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Malcolm Mackintosh | |
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| Born | (1921-12-25)25 December 1921 |
| Died | 20 November 2011(2011-11-20) (aged 89) |
John Malcolm Mackintosh,CMG, known asMalcolm Mackintosh, (25 December 1921 – 20 November 2011) was an intelligence analyst, civil servant, historian,Sovietologist, and author.[1]
Mackintosh's father was dean of theLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He attendedSt. Mary's School, Melrose,Mill Hill School andEdinburgh Academy.[1] At the outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939 he was a first year student atGlasgow University when he was called up for officer training. Posted initially toCairo, he was given parachute training inPalestine before being parachuted intoYugoslavia to joinTito's partisans as a member of theSpecial Operations Executive. In 1944 he was based inSofia, acting as liaison officer to the Soviet forces occupyingBulgaria, and as a member of theAllied Control Commission. While in Sofia he met his wife, Lena Grafova, daughter of aWhite Russian exile; the couple married in 1946.[2]
Returning to the UK in 1946, Mackintosh resumed his studies at Glasgow, graduating with a first class degree in History andRussian in 1948. For the next 12 years he worked as a programme organiser in theBBC Overseas Service's Bulgarian andAlbanian section. On graduating he had turned down the offer of a job with theForeign Office, but he was employed by them as an interpreter in 1955 and 1956, whenMarshal Bulganin andNikita Khrushchev visited Britain.[3]
In 1960 he joined theForeign Office as an intelligence analyst. In 1968 he was appointed to theCabinet Office as senior adviser on Soviet affairs. In 1973 he was a member of the delegation that visited the Soviet Union with foreign secretaryAlec Douglas-Home, being described by Soviet officials as afalsifier of history - a description for which he received an apology after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He retired in 1987, amongst his final achievements having been as one of the advisers who persuadedMargaret Thatcher that it would be possible to "do business with"Mikhail Gorbachev.
In retirement he continued to lecture and write, and took up a number of academic appointments, including atSt Andrew's University,King's College, London and theInternational Institute of Strategic Studies.
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