On Wednesday this week, family, friends, and colleagues from academia paid their respects to a remarkable man. It will not have been lost on any of them that the funeral at the Church of St John the Divine in Sale was held on the 33rd anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The man being remembered had lived 58 of his 87 years in Brooklands. But he played a role on a global stage - helping to thaw the Cold War.
Professor Richard Pollock's expertise was his grasp and deep understanding of the Russian language. It was a skill which, for a while, made the world a safer place in the 1980s and 1990s.
After a stellar career as a university lecturer he was appointed personal interpreter and special adviser to Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. His fluency and diplomacy helped forge the extraordinary relationship between Mrs Thatcher and Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, a key element in bringing to an end decades of mistrust, threats, and tension between the Soviet controlled Eastern Bloc and Western Europe and the US, which reached a peak with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
The secret of Richard's unique ability is that he was not just simply an interpreter. Mrs Thatcher, in a 1990s interview about the influence of an interpreter in head of state talks, said: "It depends very much on the interpreter. Now the one that I had, Richard Pollock, who used to come with me on all tours to Russia, he would listen very carefully not only to what I was saying, but to the intonation of my voice, and so he would follow in his interpretation the precise intonation which I had used.
"That was marvellous! Mr Gorbachev would get not only the meaning of the words but the emphasis which I placed upon them… Otherwise, if they just do what I call a ‘deadpan’ interpretation, you miss the emphasis and you miss the real importance of what the Russian counterpart is saying.”
Mrs Thatcher's friendship with the Soviet leader made the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe, and the uniting of East and West Germany, possible.
On the Prime Minister’s first state visit to Moscow in April 1987, the two leaders became so involved in talks around arms reduction during the interval of a performance of Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre, that the second half of the ballet had to be delayed.
During that visit, the ‘Iron Lady’ – as Mrs Thatcher was nicknamed by a Soviet newspaper because of her leadership style – was such a hit with the Russian public that she was virtually mobbed, and Richard found himself, at times, also acting as personal body guard.
When Thatcher and Gorbachev appeared smiling side by side in a photograph on the front page of Time magazine, Richard can be seen in the background. Richard was a lecturer at Bradford University when he got the call to be the Prime Minister's interpreter. He had been recommended to her by the then deputy prime minister, Willie Whitelaw, who had been impressed by him when he interpreted for him on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1984.
In 1988, Richard Pollock was summoned by Professor John West, Bradford University Vice Chancellor, who informed him of two available professor posts at the universities of Bath – and Manchester. Without hesitation, he accepted the Chair at Manchester.
In April 1989 Prime Minister Thatcher welcomed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to Number 10 Downing Street. Professor Pollock’s role was crucial in the talks, which were described by Thatcher as “…deep, very wide ranging and very friendly…”
Their 1989 meeting was confirmation of the “opening up” of East and West. Just seven months later, on November, 9, one of the most iconic scenes of modern history was witnessed - the tearing down of the Berlin Wall - a symbolic feature of the Iron Curtain which had divided the the East and West for four decades.
Richard remained as Professor of Russian and East European Studies at Manchester until he took early retirement in 1992. He continued as Russian interpreter, assisting for the Atomic Energy Authority and British Nuclear Fuels.
Richard's interest in the Russian language was not only a path to an international reputation, but also love.
In December 1959, he was among a delegation of teachers with an interest in the Russian language invited to take part in a six-week trip to Leningrad and Moscow. The journey to the Soviet Union, where Nikita Khrushchev was in the sixth year of his term as leader, meant a long train ride across Europe.
En route, in a scene which would have fitted neatly into a Cold War spy novel by John Le Carre, Richard offered an attractive fellow teacher a cigarette from his silver case.
The woman who took it was Catherine Janette Miller, a graduate teacher from Scotland. Intrigued by her new acquaintance she followed him around Berlin during a stopover. By the time they had reached Leningrad, a friendship had bloomed which would become a romance in Moscow.
As the trip ended at London Victoria Station, Richard was faced with a dilemma: go home alone or accompany Miss Miller to Scotland.
He decided on the toss of a coin: heads – return to the new family home in Fulbourn, Cambridge; tails – accompany Miss Miller to meet her mother up in Kirkmuirhill, Lanarkshire. The coin landed tails up. They were married in August 1961.
In 1964, he faced another dilemma: to continue school teaching or begin university lecturing in Russian. Later that year, a colleague from the Navy and lecturer in Russian and Polish at Salford University, presented him with an answer. There was a vacant lecturer post in Russian at Salford University.
Also, a house had recently gone up for sale in Brooklands on the same road as his Navy friend's. He accepted the post and bought the house. During his seven years as Russian lecturer at Salford from 1964, his reputation preceded him. After gaining a Master of Science (M.Sc.) at Manchester University in 1969, he became integral to UK-USSR technological working groups.
He had been determined to achieve this qualification during the lifetime of his grandfather and childhood mentor, Cyril Knott. Cyril, also a talented linguist, had been a Quaker missionary in China for over thirty years and had also gained an M.Sc. from Manchester University.
The year 1969 also marked the beginning of Richard services as specialist adviser and interpreter to the British government. At the end of 1971, a senior lecturer post in Russian became available at Bradford University. From January 1972 he spent the next 16 years in that position, where he was responsible for the set up and development of modern language courses in interpreting, with a major focus on the importance of spoken language skills.
Doctor Peter Doyle, a colleague of Richard’s spanning four decades wrote: “Professor Pollock was instrumental in introducing an innovative and pioneering languages degree at the Universities of Salford and Bradford which emphasised the importance of acquiring proficiency in usable and practical skills rather than the traditional knowledge of language and literature... Professor Pollock’s door was always open to staff and students alike and he was always happy to share his expertise."
In a letter to Professor John West, Vice Chancellor at Bradford, Viscount Whitelaw wrote after a 1984 visit to the Soviet Union: “Since tribute has been paid to Mr Pollock’s work, not only in Westminster but also in the presence of senior ministers – his services have of course subsequently been called upon in the recent visits of Soviet ministers to the United Kingdom – it is only right we should report it to you. I personally very much valued his counsel and I cannot speak too highly of the contribution of his expertise in all aspects of Soviet life as well as his remarkable mastery of the language to the success of our visit.”
Richard was proud of his heritage. His ancestors included the English chemist, Joseph Priestley, credited with the discovery of oxygen, and his great-grandfather, Herbert Knott established a cotton mill in Stalybridge, Tameside, and kept his workers on when the economy collapsed.
Richard William Wakefield Pollock was born in 1935 in West Bridgford, Nottingham to Jean and Frederick Pollock, a Baptist minister. He grew up in Swansea, which he considered his childhood home. Shortly before the end of World War II, the family moved again to Bristol due to his father’s ministry commitments.
Educated at Bristol Grammar School and Mill Hill Public School in north London, he excelled not only academically but also in rugby and cricket. His abilities blossomed soon in life. He entered sixth-form at the age of 14.
In 1953 he went up to Cambridge University to read Classics at Peterhouse College. After graduating in 1956, he joined the Royal Navy. In 1958 he studied at Oxford University where he gained a Diploma in Education at Merton College. A year later, he began teaching at Marlborough College public school. His family say his interest in the Russian language was enhanced by Peter, the Marlborough College caretaker - a displaced person from Crimea who had been brought over to England at the end of World War II.
Peter’s limited English merely inspired this young teacher to further develop his knowledge of Russian. He became Richard’s native-speaking Russian mentor.
A man of total discretion and integrity, Richard never divulged anything discussed in official talks at any level. The Official Secrets Act meant that his wife and family would only be assured of safe arrival at his professional destination when the televised news was broadcast.
As his contribution to world politics was never officially honoured, several attempts were made by his daughter after he suffered a mild stroke in 2014. They were all unsuccessful, despite numerous letters of unquestionable support being obtained, including one from Thatcher’s former private secretary.
Janette, who developed the Russian department at the Manchester High School for Girls, died in 2011. Richard is survived by his son, Alasdair, three daughters, Sheena, Catherine, and Eleanor, who have all followed careers in education in the UK and abroad.
Eleanor, speaking on behalf of all Richard's children, said of her father: "He was a kind, caring, gentle, protective, thoughtful, generous, sensitive, supportive, exemplary father figure. He was also an absolute gentleman.
"Always ready to offer fatherly advice or a linguistic slant on everything - be it a Russian proverb or the opportunity to start and keep up a quick-fire punning competition at any time, particularly across the Christmas dinner table.
"Self-effacing when it came to his extraordinary intellect and linguistic talent, he always referred to his work with the Prime Minister as one of life's greatest privileges. Total discretion was the name of the game and we were always forbidden from speaking to journalists when they would ring the house.
"He was immensely proud of his family, who meant everything to him. His home in Brooklands, Sale, was his castle for 58 years. He was an extraordinary father who lived an extraordinary life and it would be fair to say, had an extraordinary effect on all those who met him. He was ultimately our hero."
After Wednesday's funeral Richard J Knott captured the flair and generosity of Richard, writing: "The first time, as an adult, I met cousin Rick, was around 18 years ago when I was performing at the Lowry theatre in Salford. He came to pick me up at the theatre the morning after we had opened, with a screech of tyres, donning a grey fedora and waving out of the window.
"I felt an immediate and warm connection, and there followed an unforgettable day in his gently ebullient company. He dedicated the whole day to spending time together and showing me around various family sites in the vicinity. I was able to ask him about his formative times in Russia,and learn something about his experiences as teacher and translator. It was a bit like discovering a whole other suite of fascinating and welcoming rooms in a house I thought I knew.
"Thank you RIck, for your thoughtfulness, your profound love of language ‘as a cultural bridge builder’, and your kindness and warmth."
Poignantly the arrival of Richard's cortege at the church was accompanied by The Russian Kontakion of the Departed (Kiev Melody) sung by the choir of Clare College Cambridge.
Donations in memory of Richard can be made to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Fund via In Loving Memory of Professor Richard Pollock
READ MORE:
Raves, guns and state secrets - the fascinating story of the bunker hidden in Worsley Woods
Emergency plans for national power outage ‘stress-tested’ ahead of winter
Rodyna: In troubled times, the shop providing Ukrainians and Russians with help and a taste of home
Life at Chorlton Precinct, Hulme Crescents and Quinney Crescent in the 1970s
