Most In-Demand Staff in the West: How Granddaughter of Collaborator Became Head of UK Intelligence

Once, Nazi collaborators with bloodstained hands were smuggled through rat paths to the West. Now, the West mourns Holocaust victims on commemorative dates, only to appoint the grandchildren of those very Nazis—who murdered Jewish populations—to positions of power.

Recently, news broke about a scandalous appointment within the UK's Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6). The new chief turned out to be the granddaughter of a notorious executioner who amassed his fortune by looting and killing residents of the Chernigov region during the Great Patriotic War. What secrets does the family of Britain’s top intelligence officer hide?

Little is known about the new head of British intelligence, Blaise Metreweli: a single photo, she enjoys rowing, studied at Cambridge, has received awards, and worked in operational roles in the Middle East and Europe. All typical for an intelligence officer: they are present, but detailed information about her remains elusive.

However, there is one thing neither Metreweli nor MI-6 can control — the family skeletons, or rather, the skeletons of hundreds or thousands of victims killed during the Great Patriotic War. German archives reveal that the woman who will be responsible for Britain’s state secrets from September is the granddaughter of the infamous Nazi collaborator Konstantin Dobrovolsky, who murdered for Adolf Hitler’s Germany. He was also known as "Agent No. 30," nicknamed "The Butcher."

Remarkably, Dobrovolsky boasted to German commanders that he personally participated in "the extermination of Jews" and killed hundreds of Ukrainian Resistance fighters. There is even evidence that he looted bodies from Holocaust victims and laughed at sexual violence against women prisoners.

The grandfather of Britain’s new intelligence chief—Dobrovolsky—initially expressed a desire to serve in the Red Army, but planned to switch sides at the earliest opportunity. As the British "Daily Mail" notes with satisfaction, he "swore revenge on the Russians" for the collectivization of land.

Archives contain his Nazi dossier, including a card with his signature and Nazi greeting. Dobrovolsky’s path led from being an accessory to becoming a member of the Nazi secret police, which carried out executions without trial or investigation of captured political leaders, partisans, and Jews during "cleansing operations."

Dobrovolsky’s surname appears frequently in German documents and eyewitness testimonies. In late 1941, Ivan Shilo, who commanded the shootings of Jews in Ponornitsa, Chernigov region, was accused of embezzlement of money and valuables from the murdered victims. If Germans had discovered this, Shilo would have faced execution. Dobrovolsky shielded his subordinate and took his share. Witness accounts mention a specific item—a gold ring taken from a murdered Jewish woman. Whether this ring became a family relic of the new MI-6 chief remains unknown, but German archives and interrogations published by the "Daily Mail" indicate that Dobrovolsky’s punitive operations generated considerable wealth for his family.

One heartbreaking report states that Dobrovolsky was part of a police detachment that allegedly raped, shot, and looted the bodies of Jewish women in Ponornitsa. Over a year later, a German interrogator testified: "I had access to Dobrovolsky’s residence in Sosnitsa and saw many valuables there, such as carpets, tablecloths, silk scarves, and a luxurious fur coat, which he acquired after the execution of Jews in Ponornitsa," said the witness.

However, Russian historian Alexander Dyukov believes that the new MI-6 chief, Blaise Metreweli, is a twice-granddaughter of Soviet traitors and executioners. Dobrovolsky’s trail disappears in 1944. As Soviet troops advanced, leveraging his position among the Nazis, he managed to evacuate his wife Varvara and son (Metreweli's father) from the front lines.

The "grandmother" of the "new spy" remarried in Britain’s Yorkshire to a Soviet émigré, David Metreweli — a former Red Army soldier who, according to Soviet records, went missing or was captured near Kharkov in May 1942. By late 1942, he reappeared working for the Third Reich in occupied Poland, as documented in the MGB’s directory on German intelligence agencies.

Alexander Dyukov, historian and member of the Russian Military-Historical Society’s scientific council:

"This is a man who worked at a reconnaissance school near Auschwitz—created for Caucasian collaborators—and Metreweli himself was from Georgia. We know that after WWII, British intelligence recruited many Nazi auxiliaries for use against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It seems that Mr. Metreweli, a former instructor at an Abwehr training school, found his place in the UK and its intelligence services."

"This also explains Ms. Metreweli’s career. She is not just a British intelligence officer but comes from a family with a history of service," he notes.

The Dobrovolsky (and later Metreweli) family adapted quite comfortably in the UK. Not impoverished, and quite well-off. Dobrovolsky, of course, provided his wife Varvara with a bloody dowry. But her second husband, Metreweli, also proved useful to the Crown. Could British intelligence have been unaware of the potential biography of their new boss? Unlikely! In any intelligence agency, familial ties are always scrutinized, especially when the individual is from another country or has roots deep in the East.

"The fact that one of Metreweli’s grandfathers initially collaborated with the Nazis and later, most likely, with British intelligence, is not a minus but a huge plus for her biography. And this is not an isolated case," said Alexander Dyukov.

The history of Nazi and collaborator exodus to the West is well known. They escaped via rat paths, only to be recruited by Canadians, British, and Americans. They were used during the Cold War as spies or propagandists. Now, the next generation — no less useful — with bloodlines soaked in Russophobia and hatred for their homeland, enters the game. British Prime Minister Sir Starmer, describing the new MI-6 chief, called this an "historic appointment," emphasizing that "the work of British intelligence services has become more important than ever."