Jona von Ustinov

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Jona Baron von Ustinov (aka Klop Ustinov) (December 2, 1892-December 1, 1962), was the father of the actor Sir Peter Ustinov. He was a German diplomat and worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi-regime.

[edit] Life

Jona von Ustinov was born as Jonah Baron von Ustinov in Jaffa as son of a former Russian officer. He did not like his first name and chose the nickname "Klop" ("Bedbug" in Russian) by which he was going to be known to his friends and relatives for the rest of his life.

Ustinov went to school in Palestine, Germany (Düsseldorf) and Switzerland (Yverdon). He studied at Grenoble University in France and worked at Humboldt University of Berlin before moving to London. This gave him a very cosmopolitan attitude that made him adverse to any kind of nationalism.

Yet in World War I he had to join the German army and served as a fighter pilot in the air force. After the war he worked for "Wolff's Telegraphisches Bureau", the first German news agency, in Amsterdam.

On July 17, 1920 he married the painter Nadezhda Leontievna Benois (aka Nadia Benois) (1896-1975), daughter of Leon Benois and of an Ethiopian woman of royal ancestry. The Ustinovs returned to London where Klop was a press officer for the German Embassy. Their son Peter was born on April 16, 1921.

Due to his political opinions Ustinov got into problems with the new Nazi government almost immediately. In 1935 the conflict culminated when Ustinov refused to prove, that he wasn't of Jewish descent ("Ariernachweis"). As a result he lost his job and chose to become British citizen, thus avoiding internment or deportation later during the war.

During this time he began working for the British intelligence service MI5 (Peter Wright mentions in his book Spycatcher that Klop was possibly the spy known as U35) and hosted secret meetings of senior British and German officials at his London home.

He also tried to convince the British government of a more robust attitude towards Nazi Germany. Seven months before the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, he was able to acquire the German plans. He later regretted that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain could not bring himself to take any action.

Ustinov died on December 1, 1962 in Eastleach, England.