David Crook
| David Crook | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 August 1910 London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 1 November 2000 (aged 90) Beijing, China |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Author Spy Communist activist |
| Political party |
Communist Party of Great Britain Communist Party of China |
| Movement | Marxism |
| Spouse(s) | Isabel Brown |
| Children | 3 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Republican faction (Spanish Civil War) |
| Battles/wars | Spanish Civil War |
David Crook (14 August 1910 – 1 November 2000) was a British-born Communist ideologue, activist and spy, long resident in China. A committed Marxist from 1931, he joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), then was recruited by the KGB, the Soviet secret police, and was sent to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). There he met and married his wife, Isabel, a teacher and social activist. Following the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War, the couple stayed in China and taught English.
In 1959, the Crooks published Revolution in a Chinese Village, Ten Mile Inn and in 1966 came The First Years of Yangyi Commune. The British Sinologist Delia Davin wrote that through that "classic study" and other writings and talks, the Crooks "provided a positive picture of China to the outside world at a time when cold war simplifications were the norm." The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) called Revolution a "seminal work, which has been bringing the achievements and challenges of the Chinese agrarian revolution to life for English-speaking readers since 1959." Crook died at 90 after spending his last five decades in China, his political beliefs largely unshaken despite five years' imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76).
Crook was born in London in 1910.
After being wounded on his first day at the front in Spain, he was returned to a hospital in Madrid. While in Madrid, he was recruited by the KGB to spy on those whom the Stalinists called Trotskyites, a group which included George Orwell. Crook later expressed regret for his part in the deaths of innocent members of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). The KGB then sent him to China. There he taught English at Saint John's University, Shanghai to spy on a Trotskyite whose arguments in fact began to convince him. Crook proceeded to Chengdu where he was bombed by the Japanese and met his eventual wife, Isabel Brown, daughter of Canadian missionaries.Hitler's invasion of Russia in June 1941 ended this fling with Trotskyism. Upon his return to England, Crook re-joined the British Communist Party and the Royal Air Force, then married Isabel. During the war, he worked for British intelligence throughout Asia and contacted local communist movements.
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