Who was Kim Philby. Kim Philby: Soviet British spy

Rufina Pukhova, widow of intelligence officer Kim Philby: “Husband considered alcoholism an easy way to die”

When they met, she was 38, he was under sixty. Then he will call the sunset of his life golden. Kim (full name Harold Adrian Russell) Philby is a legendary Soviet spy from the famous "Cambridge Five". An influential member of the English secret service MI6, for three decades, risking his life, he supplied Soviet Union most valuable information. For services in the field of intelligence in 1945, Elizabeth II awarded him the Order of the British Empire, and in 1947 Stalin signed a decree awarding Philby the Order of the Red Banner. Unprecedented event! An English aristocrat, Kim Philby served our country not for mercenary reasons, but, as they say, for conscience. He was fascinated by the ideas of communism.

In their apartment, which is a stone's throw from Tverskaya, little has changed. Here everything is as it was under Kim Philby. And an office with a view of a quiet lane, and reindeer skins on the wall, and the Riga lamp receiver “Festival”, which still works properly to this day. My gaze falls on the marvelous beauty of a table made of a single piece of wood.

— The table is really unique, — Rufina Ivanovna agrees. “It's a gift from Tom Harris, an antique dealer and an old friend of Kim's. Seventeenth century. My husband loved antiques. The table used to stand in the monastery refectory, and when wine was spilled on it, the monks rubbed the stains with their palms and polished the surface to a matte sheen. Despite the fact that Philby was considered a traitor in England, his home library and this table were delivered to Moscow in containers. Private property is sacred.

- Rufina Ivanovna, why didn’t you get married for so long? It seems to me that with your beauty, intelligence, wit, there should be no end to the suitors!

“That's good to hear, but you're exaggerating. I never aspired to marriage. Of course, I had both fans and novels, but it was my fault that it didn’t get to the wedding. By the time I met Kim, I had gotten used to the idea of ​​being alone.

- How did you meet?

- I worked as an editor at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute, together with the wife of intelligence officer George Blake. Ida was the translator. Once she said that George has a friend - good man, which has only one drawback, - Rufina Ivanovna makes an expressive gesture. He was not indifferent to alcohol.

One day, Ida asked me to get tickets to Luzhniki for an ice review. The four of us were going to go: Ida with George, his mother, who came to him from Holland, and myself. But my mother fell ill, instead of her I saw an unfamiliar elderly man - Kim. I was wearing dark glasses. When we were introduced, he said: “Please take off your glasses, I want to see your eyes.” We went ahead with Ida. By the way, it was then, following us, that he decided to marry me. At that time, Kim's son Tom was visiting, he took him with him in the hope of buying an extra ticket. But there were no tickets, and Kim and Tom went home, inviting the whole company to his place for champagne. After the performance, we returned home by trolleybus, but I didn’t get to Kim’s house and got off at the subway.

A few days later, Ida invited me to a dacha in Tomilino for the weekend. Kim was there. He arrived with a huge bag filled with wine, whiskey, porcini mushrooms, chicken, vegetables. He even took pots and pans with him. He said that he would cook the rooster in wine in French. Ida and I tried to help, but Kim only trusted us to clean the mushrooms, which turned out to be half wormy. “That's protein!” Kim laughed. Usually accommodating, he did not tolerate when someone was in the kitchen. At any other time, even when he was busy with serious work and I accidentally interrupted him, Kim always greeted me with a beaming smile. But, if he was conjuring in the kitchen, he had such a concentrated look that it was impossible to say a word. He will try the sauce: a spoon into the sink, something else into the sink, a whole mountain gathered there.

Kim and Rufina. They spent their honeymoon in Siberia.

Did he start courting you right away?

“What happened last night can't be called a courtship. We spent the day in the garden. By English tradition drank tea at five o'clock, at six - an aperitif. That was the first time I tried a gin and tonic and realized that it was my favorite drink. Dinner dragged on late, and George and Ida retired to the bedroom. I also went to my room. Behind the wall, conversation continued in English, and only one familiar word was often repeated: "Rufa, Rufa." Falling asleep, I heard the door creak open and the red light of a cigarette appear in total darkness: Kim. He delicately sits on the edge of the bed and solemnly announces: “I am an English man!” I understand that he has gained a lot, and I say: “I know you are a gentleman!” "No," protests Kim, I'm an English man! Foolish situation. I try to send him out: “Tomorrow!” (tomorrow). He's leaving. And all this was repeated at least three times. I was shaking with laughter.

And in the morning, for the first time, I looked at him with different eyes. Serious, with a sculpted profile, he did not resemble the hero of a night adventure and turned out to be very attractive. On a walk in the forest, he was silent in concentration, and I decided that he was worried about the night episode. (In fact, he did not remember anything, but suffered from a headache. I should not have felt sorry for him!) To distract Kim, I tore off the bell and jokingly presented it to him. He held it in his hands all the way, and then for a long time he looked for a suitable vessel for the flower. Kim was not sentimental, but touchingly treated any manifestations of attention.

Did he promptly propose to you?

- Ida invited me to a trip around the Golden Circle by car, mentioning that Kim was also coming. It didn't matter to me. I was happy to take a break from work. In Yaroslavl, we walked in the park on the banks of the Volga. I felt that Kim was not indifferent to me. It embarrassed me and I avoided it. Finally, he could not stand it, grabbed my hand, he had an iron grip, seated me on a bench and said: “I want to marry you!” I was confused, because we hardly knew each other, and began to look for excuses that I was lazy, used to a lonely life, that I was in poor health. But it was impossible to intimidate him. He said, “I'm not a boy. I'm not rushing you. I can wait."

The next day, on the way to Moscow, he invited me to lunch at the Metropol. I was late by almost 40 minutes and was sure that he would leave. I was ashamed, and I consoled myself with the fact that I would call him and apologize. I approach, Kim stands with a doomed look. He saw me, broke into such a blissful smile that my heart melted. I felt at ease and at ease in the restaurant. He asked me to give him Russian lessons and invited me to tea. We were sitting in the kitchen. It felt like home. Time flew. He even joked: “I invited you for tea, and you seem to be going to stay for dinner!” and repeated the offer. I was already in the grip of his charm and said yes, although I did not stay for dinner.

“Did you know then who Kim Philby was?”

“His name meant nothing to me. Nobody knew anything about Philby then. There was only an article in the newspaper under the heading "Hello, Comrade Philby!" Understanding came gradually, but for the first time I realized how famous he was when I entered the office and saw a whole shelf of books dedicated to him.

- Among them, probably, was the book by Eleanor Philby "The Spy I Loved".

Ida told me about this book. I asked Kim to read it. He did not answer, went into the office, and I never saw this book again. He destroyed her.

London, 1955 Kim Philby is no longer a member of MI6. Photos from the archive of Rufina Pukhova.

- Rufina Ivanovna, you left your maiden name - Pukhova. Why didn't you become Philby?

“Kim used to live here under the assumed name of Martins. First, he was given a passport in the name of Andrey Fedorovich Fedorov. It was stupid, because when Kim, with his accent, pronounced the Russian name, patronymic and surname, Homeric laughter began. And then he himself suggested the neutral surname “Martins”. In the column "place of birth" was New York, and in the column "nationality" - Latvian. But he did not enter into this image either. When I followed him and tried to call out to him: “Andrei Fedorovich!” He didn't even move his ear.

Was he afraid of being recognized?

“He didn't believe he was in danger, but he didn't want to meet journalists. Nevertheless, it so happened that when we first went to the Bolshoi Theater, during the intermission, we ran into a couple of his old friends, with whom he worked together in Beirut. The Beestons were journalists. Dick Beeston worked for a long time as a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in Moscow. During the intermission, when the men went to smoke, Moira asked me if we were often at the Bolshoi. “Unfortunately not, because it's hard to get a ticket,” I replied. “What is easy here?” Moira retorted sarcastically.

Once we were told that a certain man was guarding Kim at the post office, where her husband had a PO box where his correspondence came: newspapers and magazines "Herald Tribune", "Times" and others. He couldn't live without it. But our vigilant comrades did not doze, and from that moment I began to pick up the mail myself. We used to go everywhere together.

Sometimes we were told that there was a threat to Kim's life. In such cases, before leaving the house - to the pharmacy, for bread, for any reason, we had to call a certain number, and five people followed us at a distance. I thought that I did not need to be accompanied, and when I went to the Moskva pool, I suddenly noticed that a young man was running after me. On the move, he jumped into my trolleybus and accelerated so fast that he almost flew into the women's locker room. While I swam, his blue jacket loomed on the parapet.

Why do you think there was such guardianship by the KGB? Were you afraid for Kim Philby or did you not trust him to the end?

“Perhaps both. Every year Kim's children came to visit us and we tried to come up with some entertainment for them. One day his daughter Josephine stunned me: “Do you know that we are being watched?” Then we were at VDNKh and sat down to rest on a bench in a large square where it was impossible to hide. I diligently surveyed everything - no one. Then we went to a fish restaurant. I looked into the toilet. Josephine was right. A new, unopened roll of toilet paper hung in the stall. And this is in Soviet times! I didn't believe my eyes. I looked into the next booth - the same thing. And then in the hall she drew attention to a young man who, with a detached look, was picking something in a plate.

Kim, when watching our favorite series “Seventeen Moments of Spring” with the magnificent Tikhonov, said: “With such a focused face, he would not have lasted a day!”

- Rufina Ivanovna, excuse me for the incorrect question: why didn’t you give birth to a child from your beloved husband?

It so happened that a decision had to be made. I asked Kim and he said, “I already have five children. We are old parents, it is not good for the child, but it is your choice.” I also had doubts. I was worried about my diagnosis, in my youth I had to undergo radiation. So, each of us had serious reasons for doubts. Then, of course, I regretted it.

Kim Philby drank “Russian tea” from a glass with a coaster, and English from a porcelain cup.

- I read that only the Russian wife of Kim Philby managed to save him from drunkenness.

- It annoys me that in any publication dedicated to Kim, the topic of drunkenness is lingering. It looks like he hasn't done anything else in his life. We lived together for 18 years, and two years later this problem no longer existed. He worked hard, he had students.

…It all started at 6 pm — drink time. Kim poured some cognac into a glass, replacing the scarce whiskey with it, and diluted it with water by two-thirds. He drank slowly, then prepared the second portion. And that would be enough. But if he continued to drink, he quickly got drunk and changed before his eyes. But he never became aggressive, but just went to bed.

Every morning I woke up to the sound of the BBC. Kim sat in front of the receiver, freshly shaven and smiling, sipping “Russian tea” and saying: “Tea is better!” Like I was arguing. This was my Kim.

“He was probably afraid that you might leave?”

- There was a funny case: when we were going for a walk in the winter, one boot disappeared. Some kind of mystic. We fumbled around the corners in confusion, finally Kim slaps his forehead, goes into the office and carries my boot. He was afraid that I would leave, and hid his boot.

In fact, I never said that I would leave, and I understood that I could not leave him. Of course, I tried in every way to save him: after all, he killed himself.

He never made promises that he would stop drinking. He listened in silence, bowing his head, to my exhortations, but one day, completely unexpectedly, without any reason, he suddenly declared: “I am afraid of losing you and will not drink anymore.” Of course, it was a miracle. He kept his word to the end.

But the tradition remained. At six o'clock he poured his portion, then the second, gave me a bottle and said with a smile: hide it. But this was no longer necessary. The bottles were in the bar.

- Mikhail Lyubimov, a veteran of intelligence and a friend of your family, told me that Kim Philby was a heavy smoker, and preferred strong Soviet cigarettes without a filter, although he could probably afford a Marlboro.

- “Smoke” and “I will accept”. He said that it was real tobacco, and some Marlboro was chemistry. If he came across a cigarette with a filter, he defiantly tore it off. Even with bronchitis, he grabbed a cigarette. Ashtrays were all over the house.

Kim was even proud of his forty years as a smoker. He did not like being lectured about the dangers of smoking, especially those who quit smoking.

- Probably, you had to put up with various prohibitions, restrictions? Could you go on holiday abroad?

“At first they didn’t let us go abroad. Kim has never flown by plane. The plane could have been seized and landed in some Western country, where he would immediately be put in jail. But we visited Cuba. We could not sail on a passenger ship, we were specially selected for a dry cargo ship that goes non-stop. They departed from Leningrad and returned to Odessa on a bulk carrier loaded with grapefruits, oranges, and bananas.

We were always accompanied on our trips. By the way, in Cuba they gave us a very pleasant escort, but more often it was different. Kim said for the last time: “That's it, I can't stand it anymore! I'd rather not go at all!" There was a man with us in Bulgaria who knew neither Bulgarian nor English.

But he didn't live in poverty here. He was paid a good pension, surrounded by care.

- He was uncomfortable. Once they brought him a fee for some work, he stubbornly refused, saying: “Give it to the widows' fund!”. The curator laughed: “You have a widow in your family!”. And Kim gave that money to my mom.

He constantly felt remorse, because he compared his situation not with the nomenklatura, but with the poor old men and old women whom he met on the street. I thought he was undeservedly rich.

Did you enjoy any special benefits?

“Sometimes we were unaware of the existence of these benefits. In Bulgaria, I bought a sheepskin coat, and one friend in Moscow asked: “Do you dress in two hundred?” I didn't even understand what she was talking about the special section of GUM. For a long time, we didn't know we were entitled to grocery orders. The main thing is that some problems were solved for us, which at that time not everyone could do: book a hotel, get tickets, arrange a trip. You could always ask for something, although we did not abuse it.

- Rufina Ivanovna, what was your husband like in life?

- Very economic. When other people brought chandeliers from Czechoslovakia, in our compartment there was a whole set of enamel pots and other household utensils.

Kim was a whole person. I didn't find any flaws in it. He was a strong man and at the same time fragile. He could not stand being alone and was always tragic when I left the house. I prepared for a long time to say that I want to go to the theater or meet my friends. “Well, go if you want…” he said with a look of doom. And he did not like to visit. Most of all he liked being at home. Wherever we came back, he always repeated: “Home is better!”

Did your friends know who he was?

- I had many friends, but I could entrust this secret only to my closest ones. There is a narrow circle. I unwittingly offended someone, I had to break off relations with someone. Often at a party in the midst of fun, I had to rush home. And somehow I heard after: “They marry the English, and then disappear in English.”

- Can we say that Kim Philby became Russified in Moscow?

— No, not at all. Not only in trifles (“Russian tea” in the morning at seven o’clock, with lemon and always from a glass with a cup holder, English tea at five o’clock, strong as tar, with milk from an old porcelain cup). I just can't compare him to anyone. He was special, not because he was an Englishman - they are very different.

He was a very tolerant person and at the same time irreconcilable. Once we were traveling along the Volga in a large company: Kim and I, his son and wife, and, of course, the curator from the KGB with his daughter. We gathered in our cabin - we discussed the route, and I say something, turning to the curator, and he sits, leafing through a magazine, without looking up. Kim jumps up: “He who is rude to my wife is rude to me!” You should have seen his face. He got up every time a woman entered the room. My mother, who lived with us, even felt embarrassed.

- Tell me, Rufina Ivanovna, did Kim become disillusioned with socialism?

- Kim believed in a just society - in communism and devoted his whole life to this. And here he was disappointed. He was worried to tears: “Why do old people live so badly? After all, they won the war!”

Maybe that's why he drank? After all, other members of the "Cambridge Five" were looking for oblivion in alcohol.

- Kim told me: "I arrived, overflowing with information, I wanted to give everything, but no one needed it." His alcoholism was suicidal. He even once said: “This is the most easy way commit suicide."

09.11.2010 - 11:13

His biography is like an exciting adventure novel - there are so many bright events and unusual plots in it ... Even in his youth, the Englishman Kim Philby quite consciously decided to help Soviet intelligence. In his homeland, everyone - young and old - considers him a traitor, and he confidently said: "I believed and continue to believe that with this work I served my English people" ...

Kim the spy boy

The very circumstances of the birth of Harold Adrian Russell Philby were unusual. He was born on the first day of the new year, 1912, and this event took place in exotic India, where his father, a famous English orientalist, worked. In childhood, the father gave his son the prophetic nickname "Kim" - in honor of the spy boy, the hero of Rudyard Kipling's novel ...

One might think that his father was preparing a scout from Kim - the boy studied many languages ​​​​from early childhood: he spoke Hindi and Arabic, later learned French, German, Spanish, Turkish and Russian.

At the age of 17, Philby went to study in his historical homeland, in England. In Cambridge, he became interested in the then fashionable Marxism, closely watched life in the USSR, which was widely written about in British newspapers. It seemed to a boy from a good bourgeois family that a just state was really built in this country - unlike England, where the strong oppress the weak ...

He joined the Socialist Society of the University, where he openly expressed his views, which could not but attract agents working for the USSR to him. He did not hide his views later, and in 1934 Philby was offered to work for Soviet intelligence ...

He later wrote: “In my native England, I also saw people looking for the truth, fighting for it. I agonized over the means of being useful to the great movement of modernity, whose name is communism. The embodiment of these ideas was the Soviet Union, its heroic people, who laid the foundation for the construction of a new world. And I found the form of this struggle in Soviet intelligence.”

Double Agent Philby

But Philby's first steps in the secret and difficult field of intelligence turned out to be very difficult - he was ordered to stop communicating with the socialists and their sympathizers. Kim had to turn into an ordinary young man who is more than anything concerned with his career. His curators from Russia set him a goal - Philby should in the future infiltrate the army intelligence of Britain - the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).

Kim chose the career of a journalist for himself - it was known in the USSR that the SIS often collaborated with well-known newspapermen. At first, Philby worked for the Anglo-American Trade Gazette, then was sent to the Spanish War as a correspondent, and then collaborated with The Times. All this time, Philby met with Soviet curators, to whom he passed on all the information he had collected.

Soon something happened that was supposed to happen - representatives of British intelligence came to Philby. He immediately agreed to work in the SIS, although later he was very surprised at the artisanal methods of its activities ... In his memoirs, Philby wrote with surprise about the low level of protection of secrets in the SIS - in comparison with the absolute closeness of Soviet intelligence ... “I was surprised at how easily I was accepted to service. Later it turned out that the only inquiry about my past was a routine check in MI5 (counterintelligence), where they checked my name against the credentials and gave a laconic conclusion: "There is nothing incriminating."

In the first weeks, it even seemed to me that maybe I didn’t get there at all (a colleague from Moscow suggested this idea to me. My first messages made him seriously think that I ended up in some other organization), that somewhere there is another service hidden in the shadows, really secret and really powerful, capable of such behind-the-scenes machinations that justify the eternal suspicion of, for example, the French. It soon became clear, however, that such an organization did not exist.

But at the same time, the SIS was still a serious organization, and the USSR for the first time was aware of all its developments. Philby obtained valuable information - for example, about the establishment of contacts by British intelligence with Canaris, about the negotiations between the Anglo-Americans and the Germans, and much, much more.

On the brink of failure

Philby made a career in the SIS: "I considered all the posts I held in the SIS solely as a cover for my main activities, and my desire for the competent performance of my official duties was dictated by the desire to occupy those positions in which I could bring maximum benefit to the Soviet Union." The skills acquired from our scouts were very useful to Philby in his career - he was considered the best employee of the SIS. In November 1944, he became the head of the 9th department "for the fight against communism" - the information that he supplied to the USSR was simply priceless.

But soon he was almost on the brink of failure. In 1945, Konstantin Volkov, the Soviet vice-consul in Istanbul, applied to the British consulate for political asylum for him and his wife. In return, he promised to give the names of three Soviet agents working in England and reveal exactly who in the Intelligence Service works for the USSR. Soviet intelligence carried out an operation to transfer Volkov to Moscow with lightning speed, and Philby avoided failure.

He continued to grow in service, in 1949 he ended up in Washington - the SIS began to cooperate with the CIA, and Soviet intelligence, through Philby, was now aware of the secrets of its main enemy.

Of course, it is difficult to talk about Philby's work, because all his activities were surrounded by strict secrecy. In his book, he directly said: “It is not for me, a Soviet intelligence officer, to supply the enemy with information or dispel his painful doubts, therefore I deliberately almost do not mention my work with Soviet comrades ... This is a shame, because the description of my work in Soviet intelligence was would probably be the most interesting part of my story. But as long as there is a secret war with an implacable enemy, the basic principles of our activity remain of paramount importance. The first of these principles is, roughly speaking: keep your mouth shut!” And Philby kept his mouth shut - one can only guess what exactly he managed to do over the years of his work ...

But some circumstances of his activities are still disclosed. For example, the famous Albanian case. At the end of the 1940s, the CIA and the SIS jointly prepared an operation to infiltrate agents in Albania in order to start a rebellion there. Philby, who oversaw this operation, reported all its secrets to the USSR. When the agents arrived at the scene, they were immediately caught and shot after landing ...

Forward to the USSR!

Meanwhile, after the disclosure of two more Soviet agents in the SIS - Donald McLane and Guy Burges, who had been close and long friends with Philby, suspicion also fell on him. An official investigation began, but nothing incriminating was found. However, Philby was offered to resign. He worked as a journalist, lived in Beirut, and in the meantime, new facts appeared proving that Philby collaborated with the USSR - one of his old acquaintances admitted that Kim had long persuaded her to work for Soviet intelligence. Philby had to urgently disappear from Beirut - on a Soviet ship bound for Odessa. Soon he appeared in Moscow ...

A completely new period of his life began. Philby worked in the KGB - as an adviser on Britain, received the rank of general. Apparently, he worked successfully - he was awarded numerous orders, including even the Order of Lenin ... The Englishman taught Soviet intelligence officers, wrote memoirs. Probably, nevertheless, once in the USSR, he felt that this was far from the ideal country that he had imagined in his youth.

In his interview with Western newspapermen, sad motives are seen through humorous remarks: “My house is here, and although life here has its difficulties, I will not exchange this house for any other. It gives me pleasure abrupt change seasons and even the search for scarce goods. To find out about life in England, I get The Times through the Notting Hill office. However, the newspaper arrives irregularly and sometimes arrives so rumpled that I have to iron it with an iron before reading it.”

In 1988 Philby died and was buried in Moscow. Now it's hard to judge human qualities scout. But his work, no doubt, brought great benefits to the USSR. This is also regretfully recognized in the West. One of the CIA officials said of Philby's activities: “This led to the fact that all the extremely extensive efforts of Western intelligence in the period from 1944 to 1951 were ineffectual. It would be better if we did nothing at all…”

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Kim Philby(English) Kim Philby, full name Harold Adrian Russell Philby, English Harold Adrian Russell Philby; January 1, 1912, Ambala, India - May 11, 1988, Moscow) - one of the leaders of British intelligence, a communist, an agent of Soviet intelligence since 1933. Son of prominent British Arabist Harry St. John Bridger Philby.

Biography

Born in India, in the family of a British official under the government of the Raja. His father St. John Philby worked for a long time in the British colonial administration in India, then studied oriental studies, was a famous Arabist: “Being an original person, he adopted the Muslim religion, took a Saudi girl from among the slaves as his second wife, lived for a long time among the Bedouin tribes, was an adviser to King Ibn Saud. Kim Philby was the successor of one of the oldest families in England - in late XIX century, his paternal grandfather, Monty Philby, owned a coffee plantation in Ceylon, and his wife Quinty Duncan, Kim's grandmother, came from a well-known hereditary military family in England, one of whose representatives was Marshal Montgomery. Nickname Kim gave him parents in honor of the hero of the novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. He was raised by his grandmother in England. Graduated with honors from Westminster School.

Entered Trinity College in 1929 University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the socialist society. In 1933, with the aim of the anti-fascist struggle, through the Committee for Assistance to Refugees from Fascism, operating in Paris, he came to Vienna, the capital of Austria, where he participated in the work of the Vienna organization MOPR. Anticipating the imminent seizure of power in Austria by the Nazis, he returned to England together with an activist of the Austrian Communist Party, Litzi Friedman, whom he married in April 1934. In early June 1934, he was recruited by an illegal Soviet intelligence officer, Arnold Deutsch.

Then he worked at The Times, was a special correspondent for this newspaper during civil war in Spain, at the same time fulfilling the tasks of Soviet intelligence. The last time he went to Spain in May 1937, in early August 1939 he returned to London.

Thanks to the occasion and the help of Guy Burgess, in 1940 he entered the service of the SIS, and a year later he held the post of deputy chief of counterintelligence there. In 1944 he became the head of the 9th department of the SIS, which was engaged in Soviet and communist activities in Great Britain. During the war alone, he handed over 914 documents to Moscow.

They point out that it was thanks to Philby that Soviet intelligence managed to minimize the losses caused by the betrayal of Elizabeth Bentley in 1945: “A day or two after she testified to the FBI, Kim Philby sent reports to Moscow with a complete list of everyone she had surrendered.”

From 1947 to 1949 he headed the residency in Istanbul, from 1949 to 1951 - the liaison mission in Washington, where he establishes contacts with the leaders of the CIA and the FBI and coordinates the joint actions of the United States and Great Britain to combat the communist threat.

In 1951, the first two members of the Cambridge Five were exposed: Donald McLean and Guy Burgess. Philby warns them of the danger, but he himself falls under suspicion: in November 1952 he was interrogated by the British counterintelligence MI-5, but due to lack of evidence he was released. Philby remains in limbo until 1955, when he retires.

However, already in 1956 he was again accepted into Her Majesty's secret service, this time in MI6. Under the guise of a correspondent for The Observer and The magazine Economist he goes to Beirut.

On January 23, 1963, Philby was smuggled into the USSR, where he lived in Moscow for the rest of his life on a personal pension. Rarely consulted. He married Rufina Pukhova, an employee of the Research Institute.

He was buried at the Old Kuntsevo Cemetery.

Awards

• Awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, Patriotic War I degree, Friendship of Peoples and medals, as well as the badge "Honorary State Security Officer".

see also

• Cambridge Five

Literature

• Knightley F. Kim Philby - KGB super spy. M: Republic, 1992. (ISBN 5-250-01806-8)
• Philby K. My secret war. M: Military Publishing House, 1980.
• "I went my own way." Kim Philby in intelligence and in life. M: International relations, 1997. (ISBN 5-7133-0937-1)
• Dolgopolov N. M. Kim Philby. (Series ZHZL), M .: Young Guard, 2011.

A source: wikipedia.org

(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 privileged Westminster School, and in 1929 entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. Here he became close to the left circles and, under their influence, joined the Socialist Society of the University.

According to Philby, the real turning point in his worldview was 1931, which brought a crushing defeat to the Labor Party 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 fascist threat.

The progressive views of Philby drew the attention of the Soviet illegal intelligence officer Arnold Deutsch, and in 1933 the Soviet intelligence attracted him to cooperation.

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

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

The intelligence officer in 1944 received a promotion 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 a SIS resident, Philby worked in Turkey and later led the SIS liaison mission in Washington. Established contacts with the leadership of the CIA and the FBI, including Allen Dulles and Edgar Hoover. He coordinated the activities of the 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, told the British representative in Israel that in 1937 Philby tried to recruit her in favor 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 the special services of the West, participated in the training of intelligence officers. Awarded with Soviet government awards.

According to Western estimates, Kim Philby is the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. His candidacy was considered for appointment to the post of head of SIS. When Philby's true role was made public in 1967, former CIA officer Miles Copeland, who knew him personally, stated: The years 1944 to 1951 were fruitless. It would have been better if we had done nothing at all."

MOSCOW, September 9 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Kots. This September the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service dedicates to Kim Philby, a member of the legendary British "Cambridge Five", which included high-ranking intelligence officers and the British Foreign Office, who secretly worked for the Soviet Union in 1940-1950. Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin on September 1 congratulated the widow of the intelligence officer Rufina Pukhova-Philby on her 85th birthday and said that on September 15 in the building of the Russian historical society a unique exhibition will open, which will present declassified archival documents of the department about the life of Kim Philby, his awards and personal items. Most of stories about the operational background of one of the leaders of British intelligence have not yet been made public. But even known facts they say that this man decided the fate of entire states.

Prevent another war

Kim Philby was recruited by Arnold Deutsch, an illegal Soviet spy, in 1934. During the Spanish Civil War, he worked in the war zone as a special correspondent for The Times newspaper, while simultaneously fulfilling the tasks of curators from Moscow. In 1940, Philby joined the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and two years later he took the post of Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence. It was during the years of World War II that he carried out a number of brilliant operations that seriously influenced its outcome.

It is no secret that in Nazi Germany there was an informal "club" of politicians and military men who sought to end the war, including by overthrowing Hitler. These people considered Great Britain as a possible ally and "protector". SIS kept in constant contact with potential conspirators through secret channels. According to the intelligence service, the British government could make an agreement with the Germans. This was due to the fact that the SIS and certain British circles shared the German view that both countries were fighting "the wrong war." Allegedly, Germany and Great Britain were supposed to fight together against the Soviet Union.

The Red Army had not yet marched to the West. The outcome of the war was not yet predetermined. But when the situation on the fronts began to take shape in favor of the allies in anti-Hitler coalition, people who advocated a separate peace with Great Britain in Germany resumed their attempts to build bridges with Foggy Albion. Looking at the growing power of the Red Army with each victory, part of the British establishment began to see the USSR as a great threat and lean towards a deal with the Germans. However, the document proposing such a collusion had yet to be approved by Philby. He immediately blocked the spread of the "peace treaty" in the British government and among its allies, saying that it was hypothetical. Later, he informed Moscow about what was happening.

“The leadership of the USSR was worried that the war could only become a war against Russia,” said Kim Philby in his last interview in 1988 with the English writer and publicist Philip Knightley. “But one of the reasons for my actions in this direction was that the complete defeat of Germany was a matter of principle for me. I hated the war. Even after it was over, it was hard for me to forget what the Germans had done. For a long time I could not bring myself to visit East Germany."

Later, Philby repeatedly blocked attempts by his colleagues to "fraternize" with the German conspirators. It was he who rejected the offer, transmitted through secret channels, of the head of the military intelligence and counterintelligence service of Nazi Germany, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to meet with the head of the SIS, Stuart Menzies. Philby rebuked the admiral's spokesman, declaring that the outcome of the war would be determined by force of arms.

The Soviet intelligence officer cut off all the possibilities of uniting Germany with Great Britain (and later with the USA) in a military alliance directed against Russia. During the war alone, he handed over 914 secret documents to Moscow. Luckily, Kim Philby was professional and powerful enough to successfully complete the daunting task. Otherwise, the map of post-war Europe might look very different.

Alien among their own

In 1944, Kim Philby became head of the 9th SIS, dealing with Soviet and communist activities in Britain. In the early years cold war the intelligence officer transmitted to the Soviet side information about the work of British agents on the territory of the USSR. The vast majority of the results of his activities during this period are classified. But it is known, for example, that Philby actually disrupted anti-Soviet demonstrations in socialist Albania. He coordinated joint operation The CIA and SIS to introduce agents in this country in the late 40s and early 50s in order to raise a rebellion there. Philby reported this operation to the KGB, and the agents were caught and shot after landing.

“There should be no regrets. Yes, I played a certain role in disrupting the plan developed by the West to organize a bloody massacre in the Balkans,” Philby said in an interview with Philip Knightley. “But those who conceived and planned this operation, just like me, allowed the possibility of bloodshed for political purposes. The agents they sent to Albania were armed and determined to carry out acts of sabotage and murder. Therefore, I do not regret that I contributed to their destruction - they knew what they were doing. Do not forget that earlier I was also involved in the elimination of a significant number of the Nazis, thus making my modest contribution to the victory over fascism."

In 1949, Philby was assigned to Washington, where he oversaw the joint activities of the British intelligence services, the FBI and the CIA to combat the "threat of communism." Receiving the latest information about Soviet defectors, he provided an opportunity to withdraw key Soviet intelligence agents from under attack. One can only guess how much he helped the Soviet intelligence network in Western countries and how many British and American spies he turned in to the KGB. At the same time, he enjoyed the almost complete confidence of his immediate superiors. In the future, he was even predicted to be the deputy head of the SIS.

Beirut business trip

However, all luck ends. In 1951, the first two members of the "Cambridge Five" were "lit up": Donald McLean and Guy Burgess. Philby warned them about the danger, but he himself fell under suspicion. In November 1952, he was interrogated by British counterintelligence MI5, but due to lack of evidence, Philby was released. And in 1955 he was dismissed. But a year later, Kim Philby is taken under his wing by MI6, the British intelligence agency. Under the guise of a correspondent for The Observer newspaper and The Economist magazine, he was sent to Beirut, where for several years he continued to collect important information for the USSR on the political situation in the Middle East. This part of his life is a mystery even to the most seasoned connoisseurs of the history of the special services.

“From 1956 to 1963 I was in the Middle East,” Kim Philby recalled at the end of his autobiography “My Secret War.” “The Western press published many fabrications about this period of my work, but for now I will leave them to the conscience of the authors. The fact is that the British and American secret services managed to quite accurately reproduce the picture of my activities only up to 1955, and, according to all information, nothing is known to them about my further work. And I do not intend to help them in this. The time will come when it will be possible to write another book and tell about other events in it. In any case, it was not without interest for Soviet intelligence to know about the subversive activities of the CIA and SIS in the Middle East. "

On January 23, 1963, Kim Philby was evacuated by the Soviet side from Beirut - he again fell under the suspicion of his immediate superiors and could be discovered. Until the end of his life, he lived in an apartment in the center of Moscow. Philip Knightley, the only Western publicist who visited Philby at home, recalled that the scout's library occupied three walls and contained 12,000 books. Surely a complete history of the operational work of Kim Philby for the Soviet special services would take at least a dozen volumes. But many of its details will remain classified as "secret" for a long time to come.