Historical records matching Anthony Blunt, British Traitor/Russian Spy
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About Anthony Blunt, British Traitor/Russian Spy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), was a British art historian exposed as a Soviet spy.
Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London. Known as Sir Anthony Blunt, KCVO between 1956 and 1979 (when he was stripped of his honours), he was exposed as a member of the Cambridge Five, a group of spies working for the Soviet Union from some time in the 1930s to at least the early 1950s.
Art historian, professor, writer, spy – the extraordinary story of Anthony Blunt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Z4lucQar0&ab_channel=TheBritishAc...
Blunt's vicar father was assigned to Paris with the British embassy chapel, and so moved his family to the French capital for several years during Blunt's childhood. The young Anthony became fluent in French, and experienced intensely the artistic culture closely available to him, stimulating an interest which lasted a lifetime and formed the basis for his later career.
He was educated at Marlborough College, where he joined the college's secret 'Society of Amici', in which he was a contemporary of Louis MacNeice (whose unfinished autobiography The Strings are False contains numerous references to Blunt), John Betjeman and Graham Shepard. He was remembered by historian John Edward Bowle, a year ahead of Blunt at Marlborough, as an intellectual prig, too preoccupied with the realm of ideas. He thought Blunt had too much ink in his veins and belonged to a world of rather prissy, cold-blooded, academic puritanism.
He won a scholarship in mathematics to Trinity College, Cambridge. At that time, scholars in Cambridge University were allowed to skip Part I of the Tripos and complete Part II in two years. However, they could not earn a degree in less than three years, hence Blunt spent four years at Trinity and switched to Modern Languages, eventually graduating in 1930 with a first class degree. He taught French at Cambridge and became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1932. His graduate research was in French art history and he travelled frequently to continental Europe in connection with his studies.
Like Guy Burgess, Blunt was known to be homosexual, which was a criminal activity at that time in Britain. Both were members of the Cambridge Apostles (also known as the Conversazione Society), a clandestine Cambridge discussion group of 12 undergraduates, mostly from Trinity and King's Colleges who considered themselves to be the brightest minds in the university. Many were homosexual and Marxist at that time. Amongst other members, also later accused of being part of the Cambridge spy ring, were the American Michael Whitney Straight and Victor Rothschild who later worked for MI5. Rothschild gave Blunt £100 to purchase Eliezar and Rebecca by Nicolas Poussin. The painting was sold by Blunt's executors in 1985 for £100,000 (totalling £192,500 with tax remission) and is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum
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О Anthony Blunt, British Traitor/Russian Spy (русский)
Энтони Фредерик Блант (англ. Anthony Frederick Blunt, 26 сентября 1907 года, Борнмут, Великобритания — 26 марта 1983 года, Лондон) — британский историк искусства и искусствовед, агент (источник) советской разведки (1937-51) (относится к «Кембриджской пятёрке»), в годы войны сотрудник контрразведки MI5 (1939-45). Через Бланта советское посольство заранее получало информацию обо всех акциях, направленных против посольских работников. Блант весьма успешно действовал по вскрытию дипломатической переписки правительств иностранных государств в изгнании. Несколько раз Блант сообщал ценнейшие сведения о стратегии вермахта в отношении России.
После войны связь Бланта с КГБ практически оборвалась. Он ушел из МИ-5 и стал в 1946 хранителем королевской картинной галереи, а в 1947 был назначен директором Института Култорда. Однако в 1979 году он тайно сознался, кем все это время являлся и премьер-министр Маргарет Тэтчер публично уволила его. А королева Елизавета II лишила Бланта рыцарского звания.
Специалист по творчеству Николя Пуссена, которому посвящён его главный труд, монография 1967 года. Профессор Лондонского университета, член Британской академии (1950)
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Anthony Blunt, British Traitor/Russian Spy's Timeline
| 1907 |
September 26, 1907
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Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK
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| 1983 |
March 26, 1983
Age 75
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Westminster, London, England, UK
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