The Kremlin’s Geordie Spymaster

Wednesday 28 May 2025 7.30pm THERE IS NO NEED TO BOOK

Lots of people have seen Steven Spielberg’s 2015 blockbuster Bridge of Spies, but the film didn’t say much about where its central character came from or what he had been doing before his arrest in New York in 1957. Our May talk spells out Rudolf Abel’s family background, the eighteen years of his life that he spent growing up on Tyneside, what he did in Russia between arriving there in 1921 and leaving for America in 1949, what he achieved as a spy, how he spent the last years of his life when he was back in Russia, and why he is remembered with pride in Russia today.

Our speaker

David Saunders retired from Newcastle University as Professor of the History of the Russian Empire in 2017. His two main books are about Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but quite by chance he learned in 1983 that Rudolf Abel, the Soviet spy in Steven Spielberg’s film Bridge of Spies, was born to Russian immigrants in Newcastle in 1903. This talk will detail what he has learned about Abel since finding out where he came from.

Our Venue

This event will take place at St George’s United Reformed Church on Newton Road, High Heaton NE7 7HP. It is on the corner with Boundary Gardens, the same block as Heaton Stannington’s football ground, Grounsell Park.

There are excellent public transport links including the numbers 18, 38, 52 and 553, which stop right by the church.

There is car parking on the surrounding streets. 

Booking 

The event is free to Heaton History Group members and costs £2.50 for non-members. There’s no need to book. Just turn up on the night.