His real name is Harold Adrian Russell Philby. He was born on January 1, 1912 in the Indian town of Ambala, where he spent the first four years of his life. The name Kim, in honor of Kipling's hero, was given to him by his father St. John Philby.

Kim mastered Hindi and Arabic from an early age, and only then German, French, Spanish, Turkish and Russian. He received the most prestigious education in England.

Decisive for him were trips to European countries, primarily to Germany and Austria, which was drenched in the blood of workers. Kim later said: “In my native England... I also saw people seeking the truth, fighting for it. I painfully searched for a means to be useful to the great movement of our time, whose name is communism. The personification of these ideas was the Soviet Union, its heroic people, laid the foundation for the construction of a new world. And I found the form of this struggle in Soviet intelligence. I believed and continue to believe that through this work I served my English people.”

But even before establishing contact with Soviet intelligence, Philby returned to Vienna, where he took part in the work of the International Workers' Relief Organization. Kim's main job was to maintain contact with communists living illegally in Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. An English passport gave him the opportunity to move freely from country to country.

One day, Philby’s friend from Austria, Edith Tudor Hart, offered to introduce him to a “very important” person - he turned out to be Arnold Deutsch - Stefan Lang. Deitch invited him, as Philby recalled, to become a “deep penetration agent.” Philby agreed. From that time, that is, from June 1934, in operational correspondence he was listed as “Sonchen” - “Son” (German).

The first thing Deutsch asked him to do was to stop all contact with communists and even sympathizers. Second, take a close look at your Cambridge friends from the standpoint of their suitability for intelligence work. Third, from the point of view of solving intelligence problems, determine your future career.

At this time, the illegal intelligence group in London was faced with a long-term task: infiltrating the British Intelligence Service. Philby became a journalist, remembering that British intelligence had always shown interest in people of this profession.

A university friend, Wiley, introduced Philby to his friend Talbot, who edited the Anglo-Russian Trade Newspaper. But the newspaper was gradually dying, and Talbot conceived a new publication - the Anglo-German Trade Newspaper, for which he needed a new editor. That was Kim Philby.

In 1936 the newspaper was closed. Philby was sent to Spain, where the Civil War was unfolding at that time. Philby went as a “freelance” journalist.

Returning to London, Philby brought a large “Spanish” article. My father advised me to “start at the top” and take it to the Times. He got lucky. The Times at this time was left without a correspondent in Spain, and Kim, after reading the article, was offered a position as a permanent correspondent in Spain. This was a huge step forward. One could only dream of becoming an employee of such a newspaper! In May 1937, Philby, on a business trip for the newspaper and with the blessing of Deitch, again went to Spain. He secured letters of recommendation from the German embassy in England, where he was known as a Nazi “sympathizer.” He passed on his intelligence information to A.M. Orlov, at that time a Soviet resident in Republican Spain.

Soon the Second World War began, and he was appointed chief war correspondent at the headquarters of the British troops. After the fall of France and the return to London, British intelligence itself contacted Kim Philby. True, Guy Burgess, who at that time was already her employee and recommended Philby as a worthy candidate. He was enrolled as a teacher at the Section D reconnaissance and sabotage school, but soon realized that he was as far from the secrets of SIS as he had been as a Times correspondent.

Philby strove for operational work. His father’s friend Valentin Vivian, deputy director of SIS for foreign counterintelligence, helped him in this. He contributed to his appointment as head of the Spanish sector in SIS, which conducted counterintelligence work in Spain, Portugal and partly in the French North African possessions in order to combat the penetration of foreign intelligence services into England from these territories.

He gained access to information necessary for Soviet intelligence, including deciphered telegrams from the German Abwehr. At the same time, he obtained the first information about attempts to establish contacts between British intelligence and Canaris. Later, in 1941, he became aware of separate negotiations between the Anglo-Americans and the Germans.

Philby's integrity, hard work and analytical skills contributed to his advancement. In addition, he enjoyed universal respect. Among his colleagues and friends were Ian Fleming and Graham Greene, with whom Philby maintained friendly relations until the end of his days.

In August 1943, Philby was promoted. Now he was entrusted with the leadership of several areas: the department serving the Iberian Peninsula, the department leading the development (from a counterintelligence point of view) of German intelligence in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, maintaining contact with the Polish counterintelligence of the emigrant government in London. In addition, he was responsible for counterintelligence support for all Allied military operations carried out by Eisenhower, and for maintaining communication between the SIS counterintelligence department and the British Foreign Office.

In November 1944, Philby became head of the 9th department (section) “for the fight against communism.”

However, in the Center in 1942, distrust arose in Philby and the entire “five”. It was decided to regard all information received from them as nothing other than disinformation. Reasons? Firstly, among those who worked with them from the very beginning were the “foreign spy” Malli and the defector Orlov. Secondly, in 1942, Philby did not provide any materials characterizing the activities of the SIS in the USSR, that is, he “suspiciously downplayed the work of British intelligence against us.” The same attitude towards the “five” remained in 1943 (and this despite the fact that it was from them that information about the upcoming German offensive on the Kursk Bulge came!).

However, a deep analysis of the materials transmitted by Philby and other members of the Five in 1944-1945 completely ruled out the assumption of disinformation. The attitude towards him and his group changed radically.

Unfortunately, a surge of mistrust occurred a second time, in 1948.

Kim Philby achieved the goal set for him by Soviet intelligence at the very beginning of his intelligence activities: he became not only an employee of British intelligence, but also one of its leading employees.

In August 1945, Philby was on the verge of failure: Konstantin Volkov, the Soviet vice-consul in Istanbul, contacted the British consulate with a request to grant him and his wife political asylum, promising to provide the names of three Soviet agents working in the British Foreign Ministry and one head of counterintelligence services in London. Volkov was recalled to Moscow.

In 1947, the leadership of British intelligence appointed Philby as resident in Istanbul. The practice of working abroad was necessary for his further career advancement. Istanbul at this time was the main southern base from which intelligence work was carried out against the USSR and the socialist countries located in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Things went well in Turkey, and in 1949 Philby received a promotion - he was appointed representative of British intelligence at the CIA and FBI in Washington (the position was equivalent in importance to the position of deputy head of SIS): cooperation between the CIA and SIS became closer. Philby was aware of all the cases that were being conducted against Soviet intelligence. In addition to this, he was in contact with Canadian security. But his main task was to work with the CIA. It was of interest to both British and Soviet intelligence.

In 1951, the British began to suspect the head of the Foreign Office department, Donald McLain, and his colleague Guy Burgess of working for Soviet intelligence. Philby immediately reported this to Moscow. Both of them were illegally taken to the Soviet Union. But suspicion also fell on Philby: it was known that he was friends with both of them back in Cambridge.

There was no direct evidence against him, so an internal investigation was ordered. After several interrogations, Philby was asked to resign. He needed to live on something, and he took up journalism.

In 1955, after the publication of the White Paper on the Burgess-MacLaine affair, a deafening scandal broke out in parliament about the “third man” - Kim Philby. Philby survived this struggle and played the role of a man outraged by slander.

In 1956, at the suggestion of the respectable weekly Observer, he went to Beirut without losing contact with SIS.

But at the end of 1961, SIS received new data through the Americans (from one of the traitors), on the basis of which it drew conclusions about Kim Philby’s involvement in the Russian intelligence network. On New Year's Eve, 1963 and during the New Year holidays, the situation became critical. On January 23, 1963, he disappeared from Beirut and then turned up in Moscow.

Here the final stage of his life began. Kim married for the third time, to a Russian woman, Rufina Pukhova. Children and grandchildren appeared. Philby was engaged in scientific and teaching activities, literary work, and conducted classes with intelligence officers. He wrote a memoir, published in 1988 in London with a foreword by Graham Greene.

In 1988, Kim Philby died and was buried in Moscow.

When Philby's true role was revealed in 1978, one senior CIA official said: "This resulted in the entire extremely extensive Western intelligence effort between 1944 and 1951 being fruitless. It would have been better if we had didn't do anything."

Bibliography

To prepare this work, materials were used from the site http://www.zvezdi-oriona.ru/

Intelligence and counterintelligence) of the General Staff of the French Army information about the “fifth column” of pro-fascist generals and senior officers. As a result of a successful Soviet intelligence operation on the eve of the Munich Agreement, they were discredited and dismissed from the French army. In London, a member of the famous "Cambridge Five" Donald MacLane, who worked in the British Foreign Office...

Konstantin Simonov, Graham Greene, Walter Cronkite, Mother Teresa, etc., constantly has a high rating. Writer, playwright, publicist, television journalist, prominent public figure, political scientist, and finally, citizen, Genrikh Aviezerovich Borovik is one of the most prominent figures in the literary and social life of modern Russia. His name is known in many countries. And of course - in all CIS countries. G.A. ...

Undercover intelligence, organizes and conducts covert operations, provides counterintelligence support for undercover activities, and fights terrorism and drugs. The structure of the directorate includes: the foreign intelligence department, which manages the activities of operational departments, which are divided into two groups: Geographical departments: department for the former Soviet Union and Eastern...

In the 40s and 50s, a conflict was already brewing in his soul, which would eventually lead Fadeev to suicide. Thus, in the summer of 1947, in connection with the beginning of the Cold War, Soviet propagandists began to actively introduce into the public consciousness the image of an external enemy in the person of the USA, Great Britain, and the West as a whole, and also began to search for people who could embody the image of an internal enemy. 2.4 Second stage...

The life of the successor of one of the ancient families of England, who became a Soviet spy, its kinks and bends, even today, years after his death, remains shrouded in thick fog.

During his lifetime, Philby published the book “My Secret War,” but it did not conceal any special revelations. He already knew what he could talk about and what he couldn’t. In his introduction, Kim wrote that “although this book strictly adheres to the truth, it does not claim to be the whole truth.” In addition, the manuscript was probably squeezed dry by the always wary Soviet censorship.

"We don't know the truth about Philby," Robert Littell, author of the novel about the spy, told Le Nouvel Observateur. In it, the Englishman appears as a triple (!) agent who simultaneously worked for Great Britain, the USSR and the USA. According to Littell, "he remains the most amazing spy of the 20th century." There are indeed many strange episodes in Philby's biography. For example, his sudden disappearance from Beirut in 1963. At the beginning of June, British intelligence received stunning information: Philby was in Moscow! Soon the incredible became obvious: the Izvestia newspaper reported that he had asked for political asylum in the Soviet Union.

Kim reached Odessa on the cargo ship Dolmatov. Early in the morning he was met by several police officers and an employee of the State Security Committee. He put his hand on the Englishman’s shoulder and said that his mission was over: “In our service there is a rule: as soon as counterintelligence begins to be interested in you, this is the beginning of the end. We know that British counterintelligence became interested in you in 1951. And now it’s 1963...”

It turns out that Philby was “under the hood” for 12 years! But why did he remain free? Why, after he settled in the Soviet capital, were there several dozen people who suspected him a long time ago?

In the same interview, Littell said that although KGB chief Yuri Andropov received the British spy in public with full honors, he was never promoted, lived under 24-hour security and was not allowed into the Lubyanka.

Philby himself contradicts these statements. More precisely, the interview he gave to the English writer and publicist Philip Knightley. In 1964, the latter wrote the book “Philby - the spy who betrayed a generation” and sent a copy to his hero in Moscow. The scout responded with a letter of gratitude, which began a correspondence that lasted more than twenty years.

Knightley recalled that “Philby’s letters were written in a relaxed style, and their reading was often a pleasure. In 1979, he complained that the Times's delivery disruptions had cut him off from contact with England: “I confess I feel empty. I miss the Times obituaries, funny letters, court reports and crossword puzzles (a 15-20 minute mental gymnastics with morning tea), as well as the information and reviews of the Sunday Times and the less pretentious sections of the Times Literary Supplement.

Soon English newspapers began to arrive regularly. But they were not Philby's only window into the world. One day in his letter there appeared a phrase that intrigued Knightley: “Having returned from several weeks abroad, I discovered a frightening pile of incoming documents in my folder.” In the next message, the Moscow Englishman said that he “visited sunny regions, where he sipped whiskey with soda and crushed ice.” It later turned out that Philby was vacationing in Cuba, where he went on a merchant ship.

Well, he deserved a quiet, prosperous life. The weight of his contribution to the fight against Nazi Germany. As a reminder of the turbulent time, he had a solid collection of awards in his box: the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, Friendship of Peoples, the Patriotic War, 1st degree, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Cuban awards.

In January 1988, a meeting between Knightley and Philby took place in Moscow, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Soviet emigration of the intelligence officer. Their conversation was captured in an in-depth interview with Knightley. This was Kim's last big conversation with the press.

According to the journalist, the intelligence officer behaved freely, was frank and did not give the impression of a nervous and intimidated prisoner, guarded day and night by harsh KGB agents. When the guest asked if there were any listening devices in the apartment, the owner replied that he was not interested...

Philby was not only an amazing intelligence officer, but also an amazing romantic, which is absolutely unusual for his harsh profession that seems to exclude any sentimentality.

Perhaps the genes of his father, St. John Philby, an orientalist who worked in the English colonial administration in India and then became a famous Arabist, leapt into him. He adopted the Muslim religion, married a Saudi girl, lived for a long time among the Bedouin tribes, became an adviser to King Ibn Sauda.

The son, named Kim after the hero of Kipling’s novel of the same name, manifested his extraordinary thinking in his own way: “When I was a nineteen-year-old student, I tried to form my views on life. Having carefully looked around, I came to a simple conclusion: the rich have been living damn well for too long, and the poor have been living damn bad for too long, and it’s time to change all this.” His aristocratic ancestors were probably turning over in their rotting graves, and the living could not believe their ears!

Philby began his speeches at election rallies with the words: “My friends, the heart of England does not beat in palaces and castles. It’s in factories and farms.” Kim also read Marxist literature. It is not surprising that soon, in the summer of 1933, he became a communist...

Kim himself claimed that he received an offer to work for Moscow in England. And without hesitation, he agreed. The man who recruited him was Arnold Deitch, nicknamed "Otto", who successfully combined espionage activities with scientific work. He was a Doctor of Psychology from the University of London.

A few years after Philby, as a correspondent for the London Times, completed several assignments in Moscow, he, a communist, was offered to join the British secret intelligence service - the Secret Intelligence Service!

There he makes a rapid career - in 1944, 32-year-old Kim becomes the head of the 9th Department of SIS, which was involved in Soviet and communist activities in Great Britain. It turns out that he, in particular, looked after himself?

Poor old England!

But strange things continued to happen to Kim. Either fate carefully protected him, or... After all, Philby seemed to almost become the head of all British intelligence! While working in Washington, he had intimate conversations with the FBI chief Edgar Hoover himself, and was friends with one of the best counterintelligence officers of the CIA, James Angleton, nicknamed the “Chain Dog” for his pathological suspicion.

The takeoff did not take place - in the memorable 1951, Philby came under suspicion: his two partners, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, fled to Moscow. However, once again the sword hanging above him did not fall on the scout’s head. He was interrogated, he was followed, but he was left free. They write that there was not enough evidence to expose him...

Five years later, he himself resigned from intelligence. But only to return a year later - with documents addressed to a correspondent for the Observer newspaper and the Economist magazine, he went to Beirut. There he “failed” and was forced to flee. His old friend Flora Solomon gave him away. Kim tried to recruit her before the war, and the woman remembered this.

But let’s return to Knightley’s interview, from which it is easy to understand that Kim lived in the USSR for his own pleasure. When the guest arrived, the table was set, which was bursting with dishes: caviar, stellate sturgeon, cold roast beef and other delicacies. They drank whiskey, of course...

It was clear from everything that Philby was not experiencing any problems and lived without denying himself anything. The spy said that since his arrival he had only been to Lubyanka twice, and even then on some unimportant business.

Philby arrived in Moscow when he was barely fifty - a most experienced intelligence officer, a man, as they say, in his prime, but at the same time, he was not used in any way. Strange? Or maybe not. After all, Kim finally “lit up.”

And they were afraid to let him “in public” in case he said something unnecessary. However, there were rumors that he occupied a high position in the KGB.

Philby, by his own admission, spent the first three years of his Moscow life trying to remember and write down everything that he experienced. This probably became the basis for his future book. At this time, the intelligence officer, in fact already a former one, felt great, and his work gave him pleasure.

But then, about a year in 1967 (the KGB was then headed by Yu.V. Andropov. - Ed.), the situation changed: “I received my salary regularly, as before, but there was less and less work... I felt disappointed, became depressed, drank terribly and, even worse, began to doubt whether I had done the right thing...”

A KGB officer was assigned to him, who was responsible for his safety. Philby said that this was not necessary, but the guard was left anyway. Of course, he also kept an eye on the Englishman. Who knows what’s on the mind of this gentleman who still hasn’t really learned to speak Russian? After all, he was probably thinking about his homeland, remembering his first wife, Eileen Fiers, with whom he had four children.

He met her in the archives of the British counterintelligence. And she, already feeling attracted to him, did not refuse her gentleman when he wanted to rummage through business and even take something home. However, other employees also violated the instructions.

Years later, Eileen said that she had no idea who her husband was. And Kim confirmed this. But it could have been the other way around - she loved him and, therefore, kept the secret.

Already in Moscow, Philby married for the last time - to Rufina Pukhova...

By the way, Knightley asked Philby if he missed his homeland. He joked: “Coleman’s mustard and Lee and Perrins sauce?” Forcing a smile, he said that he not only reads newspapers, but also listens to the BBC. I wonder what the sound was like on his radio? After all, then the “enemy voices” were desperately suppressed...

And, by the way, Philby has been abroad more than once. After Cuba I went to Czechoslovakia, then to Bulgaria. To the question - will he write new books? - replied: “No, I’ve already said everything. Maybe there are some technical details left, but materials about them are stored in the archives. I’m tired of this whole story, I’ve had enough.”

The owner of a cozy, beautifully furnished apartment on a quiet street in the center of Moscow said that he enjoyed the privileges of a general. How is his health? After all, he is already 76...

“I have an arrhythmia, and for this reason I was in the hospital,” Philby replied. “They told me that if I take care of myself, stay out of drafts and be careful not to lift heavy objects, I will be fine for several more years.” Alas, a few months after this conversation, Kim Philby retired to his last, eternal “safe” apartment - at the Old Kuntsevo Cemetery...

Knightley never understood how frank the owner was with him. What can be considered truth, what can be considered an agent's story, what can be considered information, and what can be considered misinformation?

In front of him sat a carefully combed and well-dressed man. It was impossible to understand anything from his eyes, although they radiated a benevolent calm. Philby, as Knightley wrote, tried in every possible way to convince him that their meeting was not sanctioned by the KGB. Although, who knows?

Finally, Philby told his guest: “If you ask me to sum up my own life, I will say that I have done more good than bad. Perhaps many will not share my opinion.”

One thing is indisputable - Philby was an amazing, in many ways unsurpassed person. Evidence of this is the numerous secrets that he took to the grave.

Special for the Centenary

(real name Philby Harold Adrian Russell) was born on January 1, 1912 in India, in the family of a British official. He studied at the exclusive Westminster School, and in 1929 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. Here he became close to left-wing circles and, under their influence, joined the University Socialist Society.

According to Philby, the real turning point in his worldview was 1931, which brought a crushing defeat to Labor in the parliamentary elections, showing their helplessness in the face of the growing forces of fascism and reaction. The future intelligence officer became close to the Communist Party, sincerely believing that only communism was able to block the road to the fascist threat.

Philby's progressive views were drawn to the attention of illegal Soviet intelligence officer Arnold Deitch, and in 1933, Soviet intelligence attracted him to cooperation.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Philby worked for some time in the editorial office of The Times newspaper, and then during the Spanish Civil War he was sent as a special correspondent for this newspaper under the Francoist army. There he carried out important tasks for Soviet intelligence.

Philby in 1940, on the recommendation of the station, joined the British intelligence service Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Thanks to his extraordinary abilities, as well as his noble origin, a year later he was appointed deputy chief of counterintelligence of this service (Department B).

The intelligence officer received a promotion in 1944 and was appointed to the post of head of the 9th department of the SIS, which was engaged in the study of “Soviet and communist activities” in Britain. As SIS Resident, Philby served in Turkey and then headed the SIS Liaison Mission in Washington. Established contacts with the leadership of the CIA and FBI, including Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover. He coordinated the activities of American and British intelligence services in the fight against the “communist threat.”

Philby retired in 1955. In August 1956, he was sent to Beirut under the guise of a correspondent for the British publications The Observer and The Economist.

In 1962, Flora Solomon, who knew Philby from working together in the Communist Party, informed the British representative in Israel that in 1937 Philby tried to recruit her for the benefit of Soviet intelligence. Due to the threat of failure in early 1963, Philby, with the help of Soviet intelligence, illegally left Beirut and arrived in Moscow.

From 1963 to 1988, he worked as a foreign intelligence consultant for Western intelligence agencies and participated in the training of intelligence officers. Awarded Soviet government awards.

According to Western estimates, Kim Philby is the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. He was considered for appointment to the post of head of SIS. When Philby's true role was revealed in 1967, former CIA officer Miles Copeland, who knew him personally, stated: "Philby's activities as liaison officer between SIS and the CIA led to the collapse of the entire extremely extensive Western intelligence effort during the The years 1944 to 1951 were fruitless. It would have been better if we had done nothing at all."

Kim Philby is a famous person. Very famous. It's no joke, an illegal Soviet agent who worked in the very heart of British intelligence for about thirty years, and when he found himself on the verge of failure, he simply left for the Soviet Union. Of course, it was not easy to leave, but the main thing was the result. And the result was one hundred percent. In the USSR, Philby is considered one of the greatest intelligence officers of the era. In Great Britain - one of the greatest traitors who caused enormous damage to the interests of the British crown. But, despite such fame, the story of his life, as befits the life story of an intelligence officer of this magnitude, is still shrouded in a slight haze of understatement and raises more questions than it answers.

A boy from a good family

Actually, the Englishman Harold Adrian Russell Philby was born in India. Business as usual for the British Empire. The year was 1912. The family was, as they say, from the elite. "Blue blood". His father, Harry St. John Bridger Philby, was a British official in the government cabinet of the local rajah, that is, he worked, in fact, in the British colonial administration. He also studied oriental studies and was a very famous Arabist. Moreover, Kim (this nickname was given to the future Soviet intelligence officer in childhood in honor of the hero of Kipling’s most popular novel) is a worthy successor to an old English family. His paternal grandfather owned a coffee plantation in Ceylon. And this grandfather’s wife, therefore Philby’s grandmother, was Quinty Duncan. This same grandmother came from a family of hereditary military men. As they would say now - dynasties. And one of the representatives of this dynasty is none other than Field Marshal Montgomery.

On the road to high society

What do we see next in the biographies of Kim Philby? Next we see the usual path of the scion of an old family. He was not raised in India. In England. It was my grandmother who was involved in this matter. Apparently, she raised her well - the boy graduated from Westminster School with honors. Well, in 1929, as befits a future representative of the English elite, he began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge University. But then something unimaginable begins.

Socialist? Can't be!

And then biographers of Kim Philby tell us that he was already a socialist at Cambridge. Yes, a young man from a good family. Old English family and all that. Socialist. Moreover, four years later he finds himself in Austria, where he takes an active part in the work of... the International Organization for Assistance to Revolutionary Fighters. This, so you understand better, is not just an organization of sympathetic slackers. No. This is the communist equivalent of the Red Cross. And it was created by decision of the Comintern.

“Where does a guy get Spanish sadness?”

By the way, yes. Where? Where did all this cool revolutionary communist confusion come from, which ultimately brought Philby to Spain during the civil war, and then to the Soviet Union? We read his biography again and find that one of those who wrote about Harold Adrian Russell Philby reports the most interesting news. It turns out that Philby's dad, the one who was Harry St. John Bridger, was not just an official of the colonial administration. He was an adviser to Winston Churchill, he was Home Secretary in Mesopotamia, he was an adviser and, as they say, a powerful adviser to King Ibn Saud. He converted to Islam with the name Hajj Abdallah, he took a Saudi slave girl as his second wife, he was an English spy, and at the same time... he treated his class with great contempt, considered the British bureaucracy stupid and did not accept the official British policy in the Middle East. This, they say, is where Philby Jr.’s dislike for the British ruling class and socialist sentiments come from. But it turns out that this is not at all surprising, because among the majority of English intellectuals of that time, the rejection of the British establishment was simply off the charts. It was an honor to be a communist, and Marx was an icon. Like this.

The question of when Philby actually began working for Soviet intelligence raises great discrepancies. Everyone, however, agrees that Kim was recruited to work for USSR intelligence by the illegal Soviet intelligence officer Arnold Deitch.

But where and, most importantly, when? Some believe that this happened when Philby was a special correspondent for The Times in Spain, during the civil war there. Someone says that he began working for Soviet intelligence back in England in 1934. Still others also talk about Philby’s Spanish period, but insist that he then worked not for Soviet intelligence in its pure form, but for the intelligence of the Comintern. Although, in principle, this is to a large extent one and the same thing, and besides, there is still a big question: what is this “intelligence of the Comintern”? It is interesting that some authors cite opinions that supposedly belong to British government circles. It seems that they believe that Kim began working for USSR intelligence during the Second World War. Moreover, what is meant, rather, is not the Second World War, but rather our Great Patriotic War, that is, the period since 1941. But this is understandable: the British may simply not want to admit that they hired a Soviet intelligence officer to work for the famous MI6 (SIS). And so it seems that according to their version, he first became a British intelligence officer, and then was recruited by the Soviets.

Rewards of two intelligence services

What is most interesting in the story of Kim Philby is that he was made head of the counterintelligence department in MI6, where he ended up in 1940 thanks to Guy Burgess, who also worked for the USSR. That is, he could actually have unhindered contacts with people suspected of being Soviet spies. It was actually a wonderful cover. And it became even more remarkable in 1944, when Philby was put in charge of the department that dealt with countering Soviet and communist activities in Britain. Kim was generally considered a rising star in British intelligence. He was one of its leaders, working for the Soviet Union not out of fear, but out of conscience. As a result, Philby was awarded by the British and Soviet governments. Moreover, the Soviet awards were very significant: the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The most significant achievements

Soviet intelligence officer Kim Philby has more than enough achievements. After all, he carried out very serious and sensitive tasks for MI6, which means he had an excellent opportunity to transmit important information for the Soviet Union. According to some reports, Philby transferred more than nine hundred documents to Moscow during the Second World War alone.

But, according to his fourth (and last) wife Rufina Pukhova, whom he married when he finally moved to the USSR, he himself considered his main merit to be the information that he transmitted to the center before the famous Battle of Kursk, on the outcome of which largely depended actually the outcome of the war itself.

Kim not only said that the Germans would rely on their heavy tanks, but precisely pointed to the village of Prokhorovka as the site of the main attack. They believed this information, carried out the necessary preparations and... the result is known. But Rufina Pukhova herself focused on another extremely important information transmitted by Philby to Moscow.

This is information that Churchill allegedly put pressure on Truman to force him... to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow.

Perhaps this refers to Operation Unthinkable, which was developed in defensive and offensive versions on Churchill’s instructions already in 1945.

True, they rarely talk about relying on an atomic bomb in this operation. The vast majority of experts agree that this was an operation in which it was planned to use conventional weapons. And it was rejected by the military, who believed that the joint British-American forces would not achieve a quick victory over the USSR, and this would lead to a total war, in fact to the Third World War, in which the chances of victory would become very doubtful.

Failure without failure

It is impossible to say that Philby “failed.” In general, during his career, several times he rescued those Soviet agents who were on the verge of failure.

And in 1951, while working in Washington, including with the CIA and the FBI, he learned that two Soviet agents, Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess, had come under suspicion. Philby, at great risk to himself, warns them and... he himself finds himself under suspicion. Actually on the verge of failure.

Maclean and Burgess, along with Philby and Anthony Blunt, are considered members of the so-called "Cambridge Five", which allegedly represented the core of the Soviet spy network in Britain.

Why "Cambridge"? Because they were all supposedly recruited while studying at Cambridge. Why "five"? Because there is an opinion that initially it was a cell of the Comintern, and such cells consisted of fives. Philby himself scoffed at this. He said that he and the others were not recruited at Cambridge, that each had their own destiny, and they began to work together later. He also argued that there was no Comintern cell in Cambridge, which is why the fifth member of the “five” was not identified, whom they searched for tirelessly, but never found.

By the way, of the four exposed agents, three, Philby, Maclean and Burgess, were successfully transferred to the Soviet Union.

Against war

Yes, after all, why did Philby become a Soviet agent? After all, it’s one thing to be a communist, and quite another to work against your own country.

Rufina Pukhova answers this question simply: Kim was an anti-fascist at his core. He worked not so much for the Soviet Union as against fascism. And then? After all, despite the fact that since 1951 Philby was under the hood of MI6 and MI5, he lasted until 1956. Maybe after the victory he worked against a new war, believing that only the USSR was able to stop it.

At least, he didn’t know for sure that books and films would be written about him.

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was born on January 1, 1912 and died on May 11, 1998. He was a member of the Cambridge Five and one of the best spies of the USSR.

Kim Philby was born in Ambalea, India. He grew up in a wealthy family, his father worked in the British government in India. After leaving school, he entered Trinity College, at the University of Cambridge.

In 1933, Philby's life changed dramatically. He met Arnold Deitch, who, as it turned out later, was an agent of the Soviet Union. Deitch invited Philby to work in Soviet intelligence; Kim agreed without hesitation.

At that time, Kim Philby was often at the epicenter of major world events. He worked for a major newspaper publication, The Times. He also spent some time as a special correspondent for The Times at the epicenter of the Spanish Civil War. Philby began to always be at the center of events and had great access to documents of national importance, which was very valuable for Soviet intelligence.

In 1940, Philby became a member of MI6. He moves up the career ladder quite quickly, and after a few months he finds himself in the chair of deputy chairman of counterintelligence.

In 1944, Kim Philby became the head of the 9th Department of SIS, whose main activity is research and control of communist activities in the United Kingdom.

After the end of World War II, Philby was sent east. He becomes the head of the British intelligence headquarters in Istanbul. At the end of the 1940s, he began close cooperation with the United States, the main goal of which was the destruction of communist power.

In 1955, Philby was forced to resign. They began to suspect him of espionage and working for the Soviet government. He is again sent to work in the Middle East, from where he later moves to the USSR.

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Since 1963, Kim Philby has walked freely along the streets of Moscow. For services to the USSR, he was awarded several honorary orders. Philby's personality is forever included in the archives of world history. He was recognized as one of the best Soviet spies.

Thanks to the actions of this intelligence officer, many British and American operations directed against Soviet power were unsuccessful. Philby was buried at the Old Kuntsevo Cemetery in Moscow.