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. As Kims former KGB colleague also reiterated on the phone: Kim was a Communist idealist. But neither was entirely impervious. The pair returned to England in May and, by this point already an appointed Soviet agent, Kim found work as a foreign correspondent. Burgess predeceased him by 20 years, carried off by angina, an abused liver and hardening of the arteries. But that didnt mean the ideal itself was corrupt or not worth pursuing. Philby had defected to the Soviet Union from Beirut in 1963, and was treated with respect, but felt isolated. (4 children) Litzi Friedmann (24 February 1934 - 1946) (divorced . Charlotte Philby. Kim was appointed head of a newly formed anti-Soviet section, and as the top Secret Intelligence Service representative, worked for several years in liaison with the CIA and FBI all along handing information straight back into the hands of the Russians. All was reasonably well between them until Kim Philby the master-spy who recruited him back in their Cambridge days himself defected in 1963. He was 65. Like your own Holy Writ, it is open to many different (and often conflicting) interpretations, according to the tastes and prejudices of the reader., In the accompanying letter, he adds: The difficulty is that [Lenin] was always writing at white-heat on burning questions of the day (or even hour); and naturally his strategy and tactics changed to meet changing circumstances My Russian edition has 55 large volumes, so there is ample room for selective quotation and even spurious interpolation. 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. When I happened upon the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, I knew that she was the person I had to write about. For one thing, Kims life behind the Iron Curtain wasnt bad. 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. 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. 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. In Spain, reports the Civil War from General Francos side, and is awarded the Red Cross of Military Merit by Franco. 1958Marries Eleanor Brewer, an American. When Burgess and Maclean fled to Moscow, avoiding capture, Kim was the chief suspect for having given them the heads-up. ", His habit was fuelled by his sorrow over what he saw around him, she added. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. In the capital, he became a magazine correspondent, then a teacher and analyst in a research institute for foreign and economic affairs. "There was one funny incident," she remembered. 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. Then she drove off with the children. He didnt seem to mind that their marriage was over. . Personal life. 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. 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. Philby still dismissed from Foreign Service for his association with Burgess. The kitchen where he would ritualistically make his daily breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast (another English habit he never broke), and spent hours cooking every evening, is now rich with the smell of the savoury pancakes Rufa is preparing for our five-hour feast. 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. He drank to excess, hit her, and often disappeared. 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. "Once, a big group of us were on a trip on the Volga: Kim and I and, of course, his KGB escort, and the escort's daughter. 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. He sounded in good health and expressed the strong hope that she would join him in. 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. 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> 1925Attends Westminster School in London. Joins Cambridge University Socialist Society. 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. Kim Philby In Moscow: Not What He Wished For. Macleans outward calm in the face of exile was greatly bolstered by his wifes support. 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. 1937Joins The Times as foreign correspondent. Maclean seemed totally at one with Soviet ways and believed to his death that the USSR and its new society has a much better prospect than the old of overcoming the major ills and injustices of our civilisation. In his lifetime, Kim married four times, and had five children by his second wife Aileen Furse. 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. 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? Next to articles about him online, readers routinely describe him as evil and a cancer on society. Shes a sympathetic character in the novel. 1951Tips off fellow Cambridge Spy Donald Maclean that a warrant has been issued for his arrest. 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. She liked it that he was a man with strong beliefs, and agreed to stand by him. 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. Everything has seen better days. 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. To order a copy for 15, visit mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 0844 571 0640. His cover story was that he was a political migr, a trade union leader persecuted in England for his political views. Takes charge of British intelligence in Spain and Portugal. Chicago-born Melinda, whom he married in France in 1940, knew all along that Donald was a spy. But the place where Kims presence looms largest from every corner is in his study. And he kept his word to the end." She sensed that the Macleans marriage was a difficult one again, with Donald on occasion still getting hopelessly drunk. Online calculator reveals how inflation-busting 14.4% hike will Do not sell or share my personal information. 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. 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. 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 once even said that it was the easiest way to bring life to an end. 1962George Blake is caught. Hardcover. Here, surrounded by an extensive library, he would sit for hours. When author Charlotte Philby's partner ended their relationship, her world fell apart. children: John David Philby Josephine F. Philby Dudley Thomas Philby Miranda Philby Harry George Philby Birth. For another, hed made his bed. Kim Philby was probably the most successful double spy in history. 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. 1988Dies 11 May at the age of 76. Melinda fitted the bill. When Melinda and the children joined him, they moved into a small apartment and the children were put into the local Soviet schools. He passed over 900 British documents to the KGB. 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. In 1955, Harold Macmillan, then Foreign Secretary, issued a statement confirming that there was no evidence that Kim Philby was a Soviet agent. Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliott. Charlotte Philby, daughter of John Philby, H.A.R. The next day she notified the British Consul in Geneva. The central post office, where Kim would come every morning to pick up his mail and a stack of British and American newspapers, stands halfway up on the left. 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). 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. Were you always aware that your family had this extraordinary history? 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. 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. In any case, even if an address had been known for grandpa, it may not have been much use in 2010. References. Kim Philby was born on January 1, 1912 in Ambala, Punjab, British India [now Haryana, India]. We got together in our cabin to discuss our plans. During our stay, more mourners piled in, their cries and moans ricocheting off the walls. 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. 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. Putting real historical characters into a novel is a minefield, especially those who existed within living memory. 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. Given a heros burial in Moscows Kuntsevo Cemetery. 58. 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. That he could carry on a secret life without her being aware, while at the same time working his way up the ranks of the British Foreign Office, seemed perfectly possible. The two-drink tradition remained but in time there was no longer a need to hide the bottle, she added. The two men said very little and the interview lasted barely five minutes. As I step in from the balcony, my eyes settle on a single point. The extent of these contrasts can be seen by comparing two articles appearing on consecutive days in the Moscow Times. 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. 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. 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. 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. Anthony Blunt referred to her as the grandmother of the Cambridge spies. 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. 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. Melinda returned to Donald, but two years later moved to her own apartment. 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. "Kim" Philby's oldest son, has penned an extensive account of her memories of her grandfather. Many of the street names have changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 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. I remember at the time feeling that something very dark was happening and that I didnt feel safe. Fergie is horrified that [Donald] might have done something wrong at the office and the FO will be very angry when he returns. I am a private person and a political person. The little blue pill really is magic! Published by Charlotte Philby on 12th June 2018. So Philby left his wife and children in England in September 1956, arriving in a country for which he had little natural sympathy. Maclean bequeathed Blake his library of books, including Trollope, Macaulay's History of England, Morley's Life of Gladstone, and the Macmillan and Eden memoirs. 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