UK spied on author Doris Lessing, fearful of her Communist ‘fanaticism’
A 1952 memo from the MI6 foreign intelligence agency described her as “certainly pro-Communist, though it is doubtful she is a member of the party.”
Britain’s intelligence services kept tabs on Nobel winning author Doris Lessing during the 1950s, fearing that her communist sympathies had been “fanned almost to the point of fanaticism”, according to archived documents released Friday.
The country’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies amassed files on the author, detailing her visits to East Germany and Cold War Moscow at the invitation of the Union of Soviet Writers.
Lessing was a member of the Communist Party in the British colony of Rhodesia - modern-day Zimbabwe - where she grew up with her English parents.
The security services found no evidence that she joined the British wing of the party after moving to London in 1949, although she was actually a member between 1951 and 1956.
A 1952 memo from the MI6 foreign intelligence agency described her as “certainly pro-Communist, though it is doubtful she is a member of the party.”
“Her communist sympathies have been fanned almost to the point of fanaticism by her upbringing in Rhodesia,” it added.