“It’s like being a lavatory attendant. It stinks, but somebody has to do it.” What on Earth am I talking about, dear viewers? Well, after the war is over, that’s how
a Soviet double agent in Britain will describe spying on his countrymen. Moscow and London may be allies, but the NKVD
employs plenty of lavatory attendants. Today we’re going to talk about the most
famous of them all. Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five. Hello darlings, this is Spies & Ties, a sub-series
of World War Two in real-time. I’m Astrid Deinhard. Born in British India in 1912, Harold Adrian
Russel Philby is known by his nickname “Kim”. Kim is a product of the Anglo-Indian elite
and was educated at the finest British institutions: first Westminster School and then an economics
degree at Cambridge University. Despite his upper-class upbringing, Philby
believed that the rich had for too long exploited the poor. By the time he arrived at Cambridge in 1929,
he was a supporter of the Labour Party. But when Labour suffered a landslide defeat
in the 1931 general election, Philby lost his faith in mainstream socialism. He began looking for a more radical alternative
and by 1933 he had become a devoted Communist. He also believed that Communism was the only
force seriously opposing the fascist surge. Philby was part of a group of Marxists at
Cambridge in the 30s. I’ll introduce the cast to you now darlings. First up are two of Philby’s friends. Donald Maclean, who studied modern languages,
and Guy Burgess who studied history. In turn, Guy Burgess was friends with Anthony
Blunt, who studied art history. Finally, there was John Cairncross, another
languages student. He knew the others, but they weren’t friends. Unlike them, he was from a working-class background. They will become the Cambridge Five. And it wasn’t just the students. Kim’s economics tutor, Maurice Dobb, was
a member of the Communist Party. His home was known as “The Red House”
for the meetings held there. Upon graduation in 1933, Kim asked Dobb how
best to “devote his life to the Communist cause”. Dobb pointed his student to Vienna, where
things were heating up between the left and the right. Kim played a minor role in the Austrian civil
war as the Social Democrats and Communists fought the fascist leader Engelbert Dollfuss. Dolfuss was victorious by February 1934 and
Kim had to leave the country. You can watch our Between 2 Wars video for
more on the conflict. It wasn’t for naught though. Kim brought with him a wife, Alice Friedmann
or Litzi. Litzi knew the chief NKVD recruiter in the
UK, Arnold Deutsch, codenamed Otto. He was a Viennese Jew who had fled the Nazis. His main interests were communism and sex. He believed that good sex made for good revolutionaries
while sexual repression led to fascism. His job was to recruit graduates from top
universities like Oxford and Cambridge. These universities churn out the ruling class
of Britain. Just think of the access the NKVD could have
with a few men like Philby in their pocket. So, in June 1934, Deutsch recruited Philby,
giving him the codename Sonny. The NKVD wanted Kim to access circles sympathetic
to fascism and Nazism. Deutsch advised Philby that journalism was
his way in. But Philby needed to blend in. So, he dropped his communist views and adopted
hard right-wing views. He even separated from Litzi! Philby quickly rose through the ranks of various
newspapers. His family connections helped. He spent some time at the Anglo-German Trade
Gazette and joined the Anglo-German Fellowship. This gave access to British Nazi sympathisers. His star turn was reporting for The Times
during the Spanish Civil War. He was attached to Franco’s forces and impressed
the general with his bravery. In summer 1940, Kim was reporting in France. He escaped back to England in the nick of
time. By this point, he had decided that he must
join the intelligence services. He saw that as the best way to get hold of
information for Moscow. His friend Guy Burgess was already working
for SOE and was also already on the NKVD’s payroll. Philby had introduced him to Otto back in
1935. With Burgess’s recommendation and some help
from journalistic contacts, Philby quickly finds his way into SOE. His other Cambridge friends have also embedded
themselves. Burgess had already recruited Antony Blunt
at MI5. Donald Maclean has been spying in the Foreign
Office since 1934. Cairncross found his way into the NKVD via
the Communist Party of Great Britain. Now he’s working at the Cabinet Office,
which gives him access to senior government ministers. Philby sets out to climb the greasy pole. The more senior the position, the better he
can help Moscow. Philby fits in well with the upper-class people
from intelligence and the military that he rubs shoulders with. Many of them are the products of Cambridge
or Oxford too. While off duty, Philby, Burgess, and Blunt
spend their time at intelligence service parties where Philby does the rounds striking up conversation
and topping up glasses. His charm offensive quickly pays off with
Major Felix Cowgill. Cowgill is head of MI6’s counter-espionage
department, Section V. Section V obtains information on enemy intelligence operations abroad and
advises MI5 on how these might threaten the UK. Until quite recently, Section V’s bandwidth
had been taken up with the threat from communism. That made sense, I mean as recently as 1940
Britain was seriously considering war with the Soviet Union. But now after June 1941 Britain and the Soviet
Union are allies. Section V’s new focus is on Axis espionage. The Iberian Peninsula is of particular interest,
we’ve spoken before about the secret battles going on in Spain and Portugal. Cowgill’s searching for a head for his Iberian
section. Who better than a Spanish Civil War legend? So, Philby moves over to from SOE. Philby seems to work very hard indeed. That’s hardly surprising. He’s working two jobs! Every evening, he takes home a briefcase of
telegrams and files and spends hours copying the information out. He passes on detailed descriptions of the
personnel, aims, and operations of Section V to his NKVD handler. This will tot up to almost 1,000 documents. But Moscow aren’t entirely happy with their
pet traitor. Elena Modrzhinskaya is head of the British
department head at the NKVD’s Moscow headquarters – Moscow Centre. She can’t believe the quantity and quality
of the material that Philby’s forwarding. How could the British give a known communist
access to all this information? She’s convinced that Philby is a triple
agent, part of a British deception plot. And the material Kim’s sending over isn’t
what Moscow wants. Modrzhinskaya doesn’t care about Iberia
or internal details of Section V and Mi6. The Soviets are as paranoid about their allies
as their enemies and she really wants details of British spies in the Soviet Union. The information she wants is held in the MI6
Central Registry. It’s a bit like a big library which holds
details of all the agents who have ever spied for Britain. Names, codenames, operations, payments. You name it, it’s there. The chief registrar is a big drinker. So Philby lubricates him with gin and blags
his way in. The registrar doesn’t even scratch his head
to wonder why Philby, who works on Iberian operations, wants information on the Soviet
Union! The registry reveals that MI6 has exactly
zero spies in the Soviet Union. Neither are any Soviet citizens working for
MI6 within the Soviet Union. The MI6 chief in Moscow has recruited nothing
more than a few minor Polish informants. The USSR is a lowly tenth on the list of British
priorities. You’d think the Soviets would be relieved. But not really. They react with a mix of paranoia – what
if it’s all a trick? And wounded pride – how can the great Soviet
Union only be tenth?! Modrzhinksava is convinced that Philby is
lying. It doesn’t matter that Antony Blunt at MI5
later confirms the report. That just puts him under suspicion too! Other spies are having a bit more luck. Unlike Philby and Burgess, John Cairncross
is distinctly lacking in social graces and manages to be off-putting to almost all his
colleagues. That doesn’t hold him back as a spy though. In 1942, he moves from his job in the Cabinet
Office to Bletchley Park. Here, Alan Turing and the codebreakers read
German military and diplomatic Enigma messages. This information is codenamed Ultra and it’s
some cracking stuff. The British are worried that if they reveal
this secret to Stalin, the Soviets will slip up and give the game away to the Germans. So, when they share bits of Ultra with Stalin,
they disguise the source, attributing it to unspecified agents within Germany. The problem is, Stalin doesn’t trust these
vague sources. So, it’s Cainrcross’s job to smuggle out
as many raw decrypted messages as he can. Then, he takes the train from Bletchley to
London and hands them over to his NKVD contact. Some of his intel really makes a difference. Right now, August 1943, the Soviets are holding
back the Germans at Kursk. The British had given Stalin intelligence
pointing to a German build-up back in June 1943. But it was only when Cairncross smuggled out
the raw, German language versions of these decrypts that Stalin was convinced of the
authenticity. Meanwhile, Philby has moved up in the world
again. He’s now in charge of counter-espionage
in North Africa and Italy. He’s ecstatic at the new opportunities this
will give him to serve the Soviet Union and communism. But these promotions only heighten Modrzhinskaya’s
paranoia. Later this year, 1943, she will even put Philby
and Blunt under NKVD surveillance! You can see where she’s coming from though. Can’t you? Philby and his friends were well-known communists
at university. Not only that, but Philby’s still technically
married to Litzi, who is a communist and an NKVD operative! Yet Philby and the Cambridge Five escape suspicion. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that the resources directed towards
searching for communist infiltration are tiny. The British are much more concerned about
German agents, we’ve spoken about the inter-service Twenty Committee whose job is hunting down
and turning German spies. Perhaps even more importantly, it’s because
the Cambridge Five went to the right schools and universities. They know the right people and speak the right
way. The security services are an old boys’ club
and men like Philby will always be accepted. Back in 1941, Cowgill questioned Philby’s
father about his son’s communist leanings at Cambridge. The response: “That was all schoolboy nonsense… He’s a reformed character now” Cowgill
apparently swallowed that. It’s not like the British are unaware of
Soviet espionage. When Guy Liddell, head of MI5 counter-espionage,
unravels a communist cell within the Air Ministry, he writes in his diary “Penetration of the
services by the Communist Party is becoming rather serious”. But they aren’t aware of the true scale
of the problem. And, they have to tolerate it to a certain
degree. After the war, a future head of MI5 will write
that Soviet infiltration was an unfortunate but necessary cost of doing business with
Stalin. Talk about a toxic relationship eh! Despite his father’s assurances, Philby
is by no means reformed. And he’s only getting warmed up. Right now, the damage that Philby and his
friends are doing to Britain is limited. Like I’ve said, Moscow Centre simply refuses
to believe a lot of their reports. In cases where the Five do make a difference,
most of the information they give to Stalin isn’t directly harmful to British interests. Look at Kursk for example. Cairncross certainly risked the secret of
Ultra, but he was only confirming info that the British had already given. Donald Maclean sends over some rich diplomatic
stuff: Britain’s desires for postwar Poland, and FDR and Churchill’s thoughts on the
coming invasion of Europe. This helps Stalin get the edge on his western
counterparts during negotiations but doesn’t really affect the war itself. All this changes though – if you’ll permit
me to look a little bit into the future… By the summer of 1944, Elena Modrzhinskaya
will have retired. Moscow Centre will look back at the information
the Five have supplied, and the loyalty they have shown, and will decide that they are
great value. By then, as thoughts turn to the postwar world,
MI6 will have established a new counter espionage-section dedicated to the threat from the Soviet Union
and communism. And who’s in charge? It will be none other than Kim Philby with
Cairncross working under him. Donald Maclean will take up an important position
in Washington and will leak the West’s atomic secrets. The foxes will be in charge of the henhouse. Philby and the Cambridge Five will become
the most notorious double agents in modern history. They will be responsible for the deaths of
countless British and American agents. And they’ll get away with it all. If you’d like to learn more about Soviet
double agents, then click here to watch Indy talking about Richard Sorge. To get ever more content like this, join the
TimeGhost Army at TimeGhost.tv or patreon.com.
