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. Today, Moscows main strip, Tverskaya Ryad which I remember from childhood holidays as a drab grey stretch clotted with queues of people who looked like they didnt know what they were waiting for (though it was usually oranges or ice cream) is barely recognisable: a knot of designer stores and mobile-phone shops, interspersed with garish billboards hanging between the buildings above the busy main road. 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. But more importantly, every decision he made was done consciously. Mid-morning, wrapped against the cold in Kims old bear hat and a matching coat (its too cold here for animal rights), I set off from my hotel with a map and enough money for the metro and taxi Ill need to take me from the station to the cemetery off the Mozhaisk highway. 1957Aileen Furse, Philbys second wife, dies. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Kim Philby in Russia in 1968, five years after defecting. 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. He drank to excess, hit her, and often disappeared. Of course, he made bold and hugely controversial decisions, some of which had fatal consequences, but he didnt do so lightly. When I asked my dad, shortly before he died late last year, how hed felt about his own fathers betrayal, he told me exactly what Kim had told Sayle during that interview in 1963: To betray, you must first belong. And as Kim said himself: I never belonged. My dad always had great respect for my grandfather; he told me that even when he was a child, he always knew he was up to something he just didnt know what. 1958Marries Eleanor Brewer, an American. 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. Indeed, when the leading Russian writer Genrikh Borovik was given access to Kims unseen KGB file in 1994 six years after his death the extent to which the Russians mistrusted him became clear. Today, standing at last at his final resting place, surrounded by ex-prime ministers and national heroes in an isolated cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow, with two perfect strangers looming behind me, Im once again reminded of quite how different he was. Those are the facts but there are plenty of question marks too. 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. Of course, if there is a conflict, the political person comes first.. This is not the first time Charlotte Philby has written in defense of her grandfathers actions. Over the years he did everything that was asked of him: he gave everything he had to the cause, and yet still Moscow was deeply suspicious of a man who has been described as their finest and most loyal servant. It was bad enough with Kim and the Cambridge spies showing up the British establishment, but the idea that this foreign Jewish woman might run rings around men in positions of authority, perhaps that was embarrassing for them. In her article, published yesterday in British daily The Independent, she describes Kim Philby as "a proud man, and one who chose to publicly stand by his actions". 1940Recruited by British Secret Services and attached to the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) under Guy Burgess. Melinda, it turned out, had driven to Lausanne, where tickets were waiting and luggage had been left in a station locker. 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. Primary Sources. When her brother-in-law, Alan Maclean, asked her whether she would join Donald if she knew for sure that he was behind the Iron Curtain, she gave a firm No. 23. Princess Anne is the 'perfect' example of a spare thanks to her 'sense of duty', Charles's first royal RSVP! Now, in an attempt to impose some order on my own understanding of my grandfather, to clarify the kaleidoscopic image of him which has formed in my mind, I have returned for the first time as an adult to the country where, in political exile, he lived out the last 25 years of his life. But out of a smaller window, in front of the door, the view of Moscow is interrupted by a throbbing neon Samsung advert. 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. 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'. The view from one of the windows is notably different, too. The Second Woman: Best new fiction, Mail on Sunday. Your email address will not be published. As well as being my grandfather whom I remember from childhood trips to Russia as a funny old man with a beaming smile, who dressed almost exclusively in white vests and braces Kim Philby, to this day, remains one of the most significant double agents in modern history. No doubt your grandfather would have disapproved of the sharp contrasts in present-day Russia, he said. Kim Philby was born on January 1, 1912 in Ambala, Punjab, British India [now Haryana, India]. She has three children and lives in London. Born in India in 1912, Philby became a communist sympathiser after leaving Cambridge and began working as a KGB informer in the mid 1930s in London. 58. 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. There have been endless attempts to understand how this gregarious, public-school educated English chap and his fellow Cambridge spies could have been persuaded to betray their country, and dupe their family and their friends. Melinda put the bravest of faces on her situation when she wrote to her still grief-stricken mother that she understood the suffering she had caused. And here he was struck by disappointment, brought to tears. His wife Eleanor joined him in Moscow, and the Philbys and the Macleans spent a lot of time together, going to the ballet or just having dinner and playing bridge. Perhaps. Grandpas flat is almost exactly as he left it: After Kim left, I didnt want to change anything, Rufa says. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. His eldest son was my father, John - who was himself a 19-year-old art student in 1963 when he first learnt of Kim's espionage; stepping off a ferry on the Isle of Wight, he was met by a billboard stating that Kim was a wanted man. Was that a selfish decision? Debt-ridden couple killed their dog and then shot themselves dead with shotgun on the day they were due to Rishi Sunak says he is 'ensuring the safety of women and children' by blocking Scottish gender law as SNP Let them eat cake! He was 76. 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. In 1951, Kim tipped off his fellow Cambridge spy Donald Maclean that Britain had caught wind of Macleans spying activities and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Best thrillers for July 2021, The Times. But, after a silence of nearly five years, here was the first actual sighting and confirmation that the runaways were alive. Despite the number of times we visited Kim in Moscow, no one in the family was ever allowed to have his address. This is absolutely the best place for us. In time, details emerged of their lives after they defected. The first reports that Russia ranks 143rd in a list of the worlds freest economies, just one spot higher than countries with repressed economies like Vietnam, Ecuador, Belarus and Ukraine, while the next tells how oligarch Roman Abramovich, whose wealth is valued at 7 billion, has just snapped up 35 notable artworks to decorate his 560ft private yacht. Philby was a 19-year-old art student when his father was exposed in 1963 as a traitor. Inside he wrote: Herewith a few extracts from our bible. 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; making repeated visits to Berlin for talks with the German propaganda ministry; even being personally presented with the Red Cross of Military Merit award by Franco in 1938. His eldest son was my father, John who was himself a 19-year-old art student in 1963 when he first learnt of Kims espionage; stepping off a ferry on the Isle of Wight, he was met by a billboard stating that Kim was a wanted man. But as the months turned into years and no word came from him, she sank into depression at the realisation that she was now bringing up their children alone. 1965Awarded the Order of the Red Banner, one of the Soviet Unions highest military honours. If we were really lucky, sometimes and this was still the 1980s thered be a distant ringing, and from a compartment near the gear stick, our escort would pull out a telephone attached to a spiral cord, which hed talk into in a low voice, repeating the same two words, horosho and da, again and again before hanging up. Philby had defected to the Soviet Union from Beirut in 1963, and was treated with respect, but felt isolated. There are so many ways that Kims choices have continued to occupy my mind since my dad died in 2009, but I do feel that this book draws a line under it. Anthony Blunt referred to her as the grandmother of the Cambridge spies. Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan states in Parliament that there is no evidence of Philby having betrayed the interests of Britain. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The Philby case has always fascinated me. . 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 And he kept his word to the end." 1934Marries Communist Jew Litzi Friedman. 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. [1] Philby began his work for the Soviet Union as a spy in 1934. He worked as a journalist until 1940, when Guy . 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. But such treatment did not last and they were quickly dispatched to the closed city of Kuybyshev, 600 miles east of Moscow far away, they were told, from British assassination squads. That was my dad leaving to go to Kims funeral [in 1988] and we were hounded by paparazzi. Where do you write?I wrote Edith and Kim all over the place because weve been in the process of moving house for the past couple of years, but now I have a shed at the bottom of our garden where I can feel Im in the middle of nowhere, and Im never leaving! 1933Leaves Cambridge a convinced Communist. And while on holiday in Majorca, she gave away a lot of her clothes to the maid of a family she was staying with. 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. 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. Recently I found a paparazzo shot of my dad with a suitcase getting into a car and me, aged five, looking into the camera, and I had this moment of recognition. In fact, he had arrived in Moscow days earlier, and can be seen on film standing just back from his fathers coffin. 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. Its my third day in Russia. The shiny black 44 rumbles slowly through the graveyard. Entering through the front doors and under a rickety, freestanding metal detector, its like walking through a time-warp. By the time she left Russia, Maclean was in his final decline, in and out of hospital with cancer from his lifetime of smoking. He claimed he made the admission to her to excuse his lateness for their meetings when he was busy handling documents and rendezvousing with his Soviet handler. Looking around Kims study now, past the proud photo of him with the local ice-hockey team, below one of his father and another of various key Soviet politicians shaking hands, my eye is drawn to a large black-and-white print of Che Guevara, which looks out from above one of the bookshelves in the far right-hand corner, like an all-seeing eye. The KGB's only object in the world is to destroy me and the agency. In those days, correspondence had to be sent to a PO Box; and in his reply, Kim would sign off under a special code name, Panina (a combination of Pa and Nina, the alias used for Kims wife). He was previously married to Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova, Eleanor Brewer, Aileen Furse and Litzi Friedmann. She flew to New York to see her daughter Annie, and it was there that several letters arrived from Philby. Burgess did not cope well. Thanks for this post. Spy Among Friends : Philby and the Great Betrayal, Paperback by MacIntyre, Ben, ISBN 1408851784, ISBN-13 9781408851784, Brand New, Free shipping in the US<br><br> He was happy in Moscow and fulfilled by his work. Melinda, now officially Natasha Frazer, hated Kuybyshev, which she found very primitive, and for a while Donald was depressed and disillusioned by the reality of Soviet Russia. Burgess predeceased him by 20 years, carried off by angina, an abused liver and hardening of the arteries. Kim even duped his own children, and left them behind when he fled to Moscow. He believed in freedom of speech and thought that Stalinism and all that were temporary and obviously, the outcome proved otherwise. Image: Barney Beech, The courtyard outside Kim's flat. Viktor Suvorov . Later arrives in Russia. On their first night in Moscow, an elated Burgess and Maclean had dined in style on a great hotel balcony on the first floor overlooking the Kremlin and got drunk on vodka. Next to articles about him online, readers routinely describe him as evil and a cancer on society. Her mood changed, though, with Stalins death in March 1953 and the prospect that the Soviet Union might now become a more open place. He would say we and our when speaking of the Soviet Union and defended his adopted countrys brutal crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 an event that disgusted many Left-wing supporters back in the UK. Kims case was not helped by the fact that several of his Soviet controllers including Mar, the man who recruited him had later been executed as enemies of the people. November 16, 2017. 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. Her fourth novel, Edith and Kim, tells the linked stories of her grandfather and Edith Tudor-Hart, a Jewish photojournalist born in Vienna, who studied at the Bauhaus, married an Englishman, worked as a Soviet agent in London and introduced Kim to his Russian handler. He needed a secret sharer in his life as well as someone to admire him. He feared that she would dump him because he was just a boring official in the British diplomatic service so to make myself look better and more important, I told her the reason why I led such a life. But at the famous Secret Trial in 1952, he convinced his MI5 interrogator Buster Milmo that he was not a Soviet agent. Halfway there, they switched cars and drove to a small airport in the Soviet zone of Austria. She cashed a substantial cheque, bought her toddler daughter some new clothes and settled an outstanding garage bill. Philby exposed. The last time I arrived at this flat, aged six, it was just a few days after Kims death, and my parents and I were met by a sea of swollen eyes. What are you currently reading?Im trying to reconnect with what made me fall in love with books and the process of writing so Im going back to reread some of the books that feel seminal for me: The Beach, The Child in Time, White Teeth, Disgrace, The Poisonwood Bible and The Peoples Act of Love. In his diary for the London Review of Books, Bennett wrote: Philby does seem to have been responsible for the betrayal and presumed torture and death of a network of agents in a way thats never been proved of Blunt. Chicago-born Melinda, whom he married in France in 1940, knew all along that Donald was a spy. But I had to find the right way to approach it. Maclean was unsure how to act, feeling a mixture of guilt and love, not knowing where he stood with the children he had abandoned and not been able to contact. Offer valid until May 1, 2018. A plaque in his honour was unveiled by the head of the foreign intelligence service at its headquarters in Moscow in December. 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. While a student at the University of Cambridge, Philby became a communist and in 1933 a Soviet agent. Philby is summoned for interrogation and asked to resign from Foreign Service. Yesterday, in our serialisation of an electrifying biography based on newly released papers, we heard how he fled to Moscow just as he was about to be arrested leaving behind his supposedly innocent wife. As I walk towards it, the title of the Anthony Trollope novel jumps out at me: He Knew He Was Right. At the sight of our car, the men leap from their posts, saluting and buzzing the electric gates; one jumps into the front seat and calls out instructions as we roll off again. Then she drove off with the children. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. A few days after her return to Switzerland, she told her mother she had run into an old friend in the local market and hed invited her and the children to stay with him for the weekend in his villa at the other end of Lake Geneva. The reporter adds that Kim demonstrated an iron head for drink during the course of their subsequent meetings, which took place over a series of long, boozy meals: I could detect no change in his alertness or joviality as the waiter arrived with relays of 300 grams of vodka or 600 grams of Armenian brandy. Like my father, Kim had amazing stamina for drink; the pair of them would knock it back over games of chess at the flat in Moscow (while I ran around wreaking havoc in the living room) and on the long trips to Siberia and Bulgaria they took together. He was tall and fair; she was slight with curly, dark hair. For one thing, Kims life behind the Iron Curtain wasnt bad. Laying flowers at my grandfather's grave. Philby still dismissed from Foreign Service for his association with Burgess. Her fourth novel, Edith and Kim, tells the linked stories of her grandfather and Edith Tudor-Hart, a Jewish photojournalist born in Vienna, who studied at the Bauhaus, married an Englishman,. 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. Regardless of what I think of her ideology, I greatly admire the fact that she was able to hold these various parts of her life being a photographer, being a single mother alongside being a revolutionary, feeling that she could change the world. 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. They took the train to Zurich, where they changed trains to Schwarzach in Austria. Kim leapt up and shouted, 'Whoever is rude to my wife is rude to me!' But I dont think my grandfather ever questioned a single decision he made. We walk on in silence; the others hold back, bowing their heads, as I take my place in front of another plot a few feet away. P&P free on orders over 15. There are things I know for certain about my grandfather. Part of the Family and A Double Life are available now. 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. But we visited Kim in Moscow and those holidays form some of my earliest memories, so it wasnt like he was a secret. There, a tall man in a blue suit and red bow-tie held out his hand and said: I am Donald Maclean. With him in the room was Guy Burgess. Charlotte Philby, 39, is a former investigative reporter and the author of three critically acclaimed spy novels. To the very end, as I find out when I set foot into his flat, Kim surrounded himself with things pertaining to British culture and life on the other side of the Iron Curtain: from PG Wodehouse novels to the Indian spices he used for his legendary curries. I am going to England in July for a Filby reunion at the town Filby. Image: Barney Beech, Kim's graveside, at Kuntsovo Cemetry. Opposites attracted. Kims chair, on which no one else, under any circumstances, was ever allowed to sit while he was alive and for many years thereafter, Rufa adds remains just where it was, at the head of a low table. 1929Enters Trinity College, Cambridge. 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. Maclean accused Philby of being a double agent working for the British and they stopped speaking. For another, hed made his bed. Philby was a chap. Little Donald said perhaps he had gone to India because that would be a good place to hide., Donald Maclean with his wife Melinda Marling and his two sons Ronald and Fergus in the 50s, Wanted pictures are posted at a Berlin checkpoint for Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, Guy Burgess (pictured) did not cope well to life in the Soviet Union - he got drunk and roamed Kuybyshev looking for action, on one occasion having his teeth knocked out in a brawl. 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. Fergus announced to some children with whom he was playing that My Daddy wants to stop all wars. He said, 'Why do old people live so badly here? And perhaps he felt that he certainly resented having to be escorted pretty much wherever he went for his first years in Moscow, as Rufa attests. And this was the line Melinda presented to MI5 after his defection with fellow mole Guy Burgess: she had been every bit as duped as theyd been. Bennett concludes: Charlotte Philby thinks her grandfather was more honest, but its a saloon-bar honesty. Im reminded of a brief phone conversation I had earlier this morning with one of Kims old KGB comrades, whom Id been in contact with during the course of my research for this article, who told me that a gang of five or six of Kims former colleagues still meet up every month and raise a toast in his honour. 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. Today, this pedestrianised street is only accessible by a coded gate, and the faade of the building has been tarted up almost beyond recognition. A Double Life: The Times & Observers Thriller of the Month. When Bennett was pulled up on the matter, he wrote my father a note explaining that he stood by what hed said as the information had come from a reliable source a BBC journalist. Harold Adrian Russell " Kim " Philby ORB, OL ODN (1 January 1912 - 11 May 1988) [1] was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. One of Kims old KGB comrades, whom Id been in contact with during the course of my research for this article, told me that a gang of five or six of Kims former colleagues still meet up every month and raise a toast in his honour. Doubtless Jeremiah faced similar problems.. Philby's less attractive personal qualities were matched by a charm to which many of his MI6 colleagues succumbed. He did all he could do for a cause he believed in: what was there to regret? 4.1 out of 5 stars. 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. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. Although she would be left pitied, even censured, and alone in a country in which she had spent barely one-tenth of her life, it might be better that he should be free to live a new life in Moscow than spend a decade behind bars. The Soviet authorities buried him with honors when he died in 1988. I think part of the appeal of writing this book was trying to reconcile the ways in which Ive come to understand him: as a grandfather; a father; a friend; a traitor; an idealist. Cambridge-educated Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby became close friends in 1940, when they were both working in separate departments of the British Intelligence . She is also the granddaughter of Kim Philby, the notorious double-agent known as the third man in the Cambridge spy ring. 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. In the intervening years, there have been endless attempts to understand how this gregarious, public-school educated English chap and his fellow Cambridge spies Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross could have been persuaded to betray their country, and dupe their family and their friends. When I happened upon the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, I knew that she was the person I had to write about. Hed been worried about leaving her and their children to carry on without him, but shed given him the all-clear to go. Some could never quite come to terms that he was a traitor. What counted though against Blunt, and Burgess too, was that they werent journo-friendly. Did you feel that as you uncovered her story?I feel a huge amount of sympathy for her situation, and admiration, really. Meets Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Having secured Kims first meeting with the Western press since his arrival in Moscow, Sayle says he finds him a courteous man [who] smiles a great deal, and his well-cut grey hair and ruddy complexion suggests vitality and enjoyment of life. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. His ashes were brought back to England, as he had requested, and buried in his parents grave after dark and by torchlight so that the press would not get wind of it. He betrayed his country yes, perhaps he did, Greene continues, but who among us has not committed treason to something or someone more important than a country? I am a private person and a political person. 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. 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. 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. Getty Images In the USSR, Philby essentially became an honorary pensioner: he passed on to Soviet intelligence everything he. In his lifetime, Kim married four times, and had five children by his second wife Aileen Furse. ", 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. Kim Philby was unmasked as a Soviet double agent in July 1963 when . . How much more so when its your own family?My relationship to my grandfather is complex and constantly evolving. Two hours later, wind-battered and almost frozen solid, I finally arrive at the gates of the busy cemetery, where, hoping the guard might be able to point me in the right direction, I scrawl down my grandfathers name and the word Communist on an old tissue, and flash my driving licence. . A large amount of the letters in the book are lifted verbatim from those. His cover story was that he was a political migr, a trade union leader persecuted in England for his political views. Shes a sympathetic character in the novel. What are you writing next?After publishing four novels in four years, Im taking more time to write the next one. Online calculator reveals how inflation-busting 14.4% hike will Do not sell or share my personal information. 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 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. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. St John, who had joined the British Foreign Service in 1917, when his only son was five years old, was also a non-conformist. In the middle of the bookcase behind his desk, above his empty chair, just where Kims head would have rested, a single book looms out, cover first. Just five years ago, my mum and I were refused service in a shop in Arizona on account of the name on our credit cards. But they were quasi-spy novels so I ended up talking about them in relation to his story anyway. Were you always aware that your family had this extraordinary history? 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. The fight against Fascism and the fight against imperialism were fundamentally the same fight.. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secrets to the Soviets during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. When they had not returned on the Sunday night, her mother was frantic. Philby was a 25-year-old reporter for The Times and had just returned from covering the Spanish Civil War when he met rebellious Aileen Furse in London in 1937. As the icy breeze hits our cheeks, he points towards a raised tomb set forward slightly from the rest: Yeltsins mama, he explains. She hoped Donald would now find a way of getting in touch with her. 1925Attends Westminster School in London. She was an object of both pity and fascination, and to get away from it all, she moved from their house on the Kent-Surrey border to Switzerland, with her mother. 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. En route, I pass some of Kims old haunts, and heeding his advice to visitors If you can no longer feel your nose, go inside stop off briefly for coffee at that famous Soviet hangout the Hotel Metropole. Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Extinction Rebellion douse the Home Office building in black paint, Harrowing moment woman begs father not to kill himself, Motorists slowly drive down snowy hill in treacherous conditions, Shamima Begum never considered turning back during journey to ISIS, Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. For some, details like this have fuelled the question of whether arriving for the first time ever in the country for which hed sacrificed everything, which was supposed to represent everything hed fought for, and where he would live out the rest of his days in exile he became disillusioned and embittered, and longed instead for the land hed betrayed. Death. She put the two boys into the International School in Geneva and finally explained to them what had happened to their father, reporting to her sister that their worst fear seems to be that I might vanish too. The basic facts, after all, are well-documented. A timely, gripping and morally complex thriller. THE SECOND WOMAN - the third of three connected, stand-alone novels - is available now, A Double Life is included in the Times' critics' round-up of the best thrillers of 2020, 'Superbly crafted with heart-stopping twists and chills galore.' In the living room, the same furs hang above the sofa, alongside a pair of Afghan guns a gift from the KGB colleague whom I spoke to earlier. Just Stop Oil protester avoids jail after moaning that he had 'ruined his life' and damaged his relationship Millionaire businessman, 44, found with 10,000 worth of magic mushrooms growing in bathroom of his home in Was it all for the cameras? No doubt your grandfather would have disapproved of the sharp contrasts in present-day Russia, he said. She would be his silent witness for all the difficult years ahead. He got drunk and roamed Kuybyshev looking for action, on one occasion having his teeth knocked out in a brawl. Prince and Princess of Wales pay tribute to Auschwitz survivor Zigi Shipper, who dedicated his life to No rest for Anne! Was he wrong to have continued on the Communist path once so many others had stepped off? Agent Stanley, as he was known, was ruthless without doubt. 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? 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. Youve written three previous novels about espionage and betrayal did you need to approach that world obliquely before tackling Kims story?I was adamant that I didnt want to write about Kim because ironically I didnt want to define myself through his life. Charlotte Philby was only five years old when Kim died, but says she vividly remembers her grandfathers small modest flat several floors above ground level, in central Moscow, as well as the epic games of chess [the double spy played with her] dad over several glasses of whiskey when the family would visit him in Russia. The committee is serving as the unwitting instrument of the KGB." Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a double agent before defecting to Soviet Union in 1963. Rather than angrily confront Philby, the American stated he would ask with considerable satisfaction, "How do . He wasnt one to care what others thought: Never be boring, and dont be afraid of offending people was one of the last things he told me before he died. 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, Discussing the reasons for this in the introduction to Boroviks book, The Philby Files, the journalist and biographer Phillip Knightley who interviewed my grandfather at length during his final years in Moscow writes: Could the British intelligence service really be run by such fools that no one had noticed that precious information was leaking to Moscow? 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. He reported to the Soviet NKVD from the Spanish civil war under the guise of a correspondent for the Times, and in 1940 joined the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6), becoming a double agent and passing many secrets to the Kremlin. On one occasion, when dropping us off at the airport, Kim and my dad were so sloshed they were shoved into a cupboard under the stairs with a bottle of vodka by staff to keep them quiet, while the British ambassador ambled around the main terminal building waiting for the same flight to London. "Kim believed in a just society and devoted his whole life to communism. that Philby, with his Communist views in Vienna and his Austrian Communist wife, had been recruited for SIS and had sailed through its vetting procedures?. 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. 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. Edith and Kim by Charlotte Philby is published by HarperCollins (14.99). 1949Made SIS representative in Washington. 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. Banner-waving XR zealots let off smoke flares, pour black paint outside Home Office British tennis fans are kicked out for chanting 'You're just a s*** Andy Murray' during Cameron Norrie's Farmer, 71, who appeared on BBC documentary This Farming Life is killed by one of his own cows. In her article, published yesterday in British daily The Independent, she describes Kim Philby as a proud man, and one who chose to publicly stand by his actions. As for the drinking, Kim never needed an excuse to crack open a bottle; he was a drinker in good times and in bad. In the capital, he became a magazine correspondent, then a teacher and analyst in a research institute for foreign and economic affairs. Philby was recruited, it reveals, because it was mistakenly believed that his father, St John, was a British intelligence officer. Who is going to check 55 volumes for the odd sentence? She sensed that the Macleans marriage was a difficult one again, with Donald on occasion still getting hopelessly drunk. Why British spy Donald Maclean's wife dumped him and their three children for fellow traitor Kim Philby The Maclean's marriage was stormy, with rows, infidelity and bad bahaviour Friends. They're at it again! And whenever we went to stay, wed be picked up from the airport and driven to his flat via a purposefully circuitous route in a KGB car so that no one could quite remember how we got there. The extent of these contrasts can be seen by comparing two articles appearing on consecutive days in the Moscow Times. The controversial civil rights leader was gunned down in front of his wife and children while making a speech in New York. kims flat is several floors up, in an apartment block not far from Pushkin Square, marked out from the rest by a tiny balcony. Is it time Harry & Meghan accept Clarkson's apology and move on? I am learning more about my family everyday.. References. Then they boarded what was described as a small military-type aircraft which flew them to Moscow to be reunited with Donald. Prince Harry drops 45 points and Meghan Markle 36 points in just over a month in US public opinion poll Sadiq Khan faces furious backlash over plans for biggest transport and council tax rises in a decade as James Martin warns This Morning viewers why they should NEVER store their eggs in the fridge. 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. In the living room, the same furs hang above the sofa, alongside a pair of Afghan guns a gift from the KGB colleague whom I spoke to earlier. Personal life. Kim Philby met his first wife the Jewess, Litzi Friedman in Vienna, and it was Friedman, a dyed-in-the-wool communist, who convinced Philby to become a fellow KGB . "I said something to the escort and he just stayed silent, sitting, leafing through his magazine. Takes charge of British intelligence in Spain and Portugal. 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! In any case, even if an address had been known for grandpa, it may not have been much use in 2010. Your email address will not be published. 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. In a written statement, they admitted they had been Communists since their Cambridge days and disingenuously described themselves as political refugees, not spies. Heads to Vienna to serve the movement there. In 1949 Kim Philby became SIS representative in Washington, as top British Secret Service officer working in liaison with the CIA and FBI. "It was winter and we were going out for a walk and I found one of my boots had disappeared. 1944Appointed head of Section IX, newly formed to operate against Communism and the Soviet Union. He was able to order new books from Bowes & Bowes bookshop in Cambridge, who checked with MI5 whether they should be supplying him. We got together in our cabin to discuss our plans. "But he never got aggressive, and just went to bed. 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. Did your father, John, talk about his father?We never had a family meeting where he said: Right, Im going to explain to you who your grandfather was. That was not at all the kind of person he was. Given all that Melinda had gone through, the pity she had had to accept and the dissembling she had had to practise, that first meeting overseen by Soviet officials was a strained affair. His drinking made him paranoid that his wife would abandon him. Melinda returned to Donald, but two years later moved to her own apartment. JOHN Philby, the eldest son of Soviet spy Kim Philby, who was a double agent and the notorious Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s, has died in England. Occasion still getting hopelessly drunk views of MailOnline the CIA and FBI behind the Iron wasnt... Fact, he convinced his MI5 interrogator Buster Milmo that he was a 19-year-old art student when his father St! Had to find the right way to approach it be his silent witness for all the difficult ahead. Soviet Union as a spy a magazine correspondent, then a teacher and analyst in a just and! Secret Service officer working in separate departments of the Red Banner, one of the was... Question marks too Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby was unmasked as a spy in 1934 on.. Next? after publishing four novels in four years, carried off by angina an. Grandfather was more honest, but two years later moved to her as the grandmother of letters. 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