In World War II, Allan Alexander Foote (b. 13. April 1905, d. 1. August 1957) was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland. Foote was originally from Yorkshire in England, and had spent some time in Spain working for the Republican side during the Civil War in the 1930s. He decided to continue his efforts against Fascism (and, perhaps, for Communism) and volunteered for clandestine work with Red Orchestra.[1] He was put into contact with Ursula Kuczynski in Switzerland. He became a radio operator for the Soviet espionage operation run by Alexander Rado and was one of those who passed information to Moscow from the Lucy spy ring run by Rudolf Roessler. Foote was one of those arrested when the Swiss police shut down most of the operation and was detained for a time.
After the War, he spent some time in the Eastern Bloc and then returned to the West and published his book, A Handbook for Spies. He died in the 1950s.
Because of the implausible (fast, plentiful, and accurate) and never explained nature of the Lucy ring's information, suspicion attaches to all associated with it. Since Foote was a central cog, his book is thought to be rather dubious in places, and since he managed to return to the West rather easily, there have been allegations he was a British Secret Service double agent and one conduit (perhaps even the main one) of information from Britain to Roessler and thence to Moscow.
According to various sources, Foote was indeed a MI6 (SIS) double agent Rado did not know about. After the destruction of Rado's network and his escape from Switzerland, Rado met Foote in Paris and both were ordered to return to Moscow immediately. They took off aboard a Russian military airplane on January 6, 1945, taking a circuitous route (due to the war in progress) via Egypt. Their plane refueled in Cairo, where Rado defected. After returning to Moscow, Foote was subjected to intensive interrogation attempting to determine his loyalty and the possibility of his being a penetration agent. Upon successfully getting through the questioning, he was given a new false identity under the alias of Major Granatov. Posing as a German, Albert Müller, he inserted himself into postwar Berlin to establish this alias with the aim of being sent by Centre to Argentina, to attempt to penetrate escaped Nazi circles.
In March 1947, another Soviet agent "came in from the cold" that had been involved with British Intelligence, and may have been able to prove Foote's allegiance to the British. Foote managed to escape from Russian control via Berlin, fleeing to the British sector.[2]