He was 76. 1944Appointed head of Section IX, newly formed to operate against Communism and the Soviet Union. Image: Barney Beech, The courtyard outside Kim's flat. Ive recorded a podcast with the BBC that will be announced later this year, and my husband and I have bought an old pub that we want to turn into a creative space to make available to charities and people who wouldnt otherwise have access to that, so thats an ongoing project. George Blake, who is still alive, got on well with him than with Philby. Charlotte Philby, 39, is a former investigative reporter and the author of three critically acclaimed spy novels. Inside, however, the lift is as temperamental as it ever was, so I make the journey to his flat by foot, instantly recognising the strange studded-leather front door as I emerge from the stairwell. To order A Spy Among Friends or Kim Philby, each at 14.99 with free UK p&p, call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardianbookshop.co.uk. Standing on the balcony, you can see the same school playground, where children in heavy ski jackets are involved in a timeless game launching themselves from the top of a flight of concrete stairs to the ground below, cushioned with thick blankets of snow. Kim Philby with partner Melinda Maclean (who later returned to her husband and fellow spy, Donald Maclean) walk in the woods outside Moscow in the 1960's, photographed by his son John, Donald Maclean pictured in 1937 whilst on a skiing holiday - he fled to Moscow to escape arrest in Britain as the spy who, for 15 years, had passed state secrets to the Soviet Union, Melinda Maclean and her sons in their last European home in Geneva 1953 -she was slight with curly, dark hair, 'an under-educated, attractive woman who was both affectionate and popular'. But Maclean sobered up and went cold turkey in a detoxification clinic. In 1983, a month or so after my parents took me as a newborn to meet him for the first time, Kim sent a copy of Lenins On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, with a long, beautifully written letter to my maternal grandfather, whom he was unlikely ever to meet. Princess Royal honours Team GB curling stars and Scottish police chief at Palace of Peter Andre launches scathing attack on Prince Harry as he says Duke of Sussex is 'publicly trashing his Take note, Prince Harry! Kims library, which he had shipped over soon after he emerged in the Soviet Union, is testimony to his complexities and to his contradictions: across four walls of bookshelves, Russian classics and key Communist texts stand side by side with Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse novels; there are 19 volumes of Cambridge Modern History and a Sherlock Holmes scrapbook. Philby was a 19-year-old art student when his father was exposed in 1963 as a traitor. 1937Joins The Times as foreign correspondent. Aileen died in 1957, when Tommy was just 11 years old; his contact with his father was cut off as soon as the double spy defected to the USSR in January 1963. She has three children and lives in London. The spy novelist, whose latest book tells the story of her grandfather Kim Philby and the Soviet agent Edith Tudor-Hart, talks about the perils of writing about family, and why female spies get overlooked. A retired CIA agent was once asked what he would say to Kim Philby, an MI5 agent who spied for Joseph Stalin, if he encountered the defector in Moscow. Writing Edith and Kim alongside home schooling and everything else has been a big thing and I feel now is a good time to pause and reflect. Edith and Kim: The brilliant new historical spy novel based on the true story of the woman behind the Cambridge spies in Cold War espionage. But that didnt mean the ideal itself was corrupt or not worth pursuing. As for the drinking, Kim never needed an excuse to crack open a bottle; he was a drinker in good times and in bad. His father had a distinguished past as an explorer and fixer for the region's movers and shakers, and any intelligence Kim could pick up through his father's outstanding contacts would be useful to the bosses in . Im conscious that his story belongs to different people in different ways, within our family and also more widely. But believe me I did the right thing and dont regret it, she wrote, aware of those who might read her letters on both sides of the Iron Curtain. However, Pukhova said the fear that she would leave had helped her husband temper his intake in later years. You should have seen his face.". Published by Charlotte Philby on 12th June 2018. After Donald Maclean fled to Moscow to escape arrest in Britain as the spy who, for 15 years, had passed state secrets to the Soviet Union, friends of his wife, Melinda, found it easy to believe that she knew nothing of her husbands treachery. He had friends, a wife; he indulged himself in a culture he loved the concerts, the ballet, the galleries; he travelled to Cuba, East Berlin, around the Soviet Union, and spent weekends at his beloved dacha. A large amount of the letters in the book are lifted verbatim from those. She and her late father, the spy's eldest son, John, both had to live with continuing speculation about the motivation for Philby's treachery. He married Litzi Friedman, a fellow activist and an Austrian Jew, to help her escape persecution. 1940Recruited by British Secret Services and attached to the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) under Guy Burgess. Donald Maclean, although arrogant and someone who liked a drink too, was regarded as more convivial. P&P free on orders over 15. "But he never got aggressive, and just went to bed. Feeling a strong dissatisfaction with British policy in the Middle East, Kims father resigned from the Foreign Service in 1930, converting to Islam and taking the name Hajj Abdullah. She has been described as "tall and slim, sweet-natured, and restless". Aileen and the children also moved to America and the Philby's took a spacious, ramshackle two-storeyed place at 4100 Nebraska Avenue. The gramophone, in front of which Kim would take a seat to listen to the World Service at 7pm every evening with a cup of coffee, makes a tremendous groan as it comes to life, but its still very much in working nick. On the eve of his 99th birthday, I spent, At Kim's flat with his partner, Rufina. One can hardly overlook the irony of a man who so resolutely betrayed his country, surrounding himself in his Soviet apartment with British condiments, newspapers and light-hearted English classics. But the two men, for so long ideological comrades, fell out. Her mood changed, though, with Stalins death in March 1953 and the prospect that the Soviet Union might now become a more open place. Agent Stanley, as he was known, was ruthless without doubt. But more generally womens roles in espionage have been sidelined, and I wonder if thats because a lot of this history has been recorded by men. Opposites attracted. I am going to England in July for a Filby reunion at the town Filby. And if a soldier is fighting for a cause he believes in, which he believes is worth sacrificing single human lives for, but then in the end his side loses the war, does that mean that he was wrong to have stood up and fought in the first place? My second novel is The Times' Book of the Month for July 2020, Chapman Pincher: The Spy-Catcher of Fleet Street, Edith Tudor-Hart: The grandmother of the Cambridge Spies, John le Carr: The writer who made me want to write, ELLE: An unexpected friendship with the other woman. An Indian Civil Service officer turned Arabist and explorer, he spent 20 years travelling across the desert on camelback charting Saudis unexplored Empty Quarter, crossing paths with Lawrence of Arabia, and eventually marrying a slave-girl given to him by his friend King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, to whom he spent many years as personal advisor. . The boys told a child they met on a beach that the photos he had taken could not be forwarded to them as we are going away and we dont know where we are going. Its my third day in Russia. Kim sacrificed everything he had: he risked his life and the lives of others, he betrayed his colleagues and duped his family and friends (even spying on his own father at one stage, as will be explained shortly) because he genuinely believed from the point when he joined the movement and set his sights against the seemingly irrepressible rise of Fascism that Communism was a cause worth holding dear above all else. Halfway there, they switched cars and drove to a small airport in the Soviet zone of Austria. The spy who beat his wife: The tall, charming and Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map'. Occasionally, the driver would draw a curtain around the inside of the windows, and attach a flashing blue light to the roof before setting off. Journalists look after their own and Philby masqueraded as a devil-may-care drunken newspaperman and so was treated more indulgently by those in his profession.. But I had to find the right way to approach it. References. Of course, he made bold and hugely controversial decisions, some of which had fatal consequences, but he didnt do so lightly. Melinda walked out on her husband, leaving the children with Donald, and moved in with Philby. Guarded night and day by KGB troops, and rigorously de-briefed to make sure they were not double agents, to all intents and purposes they were under house arrest. ", His habit was fuelled by his sorrow over what he saw around him, she added. She was incredibly brave, incredibly loyal; she was completely faithful to the things she loved and believed in, and she had a firm belief that she had to do the right thing. Kim Philby, byname of Harold Adrian Russell Philby, (born January 1, 1912, Ambala, Indiadied May 11, 1988, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), British intelligence officer until 1951 and the most successful Soviet double agent of the Cold War period. A new TV series highlights the part played by the UK intelligence service's Nicholas Elliott in unmasking the 1960s Cambridge spy ring - events he recalled years later over lunch at his club Damian. The basic facts, after all, are well-documented. He travelled extensively, while also making his way up the ranks of the British intelligence services by 1944, Kim was appointed head of a newly formed anti-Soviet section, and was later sent to Washington where, as the top Secret Intelligence Service representative, he worked for several years in liaison with the CIA and FBI. While I was researching this article, Bennett also the author of An Englishman Abroad, in which he imagines Guy Burgesss final years in Moscow: lonely, pathetic and wholly unfulfilled responded to a shorter opinion piece I wrote for this paper last July in which I defended my grandfathers decision not to apologise publicly for his actions. Given a heros burial in Moscows Kuntsevo Cemetery. Image: Barney Beech, A Sunday Times best book of the year, here is Edith and Kim in review - and where to find signed first editions, An interview with Stephanie Merritt about Edith and Kim, the perils of writing about family, and why female spies often get overlooked, From a compendium of stories about life at the Bauhaus to a Modernist memoir by the founder of the iconic Isokon, here are some of the books that inspired my forthcoming novel, For the Telegraph, I wrote about the woman who recruited my grandfather to the Soviets - the subject of my forthcoming novel Edith and Kim, My tribute to the late - and truly great - master of spy fiction, for the i paper, From a celebration of the life of John le Carr at Cheltenham to an exploration of women and crime in Chiswick, please join me at one of the following events, across the country (and the internet!). Many times Ive pored over images of the tall, polished tombstone with the Cyrillic script, and the image of his face etched on its surface, in newspaper cuttings and family photos. In 1949 Kim Philby became SIS representative in Washington, as top British Secret Service officer working in liaison with the CIA and FBI. In his lifetime, Kim married four times, and had five children by his second wife Aileen Furse. . By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org | Was he lamentable for still believing that a Communist state could ultimately exist, free from the corruption which plagues all systems, to the benefit of a fair, just society? She liked it that he was a man with strong beliefs, and agreed to stand by him. Theirs had always been a stormy marriage, punctuated by bad behaviour on both sides and terrible rows. 1929Enters Trinity College, Cambridge. Today, this pedestrianised street is only accessible by a coded gate, and the faade of the building has been tarted up almost beyond recognition. And he kept his word to the end." Donald refused to become part of the twilight brigade community of defectors, down-at-heel, disillusioned and wondering how they had got there. Back in England, begins to cover up his past, joining the Anglo-German Fellowship, editing its pro-Hitler magazine. In 1963, having been exposed in Britain as the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge Spy Ring, Kim fled to Moscow, never again to set foot from behind the Iron Curtain. 1963Disappears in Beirut on 23 January. He needed a secret sharer in his life as well as someone to admire him. Charlotte is the granddaughter of Kim Philby, Britain's most famous communist double-agent, the elusive 'third man' in the notorious Cambridge spy ring. Death. In fact, he had arrived in Moscow days earlier, and can be seen on film standing just back from his fathers coffin. No doubt your grandfather would have disapproved of the sharp contrasts in present-day Russia, he said. As for Melinda the central figure in the circle of loyalty and secrecy, desertion and reconciliation, love and solitariness that was the human drama of Donald Macleans life she lived well into her 90s before dying in New York in 2010, silent to the end about her years with one of Britains most infamous traitors. The little blue pill really is magic! In the programme for his play Single Spies, the writer Alan Bennett printed a claim that my dad had turned up late to his own fathers funeral, straight from the airport, and stood swaying behind a gravestone clutching bags of booze. As Kims former KGB colleague also reiterated on the phone: Kim was a Communist idealist. Elegant Princess of Wales is all smiles as she plays with children on visit to a nursery amid backlash over Thrifty Kate strikes again! Philby spied on his poor wife Aileen, the mother of his children His passage up to the highest levels of MI6 was so swift and easy that from time to time his Soviet controllers worried he must. She was a horsey product of the. In Philbys own eyes he was working for the shape of things to come from which his country would benefit., Kim went to great efforts upon his return to England to cover the traces of his Communist background joining the Anglo-German fellowship in 1934, and editing its pro-Hitler magazine. He died in 1983 at the age of 69, recording beforehand that I do not at all regret having done what seemed and still seems to me my duty. She hoped Donald would now find a way of getting in touch with her. Many of the street names have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Rebuilding it meant forging a unique friendship with the very woman he left her for. Two years later, a Sunday Times correspondent was in Moscow and about to pack his bags after an unsuccessful attempt to interview the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, when, out of the blue, he was invited to a room in his hotel. He was tall and fair; she was slight with curly, dark hair. Kim Philby, British intelligence officer and member of the Cambridge Five, defected to the Soviet Union in 1963. A plaque in his honour was unveiled by the head of the foreign intelligence service at its headquarters in Moscow in December. What counted though against Blunt, and Burgess too, was that they werent journo-friendly. According to a recent piece in the Daily Telegraph: For years Philby had sabotaged Allied missions behind the Iron Curtain and had calculatedly sent dozens of agents to their deaths. Most famously, he was almost certainly responsible for the tip-off which led to the deaths of the first British-sponsored Albanians who parachuted in to remove Enver Hoxhas Communist regime. A Double Life: The Times & Observers Thriller of the Month. 1942Marries Aileen Furse, with whom he has two daughters and three sons. children: John David Philby Josephine F. Philby Dudley Thomas Philby Miranda Philby Harry George Philby Birth. That was my dad leaving to go to Kims funeral [in 1988] and we were hounded by paparazzi. because he "didn't want his children, who were used to life of freedom, to suffer life of oppression". For another, hed made his bed. Anthony Blunt referred to her as the grandmother of the Cambridge spies. Which author do you most admire?I dont have favourites, but I love Helen Dunmore. Life in Moscow. She flirted with other men and had affairs. Your email address will not be published. children: Dudley Thomas Philby, Harry George Philby, John David Philby, Josephine F. Philby, Josephine Philby, Miranda Philby, Tommy Philby Born Country: India Spies British Men Died on: May 11, 1988 place of death: Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Cause of Death: Heart Failure More Facts Recommended Lists: British Celebrities Russian Celebrities Kim Philby was born on January 1, 1912 in Ambala, Punjab, British India [now Haryana, India]. birth date: 1912-01-01. birth place: Ambala. Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan states in Parliament that there is no evidence of Philby having betrayed the interests of Britain. When the news broke in Britain that she, too, had defected, the Press rounded on Melinda, turning the pathetic and lonely figure theyd previously portrayed her as into a scheming deceiver. November 16, 2017. And at every turn, the story is slightly different, the answer ever less clear: the more his character has come under scrutiny, the more elusive he has become. The fight against Fascism and the fight against imperialism were fundamentally the same fight.. Kim Philby drank while Guy Burgess, who was gay, missed his friends in London, including Anthony Blunt whose spying activities, though known to the government, were kept under wraps until they. One of the first tasks he was given was to spy on his own father, which he did, without question digging up very little, because, though the Russians failed to believe it, there was nothing to dig up. 1951Tips off fellow Cambridge Spy Donald Maclean that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Melinda, it turned out, had driven to Lausanne, where tickets were waiting and luggage had been left in a station locker. "There was one funny incident," she remembered. 21 offers from $10.67. While a student at the University of Cambridge, Philby became a communist and in 1933 a Soviet agent. But her latest article contains several interesting anecdotes, including an episode at Moscows Sheremetyevo International Airport, when Soviet airport staff scrambled frantically to work around the fact that they had accidentally scheduled [the Philbys, who were returning from visiting Kim,] on the same flight back to London as the British ambassador, who was wafting around the terminal in a pinstripe suit. The extent of these contrasts can be seen by comparing two articles appearing on consecutive days in the Moscow Times. But out of a smaller window, in front of the door, the view of Moscow is interrupted by a throbbing neon Samsung advert. St John, who had joined the British Foreign Service in 1917, when his only son was five years old, was also a non-conformist. Meets Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. After five years of silence, communications were re-established with family and friends. ", Pukhova, now 78, said she was irritated by stories about Philby's drink problem, but admitted he wasn't always able to stick to his two-glass rule. The Second Woman: Best new fiction, Mail on Sunday. Once hed gone, she rode out the public furore, the door-stepping journalists, the MI5 questioning, the abuse and insinuations, the bullying of her sons at school. While working as a senior member of British intelligence, he spied on behalf of the Soviet KGB and NKVD from the early 1930s until 1963, when he defected to Moscow. By the time she left Russia, Maclean was in his final decline, in and out of hospital with cancer from his lifetime of smoking. She would be his silent witness for all the difficult years ahead. It had been a long time coming. And while on holiday in Majorca, she gave away a lot of her clothes to the maid of a family she was staying with. Philby still dismissed from Foreign Service for his association with Burgess. Maclean and Burgess escape to Russia. Some could never quite come to terms that he was a traitor. She flew to New York to see her daughter Annie, and it was there that several letters arrived from Philby. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. He liked the fact that you could only buy seasonal goods in Moscow, but asked family members to bring out the non-perishables he loved and couldnt get there marmalade, Marmite and Worcestershire sauce. The Philby talent for putting on an act has been inherited by Charlotte, in a sense: she worked in theatre as a child, training with Anna Scher, whose radical Islington theatre group has spotted such talent as Kathy Burke and Phil Daniels. Philby had defected to the Soviet Union from Beirut in 1963, and was treated with respect, but felt isolated. Those are the facts but there are plenty of question marks too. She also helped find homes for Kindertransport children and during the Second World War helped set up the British Restaurants for people who had been bombed in the Blitz. In fact, he had arrived in Moscow days earlier, and can be seen on film standing just back from his fathers coffin. During our stay, more mourners piled in, their cries and moans ricocheting off the walls. In this article for The Independent Magazine, I returned to Moscow to discover the truth about my grandfather, the infamous Third Man. In a secluded area next to the domed restaurant (one of Kims favourites), the dimly lit bar is serviced by grey-skinned waiters; faux-marble columns run between clusters of heavy red and gold chairs, frequented by groups of men in out-dated suits, briefcases and thick-rimmed glasses, knocking back glasses of vodka, under a thick circle of cigarette smoke. Perhaps its too early to judge; after all, Communism, according to its followers, is the final epoch, inevitable only once all other systems have eaten themselves which, of course, they will. He became more optimistic once the family was deemed fully rehabilitated and they moved to Moscow in 1955. Philby's less attractive personal qualities were matched by a charm to which many of his MI6 colleagues succumbed. We got together in our cabin to discuss our plans. At one stage, in the programme for his play Single Spies, the writer Alan Bennett printed a claim that my dad John had turned up late to his own fathers funeral, straight from the airport, and stood swaying behind a gravestone clutching bags of booze. "If he continued drinking, he got inebriated quickly and changed in front of your eyes," she said. Just beyond the crossroads which dominates Pushkin Square the spot where its said dissidents would meet, acknowledging each other by removing their hats is the former site of the Hotel Minsk (like much of the city, now under a lengthy reconstruction process), where Kim first met the journalist Murray Sayle in 1967. But the place where Kims presence looms largest from every corner is in his study. Kim Philby drank while Guy Burgess, who was gay, missed his friends in London, including Anthony Blunt whose spying activities, though known to the government, were kept under wraps until they were exposed much later, in 1979. He barely embraced his wife. Kim even duped his own children, and left them behind when he fled to Moscow. 1912Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby is born on 1 January in Amballa, India, the son of Dora and St John. Kim Philby was unmasked as a Soviet double agent in July 1963 when . Without a word, he steps out in his long dark trench coat and buffed-leather shoes, opening the back door for me to follow. He said, 'Why do old people live so badly here? He didnt seem to mind that their marriage was over. Eventually, Melinda went back to her home country, the U.S., bringing to an end nearly 40 years of endurance, loyalty and betrayal. As the icy breeze hits our cheeks, he points towards a raised tomb set forward slightly from the rest: Yeltsins mama, he explains. Heads to Vienna to serve the movement there. In Spain, reports the Civil War from General Francos side, and is awarded the Red Cross of Military Merit by Franco. This is the first time Ive ever stood at the foot of my grandfathers grave, but I know it instantly. Philby had other less damaging routines: a cup of Russian tea at 7am and English tea with milk at 5pm, drunk from a fine porcelain cup. But I dont think my grandfather ever questioned a single decision he made. But as the author Graham Greene my grandfathers close friend and a fellow British intelligence officer, who worked under him at MI6 wrote in the introduction to Kims autobiography, My Silent War: The end, of course, in his eyes is held to justify the means, but this is a view taken, perhaps less openly, by most men involved in politics, if we are to judge them by their actions, whether the politician be a Disraeli or a Wilson. Inside, the atrium leading to the main sorting office and collection point is now dotted with stalls selling electronic goods, pricey mobile-phone accessories and flowers at 3 a stem. Five minutes later, Im watching the shadow of a tall, leafless tree falling against the snow on the path in front of my grandfathers tombstone, wondering who it was whod been here in the past few hours and placed a bunch of brightly coloured flowers at the foot of his grave. So, perhaps, by the time he died, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall and knowing what he must have known by then he did feel disappointed. When author Charlotte Philby's partner ended their relationship, her world fell apart. Later, I notice the same sign above a statue of Lenin near the former KGB headquarters. This is absolutely the best place for us. Macleans outward calm in the face of exile was greatly bolstered by his wifes support. Burgess did not cope well. Eleanor found Melinda amusing but nervous and highly strung and yearning for the luxuries of Western capitalism. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. Required fields are marked *. Kim Philbys oldest son, has penned an extensive account of her memories of her grandfather. Shes always cast as a bit player if shes mentioned at all, but she was a remarkable woman. The pair got on well in those later years they were very similar in many ways and my father said he never felt any resentment, not even when he unfairly came under fire by virtue of his name. To see through to the end what he started? Prince and Princess of Wales pay tribute to Auschwitz survivor Zigi Shipper, who dedicated his life to No rest for Anne! But whether that came with any sense of self-pity is something else entirely. The pair returned to England in May and, by this point already an appointed Soviet agent, Kim found work as a foreign correspondent. Your email address will not be published. John Philby, who has died aged 65, was the eldest son of the Russian spy Kim Philby, unmasked in 1963 as a double agent and the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s. But even then, having made calculated decisions based on deeply-felt political ideals, I still dont think he would have done things any differently. There are two more mobile-phone shops inside the post-office building, and on the steps, a babushka swathed in heavy furs and surrounded by plastic bags counts out a handful of pennies. Whatever you believe, Kim felt history would prove him right: Ill be remembered as a good man, he told my mum just two years before his death. "He once even said that it was the easiest way to bring life to an end. Donald Maclean pictured in his teens whilst at Gresham School - he fell for Melinda the moment he met her among the bohemian set he socialised with in Paris, Donald Maclean Soviet was Third Secretary in Paris for the British Embassy and stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries in the back row, (second from the right), Donald Maclean (arrowed in the second rank) taking part in an anti-war march in Cambridge in 1933.

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