Georgi Markov | |
|---|---|
| Георги Иванов Марков | |
 | |
| Born | (1929-03-01)1 March 1929 |
| Died | 11 September 1978(1978-09-11) (aged 49) Balham, London, England |
| Cause of death | Ricin poisoning |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, broadcaster, playwright,anti-communist dissident |
| Notable work | The Truth that Killed |
Georgi Ivanov Markov (Bulgarian:Георги Иванов Марков[ɡɛˈɔrɡiˈmarkov]; 1 March 1929 – 11 September 1978) was a Bulgarian dissident writer. He originally worked as a novelist, screenwriter and playwright in his native country, thePeople's Republic of Bulgaria, until his defection in 1969. After relocating to London, he worked as a broadcaster and journalist for theBBC World Service, theRadio Free Europe andWest Germany'sDeutsche Welle. Markov used such forums to conduct a campaign of sarcastic criticism against the incumbent Bulgarian-Soviet regime.[1]
Markov was assassinated on a London street via a micro-engineered pellet that might have containedricin.[2] Contemporary newspaper accounts reported that he had been stabbed in the leg with anumbrella delivering a poisoned pellet, wielded by someone associated with theBulgarian Secret Service.[3] Annabel Markov recalled her husband's view about the umbrella, telling the BBC'sPanorama programme, in April 1979, "He felt a jab in his thigh. He looked around and there was a man behind him who'd apologized and dropped an umbrella. I got the impression as he told the story that the jab hadn't been inflicted by the umbrella but that the man had dropped the umbrella as cover to hide his face."[4] It was reported after the fall of the Soviet Union that the SovietKGB had assisted the Bulgarian Secret Service.[5][6]
Georgi Markov was born on 1 March 1929, in Knyazhevo, aSofia neighbourhood. In 1946, he graduated from theGymnasium (high school) and began university studies in industrialchemistry. Initially, Markov worked as achemical engineer and a teacher in a technical school. At the age of 19, he became ill withtuberculosis which forced him to attend various hospitals. His first literary attempts occurred during that time. In 1957, a novel,The Night of Caesium, appeared. Soon another novel,The Ajax Winners (1959) and two collections of short stories (1961) were published. In 1962, Markov published the novelMen which won the annual award of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and he was subsequently accepted as a member of the Union, a prerequisite for a professional career inliterature. Georgi Markov started working at the Narodna Mladezh Publishing House. The story collectionsA Portrait of My Double (1966) andThe Women of Warsaw (1968) secured his place as one of the most talented young writers in Bulgaria. Markov also wrote a number of plays but most of them were never staged or were removed from theatre repertoire by the Communist censors:To Crawl Under the Rainbow,The Elevator,Assassination in the Cul-de-Sac,Stalinists andI Was Him. The novelThe Roof was halted in mid-printing since it described as a fact and in allegorical terms the collapse of the roof of the Lenin steel mill. Markov was one of the authors of the popular TV seriesEvery Kilometer (Всеки километър orAt Every Milestone) which created the character of the Second World War detective Velinsky and his nemesis the Resistance fighter Deyanov.
Although some of his works were banned, Georgi Markov had become a successful author. He was among the writers and poets thatTodor Zhivkov tried to co-opt and coerce into serving the regime with their works. During this period Markov had abohemian lifestyle, which was unknown to most Bulgarians.[7]
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Although not yet confirmed,[8] Markov's first published work was considered to be "The Whiskey Record Holder", which was issued in the newspaper "Narodna kultura."[9] There are at least three versions as to when he debuted as an author:[10]
In 1969, Markov left forBologna, Italy, where his brother lived. His initial idea was to wait until his status with the Bulgarian authorities improved, but he gradually changed his mind and decided to stay in the West, especially after September 1971 when the Bulgarian government refused to extend his passport. Markov moved to London, where he learned English and started working for theBulgarian section of theBBC World Service (1972). He tried to work for the film industry, hoping for help from Peter Uvaliev, but was unsuccessful. Later he also worked withDeutsche Welle andRadio Free Europe. In 1972, Markov's membership in the Union of Bulgarian Writers was suspended and he was sentencedin absentia to six years and six months in prison for his defection.
His works were withdrawn fromlibraries andbookshops and his name was not mentioned by the official Bulgarian media until 1989. The Bulgarian Secret Service opened a file on Markov under the code name "Wanderer." In 1974, his playTo Crawl Under the Rainbow was staged in London, while in Edinburgh the playArchangel Michael, written in English, won first prize. The novelThe Right Honourable Chimpanzee, co-written with David Phillips, was published after his death. In 1975, Markov marriedAnnabel Dilke. The couple had a daughter, Alexandra-Raina, born a year later.
Between 1975 and 1978, Markov worked on hisIn Absentia Reports, an analysis of life inCommunist Bulgaria. They were broadcast weekly onRadio Free Europe. Their criticism of the Communist government and of the Party leaderTodor Zhivkov made Markov, even more, an enemy of the regime.
Today, we Bulgarians present a fine example of what it is to exist under a lid which we cannot lift and which we no longer believe someone else can lift... And the unending slogan which millions of loudspeakers blare out is that everyone is fighting for the happiness of others. Every word spoken under the lid constantly changes its meaning. Lies and truths swap their values with the frequency of an alternating current...We have seen how personality vanishes, how individuality is destroyed, how the spiritual life of a whole people is corrupted to turn them into a listless flock of sheep. We have seen so many of those demonstrations which humiliate human dignity, where normal people are expected to applaud some paltry mediocrity who has proclaimed himself a demi-god and condescendingly waves to them from the heights of his police inviolability...[15]
— Georgi Markov describing life under anauthoritarian regime inThe Truth that Killed
In 1978, Markov was killed in London (see below), allegedly by an operative connected to theKGB and the Bulgarian secret police under Zhivkov. HisIn Absentia Reports were published in Bulgaria in 1990, after the end of the Communist government.
In 2000, Markov was posthumously awarded theOrder of Stara Planina, Bulgaria's most prestigious honour, for his "significant contribution to the Bulgarian literature, drama and non-fiction and for his exceptional civic position and confrontation to the Communist regime."
On 7 September 1978, Markov walked acrossWaterloo Bridge spanning theRiver Thames and waited to take a bus to his job at theBBC. While at the bus stop, he reported feeling a slight sharp pain, as if from an insect bite or sting, on the back of his right thigh. He reportedly saw a man picking up an umbrella off the ground behind him.[16]
When he arrived at work at the BBC World Service offices, he noticed a small redpimple had formed at the site of the sting he had felt earlier and the pain had not lessened or stopped. He told at least one of his colleagues at the BBC, Theo Lirkov, about this incident.[17] That evening, he developed a fever and was admitted to St James' Hospital inBalham, where he died four days later, on 11 September 1978, at the age of 49. His grave is in a small churchyard at theChurch of St Candida and Holy Cross inWhitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset.[citation needed]
Bernard Riley, the physician treating Markov, considered many possible causes of his illness, including that he had been bitten by a venomous tropical snake. Riley had the inflamed area at the back of his leg x-rayed, but no foreign object was detected at this time.[18] Due to the circumstances and statements Markov made to doctors expressing the suspicion that he had been poisoned, theMetropolitan Police ordered a thoroughpost-mortem of his body. Rufus Crompton performed it, noting a red mark on the back of Markov's leg. He cut a tissue sample from the area, with a matching sample from the other leg. These samples were sent for further analysis at thePorton Down chemical and biological weapons laboratory. There, David Gall, the Research Medical Officer, found a tiny pellet in the tissue sample.[2]
The pellet measured 1.70 millimetres (0.067 in) in diameter and was composed of 90%platinum and 10%iridium. It had two holes with diameters of 0.35 mm (0.014 in) drilled through it, producing an X-shaped cavity. Further examination by experts from Porton Down could not detect any remnant of poison. Considering possible poisons, scientists hypothesised that the pellet might have containedricin.[2]
Porton Down scientists also thought that a sugary substance had been used to coat the tiny holes, creating a bubble that trapped the poison inside the cavities, with a specially crafted coating designed to melt at 37 °C (99 °F):human body temperature. After the pellet was inside Markov, the coating might have melted and the poison released to be absorbed into the bloodstream and killed him.[2]
Regardless of whether the doctors treating Markov had known that the poison might have been ricin, the result would have been the same, as noantidote exists for ricin.[19]
Ten days before the assassination, an attempt was made to kill another Bulgarian defector, Vladimir Kostov, in the same manner as Markov, in aParis Métro station.[20]
KGB defectorOleg Kalugin alleged that the Bulgarian Secret Service arranged the murder with help from the Soviet KGB. Nobody has been charged with Markov's murder, largely because most documents relating to it are unavailable, probably destroyed. Kalugin said that Markov had been killed using an umbrella gun.[5]
The Sunday Times reported that the prime suspect was an Italian,Francesco Gullino or Giullino, who was last known to be living in Denmark.[21] A British documentary,The Umbrella Assassin (2006), interviewed people associated with the case in Bulgaria, Britain, Denmark and America, and revealed that Gullino was alive and well, and still travelling freely throughout Europe. There were reports in June 2008 that Scotland Yard had renewed its interest in the case. Detectives were sent to Bulgaria and requests were made to interview relevant individuals.[22] Gullino died in Austria in August 2021.[23]
Markov's assassination is mentioned in John D. MacDonald's 1979 novelThe Green Ripper when a character is murdered.
The incident is the subject of the song "Wet Job" byFingerprintz from their 1979 albumThe Very Dab.
The idea of a poison-injecting umbrella was used in the Hindi filmRaazi and the French comedyThe Umbrella Coup (O.T. "Le coup du parapluie").
Markov's assassination is mentioned in season two, episode seven ofCSI: Crime Scene Investigation, by a character as he describes people poisoned with ricin to Gil Grissom.
The Markov assassination is the subject of a test in the first season of the showMythbusters.Adam Savage andJamie Hyneman test if the assassination could be feasible using an umbrella gun. After testing the duo confirm that an umbrella gun could be used in an assassination in this way.[24]
Markov's assassination is also mentioned in theneo-Western crime drama seriesBreaking Bad, season two, episode one, "Seven Thirty-Seven" asWalter andJesse think of plans to killTuco Salamanca.
In August 2018 the case was the subject of theBBC Radio 4 programmeThe Reunion.[25]
Markov's assassination is used as the basis for an assassination story in the US drama seriesNCIS, season seven, episode twenty-one, "Obsession". The character, Lt Hutton, is working on a classified program at the Naval Info-Ops Centre (NIOC) and is discovered to have been murdered using the same method as Markov, leading to a Soviet KGB plotline.
The assassination served as inspiration for a similar poisoning by KGB agents utilising an umbrella, in theperiodspy dramaThe Americans, in the second episode of the first season,The Clock.
Markov's assassination is also mentioned in season two, episode one fromSlow Horses, where River Cartwright and Shirley Dander point to the possibility of the same technique being used to murder a former MI6 agent, who was following a former KGB agent, possibly "Cicada". Then River finds out that some poison was inserted into the arm, through a similar but different method.
A replica of the umbrella used to assassinate Markov is on display at theInternational Spy Museum in Washington, DC., US[26]
Time Shelter, theInternational Booker Prize 2023 byGeorgi Gospodinov, (translated by Angela Rodel), mentions Markov's assassination.
On 11 May 2012, a German man died almost a year after having been stabbed with an umbrella in the city ofHanover. German police – who noted a resemblance to the Markov case – analyzed the syringe which the victim had managed to take from the perpetrator, and founddimethylmercury;[27] the reported cause of death wasmercury poisoning.[28][29][30]
In 2016, police inChennai, India solved three separate murders when the four killers confessed to having used an umbrella tipped with apotassium cyanide-filled syringe. They had ridden past the victims on a bike and jabbed them in the thigh.[31][32]
