TO THE CENTENNIUM OF GEORGE BLAKE (Georgy Ivanovich Bekhter)

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On November 11, 2022 Georgy Ivanovich Bekhter (George Blake), Senior Researcher of the Center for International Security at IMEMO, would have turned 100 years old. He left us on December 26, 2020, after a long life full of heroic and dramatic events, associated with active participation in the World War II and then work in British and, since 1951, Soviet intelligence.

Georgy came to the Institute in September 1974 on the recommendation of his friend, Dr. of Science (History) Donald Macleane, one of the most authoritative experts on England and the political problems of Western Europe. The order on his enrollment was signed by Yevgeny Primakov, then First Deputy Director of IMEMO. Subsequently, Yevgeny and Georgy were connected by decades of friendly relations. Academician Primakov was also present at the celebration of Georgy's 90th birthday, which was organized by IMEMO Directorate in November 2012.

Georgy spent almost half a century at IMEMO, where he established himself as a subtle and profound expert on Middle Eastern issues. He was free of the stereotypical, essentially propagandistic views typical of many Soviet experts on the Middle East. He considered the prolonged absence of diplomatic relations with Israel (since 1967) to be erroneous and even harmful to the interests of the USSR, which put our country in a less favorable position in the region compared to the United States, which had been successfully playing on two "boards" – Israeli and Arab.

In memos sent to the highest authorities since the 1980s, Georgy spoke about this and recommended normalizing relations with Tel Aviv, which happened in October 1991.

In the same way, Georgy believed that it was a fatal mistake to involve the USSR in the internal conflict in Afghanistan in 1979, having managed to largely foresee the negative consequences of this intervention for our country.

He worked for a decade and a half in the Department of International Relations (now the Department of International Political Problems), being engaged, in addition to the Middle East, in the study of the processes of West European political integration within the framework of the then then EEC.

Since the late 1980s, Georgy worked in the Department of International Security under the leadership of Academician Alexey Arbatov. As an author and scientific editor, he participated in the preparation of the Yearbook “Disarmament and Security”, published since 1988 (since 2015, this unique yearbook, initiated by Academician Alexey Arbatov, which has received wide recognition in the international expert community, has been published under the title “Security and Arms Control”). Georgy devoted a great deal of effort to working on the English version of this yearbook.

In the last ten or more years of his life Georgy became practically blind, but even then, with the help of his wife and his daughter-in-law, he tried to keep working. Until his last days, he did not lose his inherent optimism and interest in what was going on in our country and in the world.

At the Institute he was not only respected as an honored veteran and highly qualified international expert, but also loved for his good nature and sincere disposition towards his colleagues.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Georgy Ivanovich Bekhter, a memorial gravestone was erected in the Alley of Heroes at Troekurovsky Cemetery, where he was buried.


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