for it and just a brief summary in this article?-- Allie cabab ( talk) 14:30, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
Blake was a Soviet Illegal officer, sent by PGU to infiltrate British Intelligence. Konon Molody was his Illegal Resident. http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=10178FE5-3B51-4844-B295-B6E98FC3199F —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.112.136.226 ( talk) 15:15, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
When Mr Blake was in Prison just prior to his escape a 'Walkie Talkie' was smuggled to him to inform him of the plans for the escape. Eventually after being told to wait at the appointed place at the Prison Wall a rope was thrown over. He climbed up the rope and was over the other side when he fell a short distance to the ground. He had injured his ankle but still clambered into a waiting van to escape. After spending a short time in a safe house he was smuggled in a car via the Dover ferry to Europe. From Dover he was driven to East Germany. On his way to East Germany he played 'I Spy' with a child who was in the escape car. After passing through check points to drive to East Berlin, the car stopped at a side road and Mr Blake stepped out. As the car drove away the driver looked back and the last he saw of Mr Blake was him standing in the road, smiling and waving 'goodbye'. Asked why he helped Blake escape, one of the Desperadoes was so drunk during his interview by the Press he gave a slurred unintelligible reply. Another Desperado said he thought the sentence given to a good man was unjust. None of the escape team agreed with Mr Blakes crimes. Johnwrd ( talk) 23:59, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
I knew Sean Bourke after his return to Ireland and this is what he told me about the Escape Plan.
The escape was organised on the outside by Sean Bourke, an anarcharist from Limerick, Ireland. Bourke, a former inmate of Wormwood Scrubs, brought a fixed ladder and a rope ladder to the wall of the prison. Blake, on the inside, threw a pot of jam over the wall to tell Bourke where to place the ladder. Burke climbed the fixed ladder, dropped the rope ladder from the top of the wall and Blake climbed up over and away. A massive police hunt was started within minutes of the escape with black marias with blue lights flashing speeding along both directions of the Harrow Road. A television newsflash said that it was a highly planned KGB operation. Bourke and Blake spent the night at Burke's bedsit and the next day Burke went to the embassy of the U.S.S.R. in London to arrange their escape from the U.K. Eddie Punch ( talk) 14:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
Better still, what about his great escape from Death. According to the documentary program "Inside the KGB - Terror of the Soviet Union", George Blake is actually dead. According to the program he died in 1996 in Moscow. So who is right?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.8.158.131 ( talk) 19:47, 29 March 2014 (UTC)
I have removed this unreferenced section: "He went to his uncle and confidant, Henri Curiel, who recruited him for the KGB." He was recruited while in Korea. Marshall46 ( talk) 22:41, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
In the recent Tom Bowyer documentary on BBC Radio 4, much was made of Blake's early Christianity, his loss of faith and its replacement with Communism. This helps to explain his motivation and ought to be included in the article. Marshall46 ( talk) 22:55, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
I added an unreferenced section tag to the new paragraph on George Blake's escape becuase i think there are several things in it that are wrong or at least i have never heard of before, and i have read a bit about it, mainly reading Michael Randle and Pat Pottle's book. from the edit summary it looks like the informationwas got from an interview that the editor had with Sean Bourke surely this is not a good enough reference?
i would like to know why the tag was removed? was it wrong in wikipedia policy? thanks-- Allie Cabab ( talk) 19:54, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
Reference 8: The paragraph near the end of the article that talks about a European Court of Human Rights ruling cites reference 8, but the BBC link contains no mention of that ruling, nor of the £5,000 compensation. Should reference 8 be moved to an earlier part of the paragraph? Also, can we find a reference to that ECHR ruling?
Reference 9: The Times article is behind a paywall. I think the Wikipedia policy is either not to link to paywall-protected websites, or else to mark it with a paywall warning. If that's the case, can somebody either replace the reference or make the necessary changes to the existing one?
Thanks 78.134.60.102 ( talk) 18:32, 7 November 2011 (UTC)
I could see no mention of his adopted Russian name, Georgi Ivanovitch. Was his father called Ivan, or John? 2.24.89.113 ( User:Frank Shailes) 13:29, 12 November 2012 (UTC)
A statement of Blake's current status was fact-tagged, so I have amended it to reflect reports of his 90th birthday. I don't think we need a running commentary on the fact that he is still living in Moscow. When he dies, it will be worldwide news, and obviously that hasn't happened yet, as is verifiable by a simple Google search.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 03:03, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
The article mentions that Blake divorced his wife after escaping to Moscow, but not that he ever got married in the first place. Are any other details known? 94.12.70.74 ( talk) 16:25, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on George Blake. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 14:41, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
Why does the top picture show him cleanshaven, when he has had a beard for most of his life?-- Jack Upland ( talk) 05:58, 30 December 2018 (UTC)
It is a prison photograph, one of two, the other showing him in right-facing profile. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ServeDotty ( talk • contribs) 15:59, 27 December 2020 (UTC)
In the interview cited, Blake says, "My father was a Spanish Jew who came from the Middle East or the Near East". In his book, No Other Choice (p 26), Blake says his father was "Jewish and born in Constantinople where his ancestors found refuge after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century". A Sephardi Jew in other words. Roger Hermiston, however, says Albert was born in Cairo (The Greatest Traitor, ch 1). It is possible that Blake didn't know his father's birthplace. It is certainly true that the Behar family was living in Egypt. We could call him a "Sephardi Jew" or a "Near Eastern Jew" or something like that, but calling him "Spanish" is misleading. He had probably never been to Spain.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 07:53, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
If someone can put their hands on a copy of Hermiston, can they double-check what he says about the number of agents betrayed? Having read the book, I think what we say in the article is wrong or misleading.-- Jack Upland ( talk) 17:43, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
The Quote: "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged." was not said by George Blake but rather Kim Philby to Murray Sale and published in the Sunday Times interview of Philby 17 December 1967. Citation 49 shows a video of Blake, but does not show any example of the quote. The quote is incorrectly attributed to Blake and should be removed from Blake's page.
/info/en/?search=Murray_Sayle Che Guevara and Kim Philby Philby told Sayle, "To betray, you must first belong. I never belonged."[1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bidenmytime2024 ( talk • contribs) 00:11, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
So, where is the proof that the first photo's date is correct?
"Blake with his mother upon his return to the UK in 1953"
The text says he also returned in 1943 from, I think, the Netherlands. The photo is from a now deleted eBay auction, so not a reliable source. Interzone826 ( talk) 05:49, 13 August 2023 (UTC)