Espionage in Popular Culture

1. Espionage in Popular Culture U3A

2. Published in the mid-1920s and probably the first of the modern type of espionage agent novels When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries and a celebrated writer, Maugham had the perfect cover, and the assignment appealed to his love of romance, and of the ridiculous. The stories collected in Ashenden are rooted in Maugham's own experiences as an agent, reflecting the ruthlessness and brutality of espionage, its intrigue and treachery, as well as its absurdity.

3. Reilly-Ace of Spies Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the British. Among his exploits, in the early 20th century, were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of the Bolsheviks in 1918. His reputation with women was as legendary as his genius for espionage. The mini series was written by Troy Kennedy Martin, and based on the 1967 book Ace of Spies by Robin Bruce Lockhart, whose father R. H. Bruce Lockhart was one of Reilly's fellow spies.

4. Hill later described Reilly as "a dark, well-groomed, very foreign-looking man" who had "an amazing grasp of the actualities of the situation" and was "a man of action".[8] They agreed the coup would occur in the first week of September during a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars and the Moscow Soviet at the Bolshoi Theatre.[115] On 25 August, yet another meeting of Allied conspirators allegedly occurred at DeWitt C. Poole's American Consulate in Moscow.[97] By this time, the Allied conspirators had organized a broad network of agents and saboteurs throughout Soviet Russia whose overarching ambition was to disrupt the nation's food supplies.  Reilly deeply involved in a coup against Bolsheviks, 1918

5. Reilly disguised as member of Petrograd Cheka George Alexander HillMC[a] (1892–1968) was a British intelligence officer. Hill was the son of a timber merchant with business interests stretching from Siberia to Persia. He was born in Estonia and educated by French and German governesses. He had exceptional linguistic skills, and learned to speak six languages, including Russian. • In turn, the Soviets would be overthrown by a new government friendly to the Allied Powers which would renew hostilities against Kaiser Wilhelm II'sGerman Reich.[98] On August 28, Reilly informed Hill that he was immediately leaving Moscow for Petrograd where he would discuss final details related to the coup with Commander Francis Cromie at the British consulate.[116] That night, Reilly had no difficulty in traveling through picket lines between Moscow and Petrograd due to his identification as a member of the Petrograd Cheka and his possession of Cheka travel permits

6. Fanya Kaplan’s failed attempt As a member of the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), Kaplan viewed Lenin as a ‘traitor to the revolution’, when his Bolsheviks banned her party. On 30 August 1918, she approached Lenin as he was leaving a Moscow factory, and fired three shots, badly injuring him. Interrogated by the Cheka, she refused to name any accomplices, and was shot on 3 September. The Kaplan attempt and the MoiseiUritsky assassination provoked the Soviet government to reinstitute the death penalty after its abolition on October 28th, 1917.

7. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes Basil Zaharoff, GCB, GBE (Greek: Βασίλειος Zαχαρίας Ζαχάρωφ; October 6, 1849 – November 27, 1936), was a Greekarmsdealer and industrialist. One of the richest men in the world during his lifetime, Zaharoff was described as a "merchant of death" and "mystery man of Europe".[1][2] His success was forged through his cunning, often aggressive and sharp business tactics. These included the sale of arms to opposing sides in conflicts, sometimes delivering fake or faulty machinery.

8. Otto Katz (1895-1952) Otto Katz, also known as André Simone amongst other aliases, was born in Jistebnicesouth of Prague, Bohemia, on May 27, 1895. He was hanged on December 3, 1952, after he was convicted in the Slánský trial. He was one of the most influential agents of the Soviet Union under Stalin in Western intellectual and artistic circles during the 1930s and 1940s. Known for his many pseudonyms, his seductiveness, his cynicism and versatility, from ParistoHollywood from Mexico City to London, he participated in all the major Cominterndisinformation campaigns in the 1930s, under the leadership of Willi Münzenberg who he eventually usurped after spying on him for the NKVD, if the rumours were to be believed

9. Stalinist,assassin and bon viveur • He became an international spy unconditionally faithful to Stalin, and unlike some of the communist Jewish intellectuals who ran the Comintern at the time, he accepted the German-Soviet Pact and was entrusted with the implementation of secret policies by Stalin's politburo. He was strongly suspected, without conclusive evidence, of involvement as Ramon Mercader's handler in the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and in the supposed murder of Willi Münzenberg who was found hanged in a French forest. Various purges, liquidations and murders required by Stalin during the Spanish Civil War are also attributed to him.

10. Not just Klaus Fuchs!! The memo landed on Kim Philby's desk in Washington, DC, in July 1950. Three months later Bruno Pontecorvo, a physicist at Harwell, Britain's atomic energy lab, disappeared without a trace. When he resurfaced six years later, he was on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

11. An interesting biography Willi Münzenberg Review Encounter in 1924 'Spies should be glamorous - James Bond in a Savile Row suit rather than Harry Palmer in a grubby mac . . . In those terms, Otto Katz was perfect. He was a Hollywood playboy who hobnobbed with Fritz Lang, he inspired the character of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca, he was a drinking buddy of Bertolt Brecht and among his lovers he claimed Marlene Dietrich. He was even known to Nöel Coward' The Times Through a meeting in 1924 with Babette Gross, the sister of Margarete Buber-Neumann, Otto Katz met Willi Münzenberg, Babette's husband. Münzenberg saw Otto Katz's potential and included within his group the young dandy eager to serve the cause of the Soviet Union.

12. The Cambridge Spies • This is the story of Blunt, Burgess, Philby and Maclean, the most notorious double agents in British history. In 1934 at Cambridge University, they establish a spy ring fuelled by youthful idealism, passionately committed to social justice and to fighting fascism. The four become embroiled in obtaining and passing on vital information, betraying their country to fight the evils of fascism. Enigma secrets and atomic details are given to Russian contacts as the careers of the four take them from Guernica to Vienna, New York and Washington - and a final, desperate flight to Moscow.

13. One examples of resulting “Faction”  Churchill is visited by a young and unkempt BBC journalist who rebukes him for being defeatist. It proves to be a turning point. Churchill grows to like his young visitor, who rekindles his determination to fight on. What Churchill doesn't know is that the man from the BBC is also a leading Soviet spy. His name is Guy Burgess. Now Michael Dobbs, one of the country's most acclaimed novelists, throws brilliant fresh light upon Churchill's relationship with Burgess.

14. Plays by Alan Benett repeated on television • An Englishman Abroad (writer), 1983 A Question of Attribution (writer), 1991 • An Englishman Abroad is based on the true story of a chance meeting of an actress, Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring who worked for the Soviet Union whilst with MI6. • A Question of Attribution is based on Anthony Blunt's role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, personal art advisor to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by MI5 officers, his work researching and restoring art, and his relationship with the Queen.

15. Estoril-realistic Spy novel about Portugal during the War • The hotel's guests include spies, fallen kings, refugees from the Balkans, Nazis, American diplomats and stateless Jews. The Portuguese secret police broodingly observe the visitors, terrified that their country's neutrality will be compromised. The novel seamlessly fuses the stories of its invented characters with appearances by historical figures like the ex-King Carol of Romania, the great Polish pianist Jan Paderewski, the British agent Ian Fleming, the Russian chess grandmaster Alexander Alekhine and the French writer and flyer Antoine de St Exupery,

16. Lt Col.ORESTE PINTO-Spycatcher from the Netherlands • During the Second World War, Pinto was an MI5 interrogator.[1] He interviewed over 30,000 immigrants to the UK at the euphemistically named "London Reception Centre" in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building in Wandsworth.[2][3] • In 1952, Pinto published two books, Spy-catcher and Friend or Foe?  These formed the basis of the 1959-1961 BBC television series Spycatcher, and also an earlier BBC Radio series, in both of which he was portrayed by Bernard Archard. • Dwight Eisenhower once described Pinto as "the greatest living authority on security"

17. Thoughts on espionage and literature/culture There are clear reasons why this area is an opportunity for drama including- complex plots, foreign scenarios, historical interest, commitment to ideologies,disguise, personal loyalties and personal psychology. Not to mention money and sex. There is much secrecy about so-called “spooks” so there is an opportunity to speculate as to the acts and motivations of agencies. The literary zeitgeist encourages the use of “counterfactuals” and “empathy” and “imagination” to understand conflicts and dilemmas of individuals. It is quite possible that factors such as economy, trade and geographical situation may not be easily treated with verisimilitude. Much intelligence in practice relates to these matters.

18. James Angleton, chief of counterintelligence at the CIA for twenty years, was not the ideal spy. The ideal spy is a mouse-coloured blur in the crowd, someone like George Smiley, described by his wife as ‘breathtakingly ordinary’. There was nothing ordinary about Angleton. Once experienced, his history, his appearance, his manner, and his stubborn refusal to be clear were all indelible. I spent an afternoon with him once in the old Army and Navy Club in Washington. Everything about him held my attention, starting with his history as a counterintelligence officer in London during the Second World War, fresh out of Yale. But it was the man himself, sitting on the edge of an overstuffed club chair, pulling a Virginia Slim from a cigarette packet, that really left an impression. Review of The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton by Jefferson Morley

19. No man was ever more deliberate, from the way he lit and held that cigarette, and followed it with another, to the cock of his head and the play of his eyebrows and his wide mouth, which said much that he declined to put into words. But the thing I carried away at the end of two hours was the way his person, so focused and unhurried, and his style of thinking had fused over the previous thirty years.