Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service has made history with the appointment of its first female chief. But just days after Blaise Metreweli’s groundbreaking promotion to lead MI6, revelations have emerged from wartime records in Germany, connecting her to a chilling family past.
According to archives examined by the Daily Mail, Metreweli’s paternal grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski—a Ukrainian-born Nazi informant who earned the ominous nickname, “the butcher.”
Dobrowolski, described in documents stored in Freiburg, Germany, was labelled “Agent 30” by his Nazi handlers. He had defected from the Red Army and served as a key intelligence source for Nazi forces in the Chernihiv region during World War II.
Born in 1906 to a German-Polish father and a Ukrainian mother, Dobrowolski grew resentful of Soviet authorities after they seized his family estate following the Russian Revolution in 1917. When Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, he aligned himself with them, reportedly receiving a modest monthly wage of 81 Reichsmark—around £250 in today’s currency.
Historical letters show Dobrowolski signing off correspondence with “Heil Hitler.” He even admitted to participating in a massacre near Kyiv. Other chilling reports describe him looting Holocaust victims and laughing about the assault of female detainees.
The Soviet authorities saw him as a major threat. They placed a 50,000-rouble bounty on his head—equivalent to roughly £200,000 today—branding him as “the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people.”
Dobrowolski’s trail ends in August 1943, just before the Red Army recaptured Chernihiv. He stayed behind in Nazi-occupied Ukraine as his wife Barbara and son Constantine—Ms Metreweli’s father—escaped the Soviet advance.
After the war, Barbara and Constantine settled in Britain. Barbara later remarried, and her son adopted his stepfather’s surname. Neither he nor Blaise Metreweli ever knew the man behind their family’s dark legacy.
Ms Metreweli joined MI6 in 1999 shortly after graduating from Pembroke College, Cambridge. She has built a distinguished career in intelligence, focusing on operations across Europe and the Middle East.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise’s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division, and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood.
“It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today’s hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.”
Despite the unsettling revelations, Ms Metreweli remains focused on steering the UK’s intelligence strategy into a new era, determined to ensure national security against today’s evolving threats.
