what happened to guy who was tradedfor gary powers
Searching your family history can throw upwardly a few surprises. My Cracking Uncle Alexander Allikivi was born in Russia at a time of political and social unrest resulting in two revolutions, the abolition of the monarchy and the institution of the Soviet Marriage by the Bolsheviks. Take you ever wondered why some stubborn or bad-mannered people are chosen bolshy ? Was it Bolshy Alex ?
Little is known about the life of Allikivi. He lived in Southward Shields during the '20s until his expiry in 1933. I know he received 2 Mercantile Marine and British Medal ribbons by 1921, but what had he done before that ? When did he first get in in the UK and why did he leave Russia ?
Alexander Allikivi 1880-1933
In the search for some clues I read 'The Kremlin's Geordie Spy', a volume by Vin Arthey about father and son Heinrich and William Fisher. Heinrich was born in Russia in 1871 and William was born in 1903 in Newcastle. In 1921 the Fishers were in Moscow. The Spielberg picture show 'Span of Spies' starring Tom Hanks features what happened to William.
Reading Vin's book I came across this…'He (Heinrich Fischer) maintained all his political links. He remained a member of the Russian Socialist Autonomous Workers Party and in United kingdom politics aligned himself with the Social Democratic Federation members who seceded to found the British Socialist Party, working for the party south of the Tyne, in Due south Shields, rather than in Newcastle'.
Was Allikivi involved in politics ? Were other Russians attending the meetings in South Shields and would he be attracted to gatherings with people who spoke the same language every bit him ? He would expect forward to having conversations rather than using a few words or brusque phrases when meeting friends and family unit.
Vin Arthey photo by Andy Catlin.
I decided to contact Vin and asked him what was the inspiration behind writing 'The Kremlin's Geordie Spy' ? When I was freelancing in the '90s I was offered an Associate Producer role by Trevor Hearing who'd just had his series, 'Stranger Than Fiction' commissioned past Tyne Tees TV.
This was a serial of 6 half-hour dramas and drama documentaries covering truthful regional stories such as those of the Darlington MP who turned out to exist an international outlaw and leader of an obscure Chinese cult, and the Newcastle sale mart owner and television hypnotist who was jailed for swindling his female parent out of thousands of pounds, and the County Durham relief bank manager who correctly foretold that his depository financial institution would exist robbed and that he would exist killed during the robbery.
Some other story I researched was of Newcastle born William Fisher who turned out to exist a KGB spy, used the name Rudolf Abel and was jailed for espionage in the U.s. in 1957. V year later he was exchanged across Berlin'due south Glienicke Bridge for the American U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Fisher's birth in Newcastle had been ascertained past Newcastle Academy historian David Saunders, and I had a number of meetings with David during the pre-production phase.
Trevor Hearing and I were convinced that the story was worthy of a network production, but information technology was turned downward by BBC ii's Timewatch and Channel 4'south Secret History. However, I kept on researching and writing, because I was absolutely hooked by the story.
You lot run across, I could think when I was 12 twelvemonth old watching the news story on my family's beginning, rented, Boob tube, of the KGB spy Rudolf Abel, who was arrested, tried and jailed in New York in 1957. The Cold War was very existent to me equally a teenager in East Anglia.
My home was shut to a number of United States airbases, and in that location were regular sightings of USAF Sabre, Phantom and Voodoo jet fighters and fighter-bombers.
I remember well the shooting down over the Soviet Wedlock in May 1960 of Gary Powers high flying 'weather reconnaissance' aircraft, the 'U-2'. As one of our teachers put it the day the news broke, 'Clumsily high weather we're having these days,'.As well I was still at school when the famous substitution of Powers and Abel took identify.
You lot might imagine my excitement when I discovered that the Soviet spy at the centre of perhaps the greatest Common cold State of war drama, the man who featured so strikingly in my school years, was a British subject, Newcastle built-in, at that. I couldn't let the story go, and when I was approached by St Ermin's Press to write a book I jumped at the take chances.
St Ermin's published it as a hardback with the title Like Father Like Son: A Dynasty of Spies. Later, Biteback Publishing bought the paperback rights and repackaged it as The Kremlin's Geordie Spy: The Man They Swapped for Gary Powers.
When the Spielberg motion-picture show Span of Spies was released in 2015, Biteback reprinted with yet some other title, Abel: The True Story of the Spy They Traded for Gary Powers.
Did you exercise whatsoever readings or tour with the volume ? The book (or should I say books!) have been well received, although I accept to be realistic – Fisher was our enemy during the Cold War, a villain of the slice – a villain of the peace fifty-fifty!
Over the terminal dozen years I've given talks on the Fisher story in diverse places and at a range of venues in Newcastle, North Shields, South Shields, Middlesbrough, Edinburgh, Reading, and there has been great interest in the United States, where the books have been reviewed for the CIA'south 'Intelligence Officer'south Bookshelf'.
I visited the Usa for research and afterwards got to speak at the Brooklyn Historical Society and at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC.
What is your background Vin ? I was built-in, brought up and spent my early adult years in Ipswich, and although nigh of my life has at present been spent in the Due north of England and in Scotland, I nonetheless regard myself as an East Anglian.
I follow Ipswich Town football team through thick and thin – sparse at the moment every bit we've just been relegated to what I still call the Third Division, and our arch rivals Norwich City have only made it back to the Premiership.
I've had a dual career, in education and the media, education in schools and a college of educational activity then, when the nascence rate dropped and the colleges were closing and merging, I was at Newcastle Polytechnic where I taught drama and media studies.
While this was happening, I started freelance scripting and reviewing for BBC Radio Newcastle and Tyne Tees. In the early on '80s an opportunity arose to piece of work fulltime at Tyne Tees, so I took it. Researching and producing across the whole range of the station's output – current affairs, religious programmes, comedy, arts and features.
I went freelance again in the mid '90s, simply at the stop of the decade went back into university teaching and to heading upward the TV Product degrees at Teesside University. Now, I'm settled in Edinburgh and supplement my pension with income from writing and speaking.
What are you lot working on now ? I review books about espionage, the Cold State of war and Russian federation for newspapers 'The Scotsman' and 'Scotland on Sunday'. I've simply finished a piece of ghost writing – a privately deputed piece for a retired hydroelectric power engineer, and I'chiliad currently immigration my desk, and my head with a view to tackling a new book – yet nonfiction, but still under wraps.
To hear from Vin check this link to an interview with Spy historian Vince Houghton at Spycast
https://www.spymuseum.org/multimedia/spycast/episode/the-real-story-of-rudolph-abel-an-interview-with-vin-arthey/
Equally for my Slap-up Uncle from Russia, Alexander Allikivi, I am all the same searching for some answers.
Interview by Gary Alikivi July 2019
Source: https://garyalikivi.com/2019/07/30/russias-geordie-spy-with-author-vin-arthey/
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