Melita Norwood

Melita Norwood
Norwood in later life
Born
Melita Stedman Sirnis

(1912-03-25)25 March 1912
Bournemouth, England
Died2 June 2005(2005-06-02) (aged 93)
Wolverhampton, England
Other names"Letty"
Occupation(s)Personal assistant, spy
Political partyIndependent Labour Party (until mid-1930s)
Communist Party of Great Britain (from mid-1930s)
Spouse
Hilary Nussbaum
​
​
(m. 1935; died 1986)​
Children1
AwardsOrder of the Red Banner of Labour (1958)
Espionage activity
AllegianceSoviet Union Soviet Union
Service years1937–1972[1]
CodenameHola

Melita Stedman Norwood (née Sirnis Latvian: [zirnis]; 25 March 1912 – 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy.

Born to a British mother and Latvian father, Norwood is most famous for supplying the Soviet Union with state secrets concerning the development of atomic weapons from her job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, where she worked for 40 years.[1][2] Despite the high strategic value of the information she passed to the Soviets, she refused to accept any financial rewards for her work. She rejected the Soviets' offer of a pension,[2][3] and argued that her disclosures of classified work helped to avoid the possibility of a third world war involving the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union.[1][4][5]

In The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. in Europe and the West, co-authored by Christopher Andrew, she is described as "both the most important British female agent in KGB history and the longest serving of all Soviet spies in Britain."[6] She is also described by the Communist Party of Britain as "a real heroine" and "a consistent fighter in defence of peace and socialism."[2][4] She was also widely known as a life-long supporter of the Morning Star newspaper, and its predecessor the Daily Worker.[7]

In popular culture she is most known for her depiction in the 2018 spy drama Red Joan, whose protagonist was loosely inspired by Norwood's life.[8][9][10]

  1. ^ a b c "Grandmother: I was right to spy". BBC News. 20 September 1999. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  2. ^ a b c Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Co-operative Limited. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference SpartacusMN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Co-operative Limited. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hoge was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Andrew, Christopher; Mitrokhin, Vasili (2015) [1999]. The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. London: Penguin. p. 154. ISBN 9780141966465. (Originally published by Allen Lane, The Penguin Press)
  7. ^ Meddick, Simon; Payne, Liz; Katz, Phil (2020). Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism. UK: Manifesto Press Co-operative Limited. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-1-907464-45-4.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference hollywoodreporter.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference screendaily.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).