Following the release in March by the National Records Office of two reconstituted government files concerning Arthur Ransome’s years in Russia, the BBC commissioned a documentary film which Griff Rhys Jones investigated whether Ransome was a British spy or a Bolshevik sympathiser during the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Griff Rhys Jones also tracked down the last surviving relative of Ransome’s second wife, Evgenia, in St Petersburg, and spent a day sailing one of Ransome’s boats, Coch-y-Bonddhu, on Windermere.
More Information:
- Secrets: The National Archives press release, and the actual documents
- Enigma: ‘Still an Enigma, Our Petrograd Correspondent’ – The Guardian’s David Pallister remains confused
- Examination: ‘Whose Side Was He On?’ asks Roland Chambers in the Guardian
- Fears: ‘MI5 Feared Ransome Was a Double Agent’ in the Daily Telegraph
- Interview: ‘Swallows, Amazons, Spies and Bolsheviks’ in the Yorkshire Post
- Preview: ‘Secretive Water’ in Yachting Monthly and a mention the Windermere Steamboats Museum’s newsletter
- Review: Arthur Ransome skeptic Sam Wollaston becomes an admirer, in the Guardian
- Comments: Discussion thread on TARBoard
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