Edward Crankshaw (3 January 1909 – 30 November 1984) was a British writer, author, translator and commentator; best known for his work on

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

affairs and the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

(Secret State Police) of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Biography

William Edward Crankshaw was born in the suburban town of Woodford, Essex (now

Woodford, London Woodford is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located north-east of Charing Cross. Woodford historically formed an ancient parish in the county of Essex. It contained a string of agrarian villages ...

), on 3 January 1909 to Arthur Edward Crankshaw (1876–1965) and Amy Beatrice Crankshaw (1879–1962). He had one sibling, a younger brother Geoffrey Crankshaw (1912–2009) a noted critic of English music. Edward Crankshaw was educated in the Nonconformist public school

Bishop's Stortford College Bishop's Stortford College is a private boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for more than 1,200 pupils aged 4–18, situated in a campus on the edge of the market town of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England. He started working as a journalist for a few months at ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''. In the 1930s he lived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria, teaching English and learning German. He witnessed Adolf Hitler's Austro-German union in 1938, and predicted the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

while living there. In 1940 Crankshaw was contacted by the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...

because of his knowledge of German. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served as a "Y" (

Signals Intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

) officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. From 1941 to 1943 he was assigned to the British Military Mission in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where he served initially as an Army "Y" specialist and later as the accredited representative of the British "Y" services, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Following a breakdown in "Y" cooperation with the

Soviet General Staff The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation () is the military staff of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the central organ of the military command of the Armed Forces Administration and oversees operational command of the arme ...

in December 1942, the British "Y" Board recalled Crankshaw to London in February 1943. In May he was assigned to

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

, where he served as a liaison officer on matters pertaining to Russia. From 1947 to 1968 he worked for the British

Sunday newspaper A Sunday newspaper is a current affairs publication issued on Sundays. In the United Kingdom, eleven Sunday-only weekly newspapers are distributed nationally. Many daily newspapers, traditionally publishing only from Monday to Saturday, now have Su ...

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', specialising in

affairs. He obtained a transcript of Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

's secret denunciation of Stalin in 1956, a newspaper sensation. While a junior reporter, Crankshaw had been summoned by

Guy Burgess Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection ...

of the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

to be criticised for being "too soft towards Russia"; after Burgess was unmasked as one of the

Cambridge Five The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the Cold War and was active from the 1930s until at least the early 1950s. None of the known members were e ...

spies (for the Soviet Union), and fled to

, Crankshaw met him there several times, though he did not report on Burgess for ''The Observer'', and ended up liking the spy. He wrote around forty books, mainly on Austrian and Russian subjects. Crankshaw died on 30 November 1984 in

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding N ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. He was 75 years old.

Works

Non-fiction

* ''

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

: Some Aspects of the Art of the Novel'' (1938; second edition 1976) * ''Vienna: The Image of a Culture in Decline'' (1938; reprinted in 1976) * ''Russia and Britain'' (1944) *
Russia and the Russians
' (1947) *
Russia by Daylight
'; US edition: ''Cracks in the Kremlin Wall'' (1951) * ''The Forsaken Idea: A Study of

Viscount Milner A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is so ...

'' (1952) * ''Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny'' (1956) *
Russia Without Stalin
' (1956) * ''Khrushchev's Russia'' (1959; revised 1962) * ''The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin'' (1963) * ''The Fall of the

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful Dynasty, dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout ...

'' (1964) * ''Khrushchev. A Biography''; US edition: ''Khrushchev. A Career'' (1966) * ''

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

'' (1969) * ''Khrushchev Remembers''; introduction, commentary & notes (1970) * ''The Habsburgs'' (1971) * ''

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

: The Making of a Novelist'' (1974) * ''The Shadow of the Winter Palace: The Drift to Revolution, 1825-1917'' (1976) * '' Bismarck'' (1981) * ''Putting Up With the Russians 1947-1984'' (1984)

Fiction

* ''Nina Lessing'' (1938) * ''What Glory?'' (1940) * ''The Creedy Case'' (1954)

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crankshaw, Edward 1909 births 1984 deaths British Army officers Military personnel from the London Borough of Redbridge British male journalists 20th-century British writers People from Woodford, London People educated at Bishop's Stortford College British Army personnel of World War II The Observer people Historians of Russia Bletchley Park people 20th-century British historians 20th-century British male writers