Marco Polo Bridge incident 20 years on, A spy’s KGB defector Vasili secrets Mitrokhin's notes made revealed public

Richard Norton-Taylor Valuable information Vasili Mitrokhin's handwritten notes which were part of the archives published recently. PHOTO: AP When the scruffy-looking KGB Codenamed Hola, Norwood (main security agency for the Sovi- “passed on a lot of valuable materi- intelligence analysts and some So- et Union) officer walked into the als for nuclear energy which he ac- viet defectors have warned that the British embassy in Riga, the Lat- cessed by removing them from her KGB seriously exaggerated the sig- vian capital, one of his first de- boss’s safe, photographing them nificance and number of its con- mands was that his unique cache of and then placing them back”, ac- tacts and operations to impress the files on Moscow’s foreign intelli- cording to her KGB file. She was Soviet leadership - and increase its gence operations he smuggled out awarded the order of the Red Ban- budget. of the Soviet Union must be ner and, “for many years of excel- Mitrokhin copied the files be- published. lent work”, a lifetime pension of tween 1972 and 1984 when he su- Twenty years later, Vasili Mi- pounds 20 a month. pervised the transfer of the KGB’s trokhin’s wish is beginning to An editor of the weekly, Tri- foreign intelligence archives from come true. On July 7, the first bune, codenamed Dan, is claimed the Lubyanka to its new headquar- batch of 2,000 closely typed pages during the 1960s to have published ters in Moscow. He smuggled out SINO-JAPANESE WAR TRIGGER A boy visits China's Anti-Japanese War of notes he made from the KGB articles “based on KGB propagan- his notes, typed them up in his museum at the Marco Polo Bridge in west Beijing, on the 77th archives was being opened to the da” and was paid pounds 200 as a dacha, and hid them under the anniversary of the incident, commemorated on July 7. PHOTO: AFP public. reward. The files describe how Guy floorboards. The documents, including more Burgess, of the notorious Cam- In 1992, he took the overnight Historical background than a hundred pages devoted to bridge Spy Ring, a ring who passed Archives Centre by Svetlana Lok- train to Riga dressed as what was KGB claims about its “agents, con- information to the Soviet Union hova, a colleague of Christopher described a street peddler, hiding a China was a divided country in the early 1930s with loyalties split between the trollers and cultivations” in Bri- during World War II, was “con- Andrew, the Cambridge historian sample of his documents under old national government under Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists under Mao Tse Tung. tain during the Cold War, have stantly under the influence of alco- who pioneered the study of intelli- clothes and sausages. He went first The Japanese, who always eyed China for its vast natural resources, seized this been made available, after vetting hol”, yet managed to provide the gence agencies and later appointed to the U.S. embassy but was put off opportunity to occupy the provinces of Manchuria. by British government weeders, at KGB with 389 documents in the official historian of MI5, the UK’s by the long visa queue there. the Churchill Archives Centre at first half of 1945, and a further 168 domestic counter intelligence and He then went to the UK embassy The Chinese responded to Japan’s occupation and a skirmish at the Marco Polo bridge Cambridge University. in 1949. security agency. where he was put in touch with a between the two forces – the very spot where the museum has come up - triggered They say that Melita Norwood, An appendix in the archives co- young member of the staff who the second Sino-Japanese war. Mitrokhin’s escape China suffered huge reverses in the war. The war, however, reached a stalemate in communist party member and sec- pied by Mitrokhin suggest that the asked him: “Would you like a cup of 1940. With US supporting China and imposing sanctions on Japan, the war took a retary of a British research associ- KGB claimed it had contacts with The FBI described the Mitrok- tea?”, before getting in touch with dramatic turn in the following years. Japan bombed Pearl Harbour following which the ation working on nuclear reactor 200 people in Britain. hin files as “the most complete and MI6. Mitrokhin died in Britain in U.S. joined WW II. After Japan’s defeat in 1945, their occupation of China also came to technology, was recruited in 1935. Mitrokhin’s files were translat- extensive intelligence ever re- 2004. — © Guardian Newspapers an end. ed for journalists at the Churchill ceived from any source”. However, Limited, 2014

OURO PRETO, BRAZIL: Removed from the bustling World Cup host city of Belo Horizonte lies a charming co- Visiting the birthplace of Football and the Football War lonial town that gave birth to Bra- zil’s independence. Kavya Ram Mohan The whole world is watching Ouro Preto, a UNESCO world Brazil’s independence the ongoing FIFA World Cup heritage site whose name means The Football War, which with great interest. The “Black Gold,” is a former mining took place in 1969 between thrilling finishes and village a two–hour drive away from Honduras and El Salvador, fabulous goals have been a the metropolis of Belo Horizonte. may have started off after a treat for onlookers. But Following a road that climbs series of football matches, would you believe that southeast through mist–shrouded but the conflict went much football could trigger a war hills and valleys, visitors approach- deeper. between two countries? ing Ouro Preto first see the red-riled roofs of its whitewashed colonial So it wasn’t really about began to regain control of its buildings before reaching the football? airspace. town’s cobblestoned streets and its No, it wasn’t. The Central The Organisation of 18th century Baroque church, a American countries of Hon- American States (OAS) tribute to the riches of gold and duras and El Salvador share WARS OF THE WORLD asked El Salvador to with- gems extracted for the country’s a border, and Honduras is draw its troops, but it re- former colonial masters. the bigger country, by area. government into passing a matches saw violence and fused to do so until the The tremendous wealth of the The colonial city of Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Founded But at the time, the popula- land reform law favouring rioting. Honduras government was town made it a cultural focal point at the end of the 17th century, Ouro Preto (meaning Black Gold) tion of El Salvador was near- them. Under it, land illegally The final match was won willing to make some provi- of the era. was originally called Vila Rica, or "Rich Village". PHOTO: AFP ly double that of its much occupied by immigrants was 3-2 by El Salvador on June sions for the immigrants. By the late 1700s, the fervour for larger neighbour. This re- taken back and given to 26, and on the same day the With the OAS increasing independence from Portugal was Ouro Preto became the execution April 21st date of his execution is sulted in thousands of Sal- Honduran nationals. This country dissolved all diplo- pressure, a ceasefire was ne- ripe in Ouro Preto. Demands for a site of one of the leaders of the up- honoured as a national holiday. vadorans crossing the was done irrespective of matic ties with Honduras, gotiated on July 18, and new 20–per cent tax by Portugal’s rising, a soldier named Joaquin A monument in the centre of Ou- border into Honduras. claims of ownership or im- saying that it was not doing came into effect on July 20. royals sparked a Boston Tea Party- Jose da Silva Xavier who today is ro Preto’s square marks the spot A lot of the land in Hondu- migration status. Thousands enough to protect the The troop withdrawal styled revolt in Brazil’s first upris- remembered by his nickname “Ti- where Tiradentes was hung. The ras was owned by large cor- of Salvadoran immigrants immigrants. took place in early August, ing for independence. radentes.” plaza also has Ouro Preto’s Conspir- porations, including the were expelled and tensions but it took over a decade for “They wanted a republic, because Known as the “Tooth-puller” be- acy Museum showcasing the wood- United Fruit Company between the two countries The fighting the peace process to be com- they considered the crown very op- cause he also worked as a dentist, en gallows that were used, as well as which owned nearly 10 per were on the rise. On July 14, the Salvadoran pleted. pressive, very abusive,” said David Tiradentes was hung, following a the execution order signed by Por- cent. These corporations air force launched air strikes The United Fruit Company is Fleischer, a political scientist at the three-year trial in Rio de Janeiro. tugal’s Queen Maria I. came together and formed The football connection against Honduras, catching associated with a term based University of Brasilia. “There was a His head was put on a stake in Ouro A shrine to Brazil’s first rebels is the Federación Nacional de While this was happening, it off-guard. One of the early on its influence in Central large tax for gold production.” Preto’s main square and other body located in a room of the Conspiracy Agricultores y Ganaderos de the two countries were also targets was an airport, which America. The term roughly Known as the “Inconfidencia,” or parts were displayed across Brazil. Museum, which also holds some of Honduras (FENAGH) i.e. locked in a football face-off, increased the reaction time. means ‘a small politically “conspiracy,” the 1789 revolt was Other conspirators escaped brutal their cremated remains. On the wall the National Federation of to qualify for the 1970 FIFA The army also advanced unstable state whose economy inspired by the revolutions in the deaths but were exiled to Portugal’s hangs the flag of Minas Gerais, the Farmers and Livestock- World Cup. Honduras won along the main roads con- is dominated by a single United States and France. But the former African colonies of Angola Brazilian state where Ouro Preto is Farmers of Honduras. the first encounter 1-0, but necting the two nations, and export’. plot fell apart after one of the con- and Mozambique. located, and the state motto is em- Send in your answersto FENAGH, which was not the Salvadorans hit back nine cities were seized. spirators betrayed the group to get Independence finally came to blazoned in Latin- “Libertas quae happy with the Salvadoran with a 3-0 win in the next Honduras struck back by [email protected] (Subject: UFC) with your name and details. out of paying a huge debt to Portu- Brazil in 1822 and Tiradentes be- sera tamen,” meaning “Freedom, immigrants, pressurised the match. The venues of both attacking a key airbase, and gal. came a national hero. Each year, the however late it might come.” AP

PEOPLE FROM THE PAST ditions of bards and Nazi ‘poster baby’ In raptures rhapsodes had in fact TIPU SULTAN passed on the great epic (NOVEMBER poems from one gener- turns out to be Jewish ation to another 20, 1750 – about through simple, but ef- fective methods. They JERUSALEM: A U.S. Jewish MAY 4, 1799) had made optimum use ● woman has presented the Tipu of the art of story telling Yad Vashem memorial to Sultan, also rhapsodes along with their flair for the Holocaust with a maga- known as music to lure the atten- zine cover of her as a baby the Tiger tion of ordinary people. that the Nazis had used as of Mysore Madhumitha. C successors of even ear- The virtues and quali- an Aryan poster child. was the lier oral traditional art- ties of rhapsodes can be The mother of Hessy ruler of Epics, fables or myth- ists known as 'bards'. best understood from Taft, born in Berlin in 1934 Mysore and ical stories- all seem to The bards, also known Plato's "Ion", in which of Jewish parents, took her the elder be more captivating as 'aoidoi', were typical Socrates confronts a baby at six months to a pro- son of when orally told to us story tellers, who cre- professional rhapsode. fessional photographer for a Hyder Ali, by our garrulous gran- ated stories or poems Rhapsodes who once portrait. a military commander in the kingdom of nies. Sometimes such on traditional epic sub- ruled the hearts of To their surprise, the Mysore. tales seem to lose their jects. The rhapsodes, many people, are in- photo turned up seven charm while we settle who were also known as deed a testimony to months later on the front down to 'read' them. oral epic poets, sung the man's artistic instincts ● page of weekly magazine The Kingdom of Mysore allied with the Rhapsodes are in a way, epics of various poets and aesthetic leanings. "Sonne ins Haus" (Sun in French to fight against the British in like our grannies. Rhap- like Homer, Hesoid and They also indicate that House) aimed at German southern India. This resulted in the four sodes were professional Archilochus, usually ac- Greek literature was families. Anglo-Mysore wars – the last in 1799 in performers of epic-po- companied by a musical their mellifluous voices produced primarily It had been entered into a which Tipu Sultan died defending his fort etry from ancient instrument like lyre. and performances as a with the intention of competition organised by in Srirangapatna in Mysore. Greece, who played an They were also accom- form of entertainment being orally performed Nazi propaganda minister important role in the panied by a staff (a for the public. Homer's and aurally savoured, Joseph Goebbels to find 'oral tradition' of Greek stick) known as "rhab- "Iliad" and "Odyssey" rather than being si- "the most beautiful German ● Tipu’s sword, used in his final battle, and literature. Rhapsodic dos" on which they used were widely performed lently read. Aryan baby". The front page of the original his ring were among the many artefacts performances originat- to lean during their per- by them. Taft and her family fled Nazi per- issue of the Nazi family taken by the British forces after his defeat ed during the 5th and formance. They were a (Madhumitha C. in- secution of the Jews in 1938 and she magazine shows baby Hessy and were housed in the British Museum in 4th century B.C. Oral tradition terned with The Hindu significant part of finally settled in the United States Taft as the ideal German London. Rhapsodes were the Greek culture, and used These quaint oral tra- in School) after World War II. AFP Aryan baby. PHOTO: AFP

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