How the USSR secret services managed to deploy an agent network in the heart of Great Britain: "The Cambridge Five"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It was one of the most high-profile spy stories of the last century. British intelligence services have long had a reputation for being reliable, efficient and virtually impeccable. But there are also crushing failures on their account. The most significant was the defeat in the confrontation with the USSR, when five British representatives of high society neglected such a concept as loyalty to their homeland and became agents of Soviet intelligence. Moreover, it was not blackmail or big money that prompted them to do this, but ideological considerations.

How Kim Philby became Stalin's personal agent

The most famous member of the "Cambridge Five" - Harold Adrian Russell Philby, nicknamed by his parents as Kim, was a hereditary intelligence officer, the son of a British agent working in Arabia. After studying at the prestigious private Westminster School, he entered Cambridge, where his anti-fascist views were formed. Kim's recruiter was his future wife, leftist activist Lizzie Friedman, who worked for Soviet intelligence.

Philby's espionage career began during the Spanish Civil War, where he successfully combined the work of a Times journalist with special assignments in Moscow. On the eve of World War II, Kim Philby was recruited into the British foreign intelligence service and very soon became deputy chief of counterintelligence. From that moment on, Russia received accurate information about almost all the operations of the British. More than 900 important documents - this is Philby's contribution during the Great Patriotic War. Confidence in Kim was so high that he was assigned to Washington as the curator of the joint activities of the British intelligence services, the FBI and the CIA.

A shadow of suspicion loomed over Philby as the Cambridge Five fled from England McLean and Burgess. Philby managed to get out, but there was no previous trust in him, so in 1955 he was dismissed.

How the British historian Donald McLain helped the USSR

A hereditary English aristocrat, the son of an influential politician Donald Duart McLain was one of the most valuable residents of Soviet intelligence. He began to cooperate with the secret services of the USSR at the suggestion of his student friend Kim Philby and explained this decision by the growing threat of fascism. A trusted employee of the United Kingdom Foreign Ministry regularly handed over to Moscow copies of top-secret documents, including the militaristic projects of Germany and Italy, and the Wehrmacht's strategic developments in relation to Russia.

Back in 1941, he warned the Soviet government that the United States was close to creating an atomic bomb. During the Second World War, he sent about 12 thousand pages of classified data to the Moscow Center. In the postwar years, he provided strategic information on the activities of the British Ministry of the Interior and the Cabinet of Ministers, important not only for intelligence, but also for Soviet science and diplomacy. MacLane learned that he was on the verge of failure from Philby, after which he was forced to flee to the Soviet Union. In Moscow, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, worked as an intelligence analyst, got a job at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. For his great merits, Doctor of Historical Sciences, international historian McLain received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

For which the adviser to King George VI "Sir Anthony" was awarded the Soviet military order

Anthony Frederick Blunt's successful career is largely a consequence of his high birth: on the maternal side, he was a close relative of the royal family. He had a knighthood, was an adviser to George VI. He went to cooperate with the intelligence of the USSR, wishing to contribute to the fight against fascism and being sure that only the Soviet Union could defeat Hitler. At the beginning of World War II, he was assigned to the intelligence school of the British War Department. He was sent to France to conduct intelligence, then returned to England and entered MI5 (British counterintelligence).

To the Soviet Center, Anthony Blunt handed over a huge amount of valuable materials about the personnel of the United Kingdom intelligence services, about the German agents deployed in the USSR, about the deployment of German troops on the Eastern Front. From him, information was received about separate negotiations between the emissaries of Great Britain and the United States with representatives of the Third Reich in 1943-1944. Blunt's work in British counterintelligence was very productive for the USSR, as evidenced by the award - the Soviet military order.

Guy Burgess double play and move to Moscow

The fact that Guy de Moncy Burgess was the most mysterious, controversial and complex person in the "Cambridge Five" was recognized by both his compatriots and curators from the KGB. Coming from an ambitious family of aristocratic roots, he was educated at Eton, the Royal Naval Academy and the University of Cambridge. A cell of the British Communist Party operated in this educational institution, where Guy was attracted by Kim Philby. Burgess soon became "Stalin's Englishman", playing the role of the unofficial coordinator of the "Cambridge Five".

An adventurer by nature, Burgess can be called a chameleon - he was so many-sided. On the one hand - a brilliantly educated, well-read, art connoisseur, an interesting conversationalist; on the other - a drug user, drinking binge, prone to depression. He was a BBC producer, diplomat, Soviet spy and double agent working for British intelligence and counterintelligence. Occupying responsible posts, he established contacts with high-ranking people, drew the necessary information from them and at the same time collected the compromising evidence necessary for their recruitment. During the Second World War, about 5 thousand secret documents were received from him. When the threat of failure arose, he fled to the USSR, where he continued to actively cooperate with the special services.

"Fifth Element" of the "Cambridge Five" - Scotsman John Kerncross and his "special" work

John Alexander Kirkland Kerncross was less titled than his illegal counterparts. Coming from a poor Scottish family, he possessed extraordinary abilities and perseverance, which helped him get an excellent education. While studying at the Paris Sorbonne, John witnessed a violent manifestation of the French Nazis, after which he became a staunch opponent of Nazism. After receiving a bachelor of arts degree, Kerncross successfully passed the exams for the diplomatic service and got a job at the British Foreign Office, while keeping silent about membership in the Communist Party.

The very first contacts of John Kerncross with an employee of the London illegal station of the NKVD showed that he was an ideological friend of the USSR. Soon, Kerncross was already supplying Soviet intelligence with documents classified as "top secret", mainly related to German issues. However, a year later he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance. At the new location, reconnaissance capabilities were incomparably lower, but Kerncross managed to find very valuable information here too. In particular, he announced the start of work on the creation of an atomic bomb in Great Britain and the United States, and also provided information that helped the Soviet military command to win the crucial battle of the Great Patriotic War - Kursk.

For Soviet intelligence even a British millionaire worked.