Le molteplici vite di Victor

E' un mondo intero che se ne sta andando con gli uomini dalla vita complicata come quella di Victor Grayevsky, scomparso lo scorso 18 ottobre a 82 anni. E forse è megli così, vista la quantità di tragedie che hanno accompagnato, loro malgrado, certi personaggi. La biografia di Grayevsky avrebbe potuta essere scritta da John Le Carré, invece era tutto vero. Ebreo di Cracovia, fuga precipitosa nell'Unione Sovietica di Stalin prima di quella maledetta notte del 31 agosto, altra fuga in Kazakhstan. Poi il ritorno a Varsavia, la definitiva alyha in Israele. E qui Victor comincia a lavorare per la radio, prima per il canale dedicato agli immigrati polacchi, poi nella redazione internazionale. Il suo russo è ovviamente impeccabile, gli servirà per dirigere la sezione russa di Kol Israel (che tra parentesi sta chiudendo i battenti sulle onde corte). Ma anche per condurre una pericolosissima missione di "double agent": al KGB sembrava che Grayevsky, nato Spielman, spiasse per conto dei sovietici, ma gli israeliani sapevano che le informazioni vere passavano da oriente a occidente. Inclusa una copia del fatidico discorso revisionista pronunciato da Krushev dopo la morte del dittatore georgiano. Fino all'ultimo il servizio segreto di Mosca non aveva sospettato il doppio gioco di Victor, Quando Israele e URSS ruppero le relazioni diplomatiche e lui dovette partire, gli fu perfino conferita una onorificenza. "Te la teniamo in caldo per la prossima volta che verrai". Ma il nostro agente di Kraków non la ritirò mai.
Ieri il Daily Telegraph gli ha dedicato un necrologio, ma andatevi a leggere l'intervista a Grayevsky pubblicata da Haaretz l'anno scorso. Straordinaria.

Victor Grayevsky

Last Updated: 12:32am GMT 02/11/2007

Victor Grayevsky, who died on October 18 aged 82, was a Polish-Jewish journalist, and in 1956 managed to obtain an advance copy of Nikita Khrushchev's speech to the closed session of the Communist Party's 20th Congress; Grayevsky gave the document to the Israelis, who then passed the contents to the CIA. The 26,000-word speech, delivered on February 25 1956, denounced Stalin's regime of terror. Grayevsky had been able to obtain a copy with the help of his lover, Lucia Baranowski, wife of Poland's deputy prime minister.
He had come to see Lucia at the headquarters of the Communist Party, where she worked as secretary to Edward Ochab, the party leader. Grayevsky recalled: "I noticed a thick booklet with a red binding, with the words: 'The 20th Party Congress, the speech of Comrade Khrushchev' written on it." The booklet was one of the few top-secret copies sent from Moscow to leaders of the Eastern Bloc countries. Lucia allowed Grayevsky to remove the booklet for a couple of hours, and he took it to the Israeli embassy in Warsaw, where it was photocopied.
The document provided a unique insight into the workings of the Soviet leadership. It was also the first official Soviet admission of the horrors perpetrated under Stalin. At the time Grayevsky was not employed as a spy, and he was not paid for his action, which arose from his Zionist convictions.
He was born Victor Spielman in Cracow on July 29 1925. A week before Germany invaded Poland, the Spielman family fled eastwards to the Soviet Union, but were later exiled to Siberia and from there moved to Kazakhstan, where Victor graduated from high school. In 1946 he returned to Warsaw. After studying journalism at the Academy of Political Science, he worked for the Polish news agency PAP and joined the Communist Party. He also changed his surname to the Polish Grayevsky because he was advised that, as Spielman, "he wouldn't go far". In 1949 his parents and sister emigrated to Israel, but Victor remained in Poland, where he was appointed a senior editor responsible for the department dealing with the Soviet Union. In 1955, when his father fell seriously ill, Grayevsky travelled to Israel to visit him; it was on this trip that he became a Zionist, and two years later he emigrated to Israel.
He settled in Jerusalem and worked in the Eastern Europe division of the Foreign Ministry, and as director of Polish-language broadcasting for immigrants on Israel Radio. For many years after coming to Israel Grayevsky also worked as a double agent, posing as a Soviet spy but in fact serving the Israelis by feeding disinformation to Soviet intelligence officers. His Soviet handlers in Israel were KGB officers working under diplomatic cover or posing as clergy from the so-called Russian Orthodox Red Church in Israel.
His meetings with them took place in Russian churches in Jerusalem and in nearby forests. Before these meetings his Israeli handlers would often provide him with "authentic" documents to pass to the Russians. Grayevsky left the Foreign Ministry in 1961 and was appointed director of Russian-language radio broadcasts. Four years later he was made director of Israel Radio's overseas broadcasting department with responsibility for all languages. He remained in the post until 1999, continuing his work as a double agent.
In 1967 the Soviet Union cut off diplomatic relations with Israel. Shortly before its diplomats left the country, Grayevsky was summoned to a last meeting with his KGB handler, who told him: "You've done great work for the Soviet Union… we have decided to award you the Lenin Medal of Excellence. For obvious reasons, we cannot give it to you now, but it will be kept for you in Moscow." Needless to say, Grayevsky never collected it.

Victor Grayevsky was divorced and is survived by two children.
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Victor Grayevsky. 'It wasn't easy to lead a double life. I had a few moments of crisis. It was hard to lead a normal life while also leading a life in the shadows. I thought of quitting. But I always overcame my weakness and kept on.'

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/770906.html