The only person in history to receive the highest civil military … Select members of MI5 and MI6 already knew Philby to be a spy from Venona project decryptions. By Matt Bevan. The British government was accused of turning a blind eye to evidence that he was assassinated on Vladimir Putin’s direct order. None of the known members were ever prosecuted for spying. He was known for passing more than 900 British documents over to the KGB. [16], Anthony Blunt was a former Surveyor of the King's Pictures and later Queen's Pictures for the royal art collection. Straight, who initially agreed, changed his mind afterwards. How did he know? Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Blunt and Burgess were both members of the Cambridge Apostles, an exclusive secret society at Cambridge University. [29], A 2015 article in The Guardian discussed "400 top-secret documents which have been released at the National Archives" and indicated that MI5 and MI6 had worked diligently to prevent information about the five from being disclosed, "to the British public and even to the US government". Philby confirmed that he had worked for the KGB and that "his purpose in life was to destroy imperialism". The term "Five" began to be used in 1961, when KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn named Maclean and Burgess as part of a "Ring of Five", with Philby a 'probable' third, alongside two other agents whom he did not know. A group of Russian spies used towns in the French Alps as 'base camps' for carrying out covert operations across Europe, including the Salisbury nerve agent attack, reports suggest. Other Apostles accused of having spied for the Soviets include Michael Straight and Guy Liddell. [31], Under the 30-year rule, the 400 documents should have been made available years earlier. [9], Between 1934 and 1951 MacLean passed numerous secrets to Moscow. The number and membership of the ring emerged slowly, from the 1950s onwards. The men he named claimed to be friends of Mr Putin, which, Mr Gorbuntsov claimed had slowed an investigation by Russian authorities. Sheila Kerr: review of Roland Perry, The Fifth Man, in Loch K. Johnson, Richard C. Thurlow, Gary D. Rawnsley, M. R. D. Foot, J. Four years later, he was transferred to MI6. Categories: British spies. In 1966, Blake escaped from prison. "There are 37 KGB men in London at the moment. A summary of the documents indicated that they showed that "inaction and incompetence on the part of the authorities enabled Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to make their escape to Moscow". Blunt was interrogated by MI5 and confessed in exchange for immunity from prosecution. In conclusion, the review stated that "the Foreign Office, MI6 and MI5 all have an interest in covering up, to protect themselves from huge embarrassment" and that "more taxpayers' money is spent by Whitehall officials in the futile attempt to keep the files under lock and key for ever". They both disagreed with the idea of capitalism. He passed classified reports from Emerson Radio, including a fuze design which was later used to shoot down a U-2 in 1960. Julius also recruited many people sympathetic to the cause to assist the KGB. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has worked to organize protests in support of his presidential bid across Russia on Saturday, Demonstrators gather near a monument of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, Demonstrators march and wave a Russian flag, A topless activist from the feminist group Femen depicts American actress Marilyn Monroe singing the “happy birthday” song. From poisoned umbrellas to radioactive substances, Moscow has repeatedly been linked with deaths on British soilÂ, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The strange-but-true life stories of seven Soviet spooks. hours. [13], Investigation of Philby found several suspicious matters but nothing for which he could be prosecuted. A few sources, however, believe that the "fifth man" was Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild. Several of the following have been alleged to be possible Soviet spies:[34], British ring of spies for the Soviet Union, Abjorensen, Norman. After settling in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury, he led a quiet life until he hit the headlines when he was found unconscious on a bench alongside his daughter Yulia at a local shopping centre on Sunday. as having been recruited by him. Alexander Litvinenko at the Intensive Care Unit of University College Hospital, An opposition activist wearing a rubber mask depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin walks past gift boxes with lettering reading “trial”, “resignation”, “impeachment”, “true election” and others during an event dedicated to Putin’s 65th birthday in downtown Moscow, October 7 2017, Demonstrators holding yellow ducks are interviewed by journalists as they arrive for the rally, A demonstrator chats slogans during the unauthorized anti-Kremlin rally called by jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Demonstrators shout slogans and wave Russian flags during the rally in Moscow. Chris Phillips, the former head of Britain’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office also said: “There’s no way it wasn’t a hit. The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. [21] He was given immunity from prosecution. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:British_spies_for_the_Soviet_Union&oldid=858574068 ". More recently, in March 2012, exiled Russian banker German Gorbuntsov survived an assassination attempt as he stepped out of a taxi in East London. The public became aware of his treachery in December 1979, however, when Cairncross made a public confession to journalist Barrie Penrose. Maclean began delivering information to the Soviet intelligence operatives as a member of the British Foreign Office in 1934. MI6 then re-employed him at around the same time, to provide reports from that region. The news was widely publicized leading many to surmise that he was in fact the "fifth man"; that was confirmed in 1989 by KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky who had defected to Britain. Burgess was recalled from the United States due to "bad behaviour" and upon reaching London, warned Maclean. Famous KGB Spies: Where Are They Now? A news item at the time stated that "it is clear the full story of the Cambridge Spies has not yet emerged". The KGB had difficulty believing that the men would have access to top secret documents; they were particularly suspicious of Philby, wondering how he could have become an agent given his Communist past. Boshirov said the two had gone to visit Salisbury Cathedral, “famous not just in Europe, but in the whole world. A spokesperson for the Russian embassy in New Delhi said there was nothing ”special or extraordinary” about the circumstances that led to his death. Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations. Later that year, he told The Independent that he believed his former business partners were behind the attack. Though Cairncross is the last of the five to be publicly identified, he successfully penetrated a greater variety of the corridors of power and intelligence than any of the other four. Demonstrators walk down Tverskaya street during the unauthorized anti-Kremlin rally, Demonstrators clench their fists during the rally. Later they were both recruited by Soviet intelligence operatives and became undercover agents for the Soviet Union. It is believed that it was administered in a cup of tea. [26], In a 1991 interview with The Mail on Sunday, Cairncross explained how he had forwarded information to Moscow during WWII and boasted that it "helped the Soviets to win that battle (the Battle of Kursk) against the Germans". Col. Rudolf Abel. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. It is said that one time, while highly intoxicated, Burgess risked exposing his second identity. An MI6 officer and friend of Philby from his earlier MI6 days, John Nicholas Rede Elliott, was sent in 1963 to interview him in Beirut and reported that Philby seemed to know he was coming (indicating the presence of yet another mole). Suspicion immediately fell on Harold "Kim" Philby (cryptonyms: Sonny, Stanley), who eventually fled the country in 1963. [10], In 2019, Russia honoured Burgess and Maclean in a ceremony; a plaque was attached to the building where they had lived in the 50s. An autopsy found a deadly 1.7mm-wide pellet of poisonous ricin in his skin. In 1964, MI5 received information from the American Michael Whitney Straight pointing to Blunt's espionage; the two had known each other at Cambridge some thirty years before and Blunt had tried to recruit Straight as a spy. This revelation raised concerns that Blunt's spying would also be revealed to the public. It is said that Burgess handed over about 389 top secret documents to the KGB within the early part of 1945 along with an additional 168 documents in December of 1949.[6]. At the time of Golitsyn's defection, Philby had already been accused in the press and was living in Beirut, Lebanon, a country with no extradition agreement with Britain. Julius was recruited by the KGB in 1942 and was regarded as one of their top spies. He arrested Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Philby, when he was posted in the British embassy in Washington, DC, after the war, learned that US and British intelligence were searching for a British embassy mole (cryptonym Homer) who was passing information to the Soviet Union, relying on material uncovered by the Venona project.
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