The drama, danger and confusion of life in eastern Europe in the years up to and including the second World War is well reflected in the extraordinary experiences of John Murray who died on October 5th aged 92.
Born in Manchester, by the time he was 26 he had become a self-made millionaire as the owner of a Latvian tobacco factory, was then a spy in Moscow at the outbreak of war, before becoming one half of a remarkable cloak-and-dagger romance. He was the son of a Greek immigrant father and a mother of Irish extraction. At 16, he took up the offer of a family friend in Riga to become a clerk at his tobacco factory. Following a dispute over the ownership of the factory in 1931, John Murray took it over, built it up and within three years had become exceedingly rich. However, when the Latvian government nationalised the factory in 1937, he lost everything.
Undeterred, he started a successful import-export business in Finland. The Russian invasion of 1939 put a stop to this and he escaped to Norway, only to have to flee from there after the German occupation.
Back in Riga, now occupied by the Soviets, he was asked to join the British embassy in Moscow. But, before he could leave, the Russian secret police (NKVD) suspected there was more to his role and accused him of being a German spy. However, he was rescued by an envoy sent by the British ambassador, Sir Stafford Cripps.
It was in Moscow that this mild-mannered Englishman began a romance with a Russian spy called Nora Korzhenko. Blackmailed into becoming a mozhno - a "sex for secrets" spy - with the code name "Swallow", her first assignment was John Murray.
Luckily for him, Nora was an unsophisticated spy. Rejected by him at every turn, she finally broke down and blurted out her story. Faced with the responsibility of sending her back to the NKVD empty-handed, he decided to adopt a high-risk strategy. He agreed to meet Nora regularly for "Russian lessons", where they concocted stories for her to relate to the NKVD.
Nora's bosses discovered they were being duped and revoked her citizenship. In desperation, she reached out to John Murray. With loyalties now torn between his growing love for Nora and his role at the embassy, he was forced to make a near-impossible decision. He handed her the key to his flat at the British embassy. The Russians were furious. However, Sir Stafford Cripps gave Nora refugee status and she was permitted to stay. By now they were very much in love. But by 1941, the German army had almost reached Moscow. The British embassy was hastily evacuated and John Murray ordered to the Arctic base of Archangel, leaving Nora behind. On arrival, he was shocked to find that, as a security risk, he was to be sent back to England. In despair, he phoned Nora to share the news.
With faked American documents, she escaped from a besieged Moscow, evaded NKVD agents in a 700-mile chase, and reached Archangel - only to discover that John Murray's ship had already sailed. In fact, a raging blizzard had forced the ship to anchor a few miles up the coast. By now the temperature had dropped to 40C, yet Nora stumbled on through the night.
As in the best romances, John Murray just happened to be on deck and caught sight of a figure staggering towards the ship's jetty out of the snowy wastes. It was Nora. Once safely on board, he proposed.
But they still faced another hurdle: it was illegal for any Soviet citizen to leave the country and the captain was under strict orders to take John Murray to Britain. He decided their only chance was to send a telegram to Stalin in the wild hope that he would take pity on them. But even as the message was being sent, Nora was kidnapped by the NKVD.
No one is quite sure why Stalin read John Murray's telegram - even less why he responded. John Murray believed it was because they appealed to the dictator's ego. More likely they were used by Stalin as a bargaining tool, to support his claim to his Western allies that things in the Soviet Union were beginning to thaw.
Whatever the truth, John Murray and Nora were allowed to leave the country in the spring of 1942, and he returned to England with his young Russian bride.
The day after their departure, Stalin annulled the decree. Thus, Nora became the only Russian war-bride to escape the USSR during the second World War.
When they got back to England, life was not easy. John Murray was ostracised by the British establishment after his experiences in Russia, although he always claimed he never betrayed his country.
He started a business with a revolutionary new printing process that would enable newspapers to be printed in colour. It was an idea years ahead of its time, but with insufficient capital, the business collapsed. The effort and disappointment nearly broke him.
Nora, meanwhile, had become something of a celebrity, as a result of her book I Spied for Stalin (1950). Under the weight of John Murray's business failure and Nora's celebrity status they finally separated in 1958, and he brought up their three sons.
In 1978, after studying history as a mature student in Nottingham, he wrote his story, A Spy Called Swallow. He loved Nora to the end, and in the last weeks of her life they were reconciled.
Their extraordinary relationship lives on, and is now the subject of a planned feature film. To those who knew him, he will be remembered not just for his exploits but for his honesty, gentleness and courage.
John Murray is survived by two sons, Peter and Leeroy; a third son, John, predeceased him.
John Murray: born 1908; died, October 2000