INTRODUCTION-
“All warfare is based on deception"- Sun Tzu
The Cambridge five was one of the world’s most enigmatic spy rings and as the name suggests, comprised of 5 Cambridge educated, spies who acted as double agents and passed sensitive information to the Soviet Government during the World war 2 and the early Cold War period. All five of the men involved spent many years living double lives. All of them even managed to penetrate into the British Intelligence and work for them for many years as part of their covers.
Their fates, however, varied widely as some fled the country, while others’ involvement was a secret for much longer. Modern historians claim that there may have been more than five people involved in some way, however, these five were by far the most popular and most important.
They passed on so much information to the Soviets that at one point, the KGB thought some of their information may be fabricated. However, perhaps one of the most important points was not just the amount of information passed on, rather, the demoralizing effect it had on the British Establishment(the power elite), their slow unmasking, and the mistrust in British security this caused in the United States.
HISTORY-
The group comprised of Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Harold ‘Kim’ Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross who were students at Cambridge. All of the five developed ideas and notions against capitalist democracy and were convinced that Marxism-Leninism ideas were the best available political system against the rise of fascism and therefore the Cambridge five began with the Cambridge University Socialist Society(CUSS) where Philby was elected Junior treasurer in March 1932. It was here that Philby met Burgess and Maclean, and in 1934 he was recruited by the Soviet Intelligence Officer Arnold Deutsch. Soon after, Philby recommended Burgess and Macleans’s names for recruitment, and subsequently, Cairncross and Blunt were hired.
After leaving Cambridge, they went on to build careers in the British Establishment and tried to distance themselves from Communism to blend into society. For over two decades of their career’s they moved around the upper echelons of British governance without anyone knowing that all this while, they were passing sensitive information to their secret handlers in the Soviet Union.
The term ‘five” was first used in 1961, when a KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn named Maclean and Burgess as part of a probable ring of five, with Philby as a probable third alongside 2 others he did not know.
MEMBERS-
Harold ‘Kim’ Philby-
It goes without saying that Kim was the most successful of the 5. Publicly being called the biggest mole in British intelligence history shows the effect and reputation that Kim had in the business of espionage. Born in Ambala, India, Kim started by working as a journalist in the Times office in London where he traveled all across the world covering the preparations leading to the war whilst sending information to his handlers. In 1940, on the recommendation of Burgess, he joined MI6 and was ironically placed in the offensive counter-intelligence unit which was in charge of finding double agents and moles. Slowly he began to build trust and moved up the ranks of the MI6.
Philby was credited in providing Stalin with warnings of Operation Barbarossa and of the Japanese intention to strike into southeast Asia instead of attacking the USSR. Kim Philby was a master of espionage, he made tactical moves for the British that made them win small battles thereby winning their trust but also ensuring they don’t see the bigger picture where these small battles, in the long run, would help the Soviets triumph.
In 1951, he retired from the MI6, preempting his all but inevitable dismissal. He was exonerated and the Soviet, British governments cut ties with him to save face. He went to Beirut to become a journalist, but in fear of his life, he defected to Moscow in 1963 where he was given political asylum and citizenship.
Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess-
Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess met while studying together in Cambridge. Later, when they were recruited as agents, Maclean began delivering information to the Soviets by working for the British Foreign Office in 1934. Soon after, Guy too began supplying information from his position as a journalist in the BBC until 1936, as an MI6 member until 1941, and finally as a member of the British Foreign Office until 1944.
Maclean and Burgess were infamously known to be 'hopeless drunks' as they had a very hard time keeping their secret occupations to themselves while being intoxicated, in fact, Burgess almost got exposed when he dropped some files he secretly brought from the Foreign office whilst being intoxicated. Maclean too was known to have loose lips. However, that did not stop them from delivering over 500 to 1000 documents.
In the early summer of 1951, Maclean and Burgess defected to the Soviet Union as the British intelligence was closing in on them due to high suspicions of espionage.
Anthony Blunt-
Mr. Blunt was a Surveyor of the King's pictures and later the Queen’s, he was subsequently knighted for that. He served as an MI5 member and it was here that he supplied information to the Soviets and provided warnings to fellow agents about counterintelligence that may endanger them. In 1964 however, he was caught by the MI5 and he confessed in exchange for immunity.
John Cairncross-
John Cairncross was a well known literary scholar until the truth came out that he was a Soviet atomic spy. Between 1941 and 1945 he supplied over 5,800 documents. it was Cairncross that gave the soviets the details of nuclear arms to be stationed with NATO in West Germany. Many believe that he may have also supplied information about the Western atomic weapons program and the Manhattan project although he may not have had that much clearance to obtain the said information. He confessed in 1951 to being the mysterious 5th man but this was only confirmed in 1990 by another KGB defector.
THE SPY RING’S IMPACT AND CONCLUSION-
The Cambridge 5 left many deep-rooted repercussions. The British for one were in a world of paranoia as they frantically tried to remove moles among them leading to huge amounts of mistrust within the system. Political relations with Britain were temporarily weakened owing to the fear of being spied upon. The repercussions, however, were not entirely negative as this lead to a better, more transparent governance, fuelled by the desire of not being shamed again.
The Cambridge 5 showed the true side of the gritty, dark world of spycraft filled with lies, betrayal, and deception.
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