The Rest Is Classified - 122. Kim Philby: An Assassin In Spain (Ep 2)

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Kim Philby has been recruited by the communists to spy on the growing fascist movement across Europe, but he can’t seem to penetrate the intelligence services. So, like all men with access to an old boys’ network in 20th century Britain, he asks a friend for a job.  In this episode, David and Gordon chart Philby’s rise as a war correspondent for The Times in London; eventually finding himself in Spain on the eve of war with the unenviable task of trying to assassinate General Franco. ------------------- Make someone a Declassified Club Member this year – go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠⁠https://nordvpn.com/restisclassified⁠⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee  ------------------- Email: ⁠[e-mail] ⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified Social Producer: Emma Jackson Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series, first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books. Join the declassified club at the rest is classified.com. Kim Filby being recruited ends up going to Cambridge, and then he goes to Vienna. He was drawn into communism by the Soviet intelligence service. Mutually assured destruction in a way there, because Stalin could go after his family and he's got the secret. The Second World War proper, as we think of it, starts when Hitler is.

invades Poland at the start of September 39. And then finally, Germany attacks France and the low countries. Germans make this rapid advance through Belgium and France. And very quickly, of course, those countries collapse. This episode is sponsored by HP. Most people are not counter-espionage experts, but that won't stop them getting targeted by cybercriminals seeking to extract their secrets. HP understands that approximately four in 10 UK businesses have reported cyber breaches in the past 12 months alone.

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And that is, I think, a quite famous Lion Gordon written by E.M. Forster in what I believe in other essays. And it is very, I'd say, apropos of the story we are telling, really continuing today, because we are deep into the world of the young Kim Filby. And last time we looked at how Kim, who's this son of a very, very unusual father, to say the least, I think ends up going to Cambridge, and then he goes to Vienna.

He was drawn into communism. Gordon throughout the episode expressed a great sympathy for this young, young hero's journey into the warm embrace of, Soviet communism and eventually we left last time with Kim Filby being recruited by the Soviet Intelligence Service, the NKVD, forerunner to the KGB. And he has been given as a young man straight out of Cambridge with really no access. He has been given the task of penetrating the British state. But unfortunately, Gordon, this man who will go out to be the most important, one of the most important traders of the 20th century and build an

entire spy ring. He's unemployed, is it? Which is a bit of a problem for his Soviet handlers. Yeah, that's right. I mean, he's been given this mission on the park bench of, you know, penetrate the bourgeois institutions. But he is, you know, he's back fresh from Vienna and this kind of grad student, you know, who's just kind of not really got a job and not quite clear how he's going to do it. And it is interesting because it is actually going to take him years to be successful. It's not a straightforward journey that we think about. But, you know, the message goes back to Moscow with the news of this recruitment of an, interestingly enough, Deutsch describes him as a kind of insecure and shy young man. And Deutsch describes him as someone

whose father was some kind of British agent in the Middle East. And Deutsch codenames him sunny, a reference, you know, to almost certainly to his more famous father. So I, I find it kind of funny for Philby. Even then, he's in his father's shadow. Even at the moment he's recruited into the Soviet Secret Service. He's being referred to in the context of his dad. And I think Deutsch, even though he's a brilliant psychologist, doesn't quite realize how determined and independent-minded Philby himself is. And Deutsch really just says, well, he comes from a peculiar family.

You know, his father is considered to be an expert on the Arab world. Interesting enough, Deutsch says, the father is an ambitious tyrant and wanted to make a great man out of his son. He repressed all his son's desires and his son was ready without questioning to do anything for us and has shown all his seriousness and diligence in working for us. Interesting kind of portrait of how, you know, his recruiter sees Philby. I guess he sees him as a bit of a blank slate that he can write upon, I guess, is the way he's describing this here that the father had sort of. made his attempt and yet he, in doing so, had repressed what Philby had desired and now, now Deutsch, I guess, to put it differently.

And maybe in the language of a recruiter, Deutsch can give Philby what he actually wants. Yeah, make him some, make him his own man. Yeah. And they pay him, I guess. Yeah, but four pounds a week. Pottery amount, I guess. Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, but you definitely don't get the feeling Philby's doing it for the money. I mean, that's not the motivation. No. But what, it's interesting as well, his instructions, His first instruction in terms of spying. Because obviously, as we said last time, he's got no access to secrets at this point. His first instruction is spy on your father

because they're so convinced that his dad, Sinjin, is British intelligence agents. They're so convinced that because of his, the way he's maneuvering around in the Middle East around Ibn Seward, that he must be a spy, that they say to, you know, young Kim, can you look at your dad's papers? But beyond that, the other thing that I think is the most famous thing about

Philby is that it's not just him. There is going to be a ring of spies. And it's because Philby had said there were other sons of functionaries, which is the kind of communist translation, I think, for sons of people who are important who are at Cambridge and who share Philby's views. So Philby has clearly said to Deutsch, I've got communist friends whose fathers are functionaries or bureaucrats, senior people. And they say, well, can you draw up a list of contacts of people who you know who might be interesting? And this is what creates, you know, the famous Cambridge spiring. And the fact it's Cambridge and not, you know, the far superior Oxford is basically just because it's Philby who's the initial recruit.

And he puts maybe 17 names on the initial list. I think we still don't know who all of them are, right? presumably that that list did not survive, survive sort of in the Soviet archives. Yeah, and it's interesting because, and of course some of the people on the list might well have been approached and turned it down. So it doesn't mean there were 17 spies. But he's, you know, he's drawn up that list of who could they approach. And top of their list is Donald McLean, who is a kind of brilliant academic son,

in this Sons of Functionary's language. He is the son of a former liberal cabinet minister from a very good family, but also crucially a serious communist at Cambridge. So he is approached by Philby over dinner in Philby's flat to sound him out. He agrees. He's introduced to a Soviet recruiter at a cafe. He gets codenamed orphan because his father had died a few years before. And Donald McLean tells his mother he's gone off communism. It's like a drug.

I'd be to my phase. What are the communist phase? And he heads into the foreign office, and he'll be the kind of first one in. Now, at the bottom of Philby's list, at the bottom, so McLean was at the top, at the bottom, is Guy Burgess. It's worth a moment on Guy Burgess, because this is a kind of crucial friendship from Cambridge for Philby, which will define his life. And, I mean, Burgess is... I should also note for listeners that there will be a tendency to think as... Gordon tells all of these various Guy Burgess stories that they're made up, but they are not.

Guy Burgess is, I think Guy Burgess is a communist, but more importantly, he's a lunatic, right? That's the... He's the most amazing character, I think. He really is. Yeah, he is, because kind of Kim Volby is, this kind of quite dedicated, determined, maybe even repressed characters, whereas Burgess is wild. I mean, you know, back to daddy issues. there is one story, and it's in Andrew Lowney's book on Burgess, Stalin's Englishman,

there's one of those others, that Guy Burgess's daddy issues might come from when he's 13, because he says he hears screaming from his parents' bedroom. He finds when he goes in that his 43-year-old father has died while making love to his mother, and young guy has to separate the bodies. Now, whether that's true or not, but that's the story that Guy Burgess does. I don't understand why his mother couldn't have done that. Why did Guy have to be involved? He goes to Trinity Cambridge.

He's been to Eaton and also Dartmouth Naval College. And I guess the things about him is he is very, very clever. I mean, really smart. Smarter than Philby, actually. Very good looking, very charismatic, very hard drinking and very openly gay. I mean, does not really hide it. Openly gay in the 1930s. Well, I think you could be.

That's a pretty... It is illegal. Courageous thing. Yeah, until the 60s, it's illegal. It's illegal. And yet there was, you know, kind of gay subcultures which were quite open and actually within the upper class, quite common at points. So it was very open. And so he's this kind of...

At once, he can be a kind of clownish over-the-top drunk and yet can also get a kind of clownish over-the-top drunk. and yet can also get, you know, deep into kind of establishment circles and close to powerful people. I mean, because he's just so, you know, kind of charismatic and interesting. I mean, one person who visits Burgess's Cambridge Room finds that he has two things on his bookshelves, a collection of pornography and Marxist writings. Yeah, you're just missing the gin, and then you have the three loves of Guy Burgess's life there, right? All there. Sex alcohol.

had Marxism. That's the Guy Burgess way. And of course, going to Philby knows him as a Marxist, but also is, you know, the point is he's at the bottom of Philby's list because he's so flamboyant. I mean, you can see Philby is smart enough to go, this guy is wild. And he actually on the list puts a question mark after Burgess's name. And, you know, Philby's right, because in the long run, actually Guy Burgess will help play a role in Philby's downfall. But they actually also clearly enjoy each other's company. You know, they kind of get on. But the problem is, McLean and Burgess are friends. And when McLean, Donald McLean, seems to give up on communism, pretend it's a phase. Burgess is too smart to buy it. I mean, he's just immediately suspicious. And he starts to pester Donald McLean and Philby. Come on. I know what's going on. I know you're something's happened. You're doing this for a reason that you're giving up on your communist past. Just tell me. And so they basically go, we're better in than out. We're going to tell him because it's too risky for him to keep asking questions.

I mean, all of these characters will, I mean, despite all of the various insanities, they'll end up serving as very long-term penetrations into the British establishment and become known eventually as the Cambridge Five. Or, you know, maybe we prefer Gordon now that you're, you know, you're very sympathetic to these people, as you've expressed in multiple occasions throughout this podcast. We should refer to them by the name they are known by in Russia, which is the Magnificent Five. The Magnificent Five, yeah. And we should round off the five, shouldn't we? Because you've got Philby as the first. He's suggested Burgess and McLean. At Cambridge, Burgess was part of this intellectual society called the Apostles,

where they discuss ideas, very high-minded. Philby hadn't been smart enough to get in, interesting enough. But another of the Apostles was Anthony Blunt. And so Burgess will go on to recruit Anthony Blunt. In turn, Anthony Blunt becomes a brilliant talent spotter for more communists and leads to another. agent who will be John Cancross or from Cambridge. So these will be the kind of five penetration agents who are sent.

The magnificent five, as the KGB calls them. And there are other recruits as well, we should say, that, you know, they were not the only five recruits at this time or agents being run, but because they are the five who basically last the course and get into the establishment and see it through, you know, they will become known as the Cambridge Five and their magnificent five. I love this quote from Christopher Andrew writing about the Five in the Matrokin Archive. He writes that all of the five were rebels against the strict sexual mores as well as the antiquated class system of interwar Britain. Burgess and Blunt were homosexuals.

McLean a bisexual, Philby, a heterosexual athlete. Karen Cross, a committed heterosexual, later wrote a history of polygamy. So these guys, you know, in some ways, they're all kind of rebels, I guess, looking for a cause, aren't they, Gordon? Sex-pull rebels. They're all sex-pole rebels. They're not being recruited to be rebels outwardly, right? So, I mean, Philby is told to essentially get rid of all of his communist associations to be able to burrow into these supposedly bourgeois institutions. Yeah, and that was, you know, as we had last time, this is the recruiter, the brilliant recruiter, Arnold Deutsche's strategy.

Find the idealistic young men, but then have them dismiss their time at university as kind of youthful nonsense, you know, when they're into communism, you know, ditch their contacts, tell people they've given up on those ideas, have nothing to do with the Communist Party of Great Britain, and move into the establishment. Now for Filby, this is actually quite hard. It makes things difficult with Litsy as well. You know, his wife, who he's brought from Austria, because he's not supposed to talk to her about what she's doing, but she and he have to kind of cut themselves off from their friends.

You know, the kind of left-wing circles, she moves him, the exiles, the activists. But he's made his choices now. You know, he's become, I think, emotionally dependent on his relationship with his, you know, hand or in the Soviet Union. And he's having to ditch those other relationships. But also, he's still struggling. I mean, this is the thing that's so interesting about the Philby story is, you know, he wanted to join the foreign office, but he pulls out because he's worried about some of the references he might get, might kind of give away too much at this point. And his father's very annoyed about that because that's what his father had wanted for him.

So, you know, he's having these discussions with his handlers. What would be best to do? And they say, well, how else if you're not going to penetrate institutions as a kind of civil service? What else do you do? The best fallback to build access and influence? What would it be, David? Journalist. Oh, see now we see Gordon your sympathy. Another sort of another stinking layer in the onion of Gordon Carrera's sympathy for Kim Filby. The shared love of investigative journalism as as sort of the, I guess, the junior varsity. team for spying, right? Yes, exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's a brute to influence, yeah. And so he, but again, he struggles at first. He writes as a kind of sub-editor for some small

publications, writes an essay on, in German, on Tibet. Probably didn't get a lot of readers on that one. No, exactly. You're like, studying really at the bottom of the journalism tree. Kind of not pro-German, but not anti-German. Interesting enough, his dad visits around this time, Moscow's excited that the famous Anglo spy, Sinjin Filby is coming. And his dad is working with Standard Oil and Ibn Seld in Saudi Arabia. And they're convinced he's MI6. Philby will photographs his dad's letters and papers, but there's nothing there. He's trying to become more bourgeois.

He launders or dry cleans his associations by joining something called the Anglo-German Fellowship, which is there to kind of promote trade and understanding between Britain and Germany. He writes for their publications. He visits Berlin with the group. You know, and Philby finds it pretty repulsive hanging out with the kind of Nazis. This is after all what motivated him was hating them. But, you know, he's got to ditch his friends hang out with Nazis. But that's what he's going to do.

And he's kind of calibrating, I guess, this image that he's sensible. He's not pro-Nazi, but he's anti-war. You know, that's his move. Through this period, Deutsch is still running him, right? Yeah. That's the primary relationship that he's got with Soviet intelligence as things. rule, Arnold Deutsch. Yeah, so Deutsch is still running him, doing kind of surveillance routes to meet him, public transport, all these things, and passing on messages. But then others

also come into the frame. So there's an interesting character called Alexander Orlov, who'd already been posted in America, Paris, Austria. He comes to the UK in the summer of 34 to be above Deutsch as the kind of head of illegal intelligence. His cover is actually as an American businessman selling imported refrigerators in Regent Streech. And Philby and Oloff will meet as well, particularly as there's some worries that Deutsch might be under surveillance. So Oloff starts to meet him after Deutsche,

about a dozen times over nine months. Then Oloff has to leave because his cover is blown because he bumps into someone who knew what he was. Next person, very interesting, a guy called Theodore Malley, who is kind of also considered another of the great illegals from 36 he's running Philby. He's in a Hungarian,

originally wanted to be a priest, ends up joining the Red Army. He's again a kind of one of these great recruiters who just has that sensitivity, ability to kind of work with not just Philby, but loads of other agents he recruits. And there's a kind of very close relationship

between the two of them. But the problem is for Philby at those, I mean, he's not getting anywhere. I mean, he's not even making it as a journalist and he's pretty depressed. And I mean, actually, there's a, you know, for club members, we're going to hear a really fascinating tape, which is a tape of Kim Filby talking about his early career

and how we got into it. We're going to be kind of listening to the voice of Philby discussing these things and analysing it. But in one part of the tape, Philby says, I'd reported to my Soviet contacts in a state of some despondency. I had to confess to failure. He, you know, Theodore Malley, as usual,

was extremely sympathetic. So he's really, you know, he's just, he's not getting anywhere in penetrating the bourgeois institutions. I mean, at this point, he's probably one of the least successful members of the Cambridge 5. But the Soviets, again, are very patient. They encourage him to keep going. It's the idea that Philby go to Spain to cover the civil war that had broken out there

in 1936. Yeah. And it's, it is interesting that Soviets are kind of, they don't. don't just think, let's get rid of this guy, Philby. He's, you know, we'll keep looking for a way of playing him long, of getting him into the state. And this, the Spanish Civil War starts in 36. And it, you know, again, it's one of those kind of iconic, you know, brutal civil wars of the 30s where the battle between left and right in Europe is being played out. Because you've got the kind of fascist versus communists, but also it's the kind of nationalists and monarchists

as well as the fascists, which have got the kind of establishment of landlords, clergy, and business at one side, against the Republicans and the leftists, the peasants, the workers, lots of other countries pile in, you know, as a kind of proxy conflict. So the Soviet Union, obviously, on the leftist side. And you get also the volunteers from the left. You get the famous kind of international brigade, people like George Orwell, go out. And on the other side, the Italian and German governments are helping the fascists, including using the Air Force to carry out bombing raids.

Theodore Malley just kind of clearly thinks this is a place where Philby could be useful. So February 37th, they send him out as a freelance journalist just with some letters of recommendation. And most journalists go out to cover the leftist Republicans, people like Ernest Hemingway. But Philby, they send out to cover the right-wing forces. And it kind of makes sense because if you're the Soviets, you want to collect intelligence on, you know, the right wing forces. You want him to report back on what he's seeing, developments, you know, the array of forces on one side, support the nationalists are getting from Italy and Germany. Those are the kind of details that they're after. He's also given the mission, which again,

it kind of just shows the remarkable things that the Soviets are going to ask him to do over the course of his career. One of his missions is to get close to Franco, who's the nationalist leader, get close to Franco and collect intelligence that would help with his assassination. you know, get into his headquarters, log is security, you know, sort of his pattern of life, who cooks for him, how does he live, what's the daily routine? And I mean, Philby even gets an order to actually kill Franco, which, you know, in retrospect seems absolutely absurd. It's mad, isn't that? Yeah, it's absolutely mad. I mean, he's a, he's a Cambridge undergrad with, you know, a year of journalism experience at this point. And he's being asked to assassinate

Franco. I know. I know. I think, Theodore Malley, when he passes on the order, knows it's not realistic, but it's clearly come from some, you know, probably from Stalin or someone, you know, like, have we got someone who can do it? And it's just getting passed down the bureaucracy. But, you know, Philby comes back from that initial visit in May, having not even got close to Franco. And Malley tells Moscow, you know, he's in a very depressed state because Philby feels like he's failed at this mission. But then I think this is so interesting that he gets another shot at it. And he's, How does he get the connections to kind of go back out there? It's his dad. You know, it's his dad again. Because his dad is so well connected. You know, he's this kind of semi-celebrity explorer of Arabia that, you know, one of his old friends is an assistant editor at the Times newspaper, which is, you know, the establishment government newspaper. Young Kim is offered the chance to write a piece for it, which is kind of, and the paper is quite pro-nationalist at this time.

The foreign editor had been to Westminster School, Old Boys Network, has lunch with Filby's dad, and then proposes that, well, maybe, you know, young Kim could become a special correspondent for us and go and cover Franco and, you know, go to, go to Spain. The dad's connections here are pretty important in that, in him getting that break in journalism. And so that's the big break then. So he goes back to Spain under this journalistic cover. in June of 1937. And I mean, he's there for nearly two years until 1939. And I guess, I mean, poor Litsy, right? Because Litsy's not coming along for this.

No. And I do find this sad. I get some of my sympathies for Kim because I think, you know, these two young lovers who'd met in the snow now have to separate, you know, because she's clearly too associated. She doesn't know what he's doing, right? She doesn't know. I think she must suspect.

I think she suspects, but she's not kind of in the know of the details. And of course, she's so associated with communism that they have to separate. And she doesn't like kind of bourgeois life in London. So around the time he goes to Spain, she moves to Paris. And Philby will say, well, we just discussed it calmly. And I think they both realised they've got to sacrifice the fact they love each other or loved each other for the cause. Philby, he has a charm. I mean, he has a charm and a way with women, we should say.

It's very interesting. But there's something, I think the fact that he's smart, idealistic, it's got a slight man of action to him, as we'll see. He's also got the kind of vulnerability of the stammer. Is he still stammering at this point? Yeah, he does. He's still stammering. Still stammering, yeah. So pretty quickly gets into a relationship with another kind of interesting character

called Lady Francis Lindsay Hogg, which who's known to everyone as Bunny, who is a glamorous divorced Canadian actress 10 years older than Kim, but who, crucially, is very well connected on the royalist side and is quite a fan of fascists. And the two of them kind of shack up together in Spain. And she's this kind of glamorous figure who all the kind of fascist. leaders love. And so you can see that for him hanging out with her and having an affair with her is also pretty useful. I mean, they're a kind of interesting, slightly odd couple. And I guess it allows him to get close to some of the, I guess, press or media officials in the Franco regime.

And I guess a way to start putting some questions to those contacts on, you know, I guess military details, plans and intentions. I mean, he's, He's got to be a bit of an odd duck in the journalistic community in Spain, right? Because now he's got this girlfriend named Bunny. He's getting close to Franco. He's not covering the Republicans. So it does seem, I guess, a little odd. And then especially if anyone knew him, they would know that he had been a, you know,

a communist sympathizer back at Cambridge. So he's kind of an odd stew seen from the outside, right, when he's in Spain. And it's interesting when you read the accounts, quite a few of the other journalists just actually think he is a British spy. You know, they think he's working for British-ishishish. You know, and been told to, you know, to infiltrate the fascist side. But yeah, he does quite well. You know, he goes to the press conferences. You know, you get the permission, you get a pass to go by car to the front lines of the war.

Six weeks after he arrives on this kind of second big trip, he gets an interview with Franco. By now, the order to kill him has kind of been rescinded. But, you know, he's getting close to people, providing pretty useful intelligence. And then there's, you know, an important moment in December of when he's out there in that first trip where he goes out to see the action at the front line. There's a convoy of cars. You know, it's New Year's Eve, snowing. They approach a village near Teruel, if I'm pronouncing it right, in eastern Spain, so north of Valencia. You know, they all get out of the car, the reporters.

I mean, I've done this kind of thing, you know, places. They wander around for a bit. Two of the journalists go back to the car, sit with a bottle of rum to warm up. Philby comes back to the car. And it had been his seat in the front, but someone else is now sat in the front. So, you know, Philby says, oh, it's fine. I'll get into the back of the car. They light up some cigarettes, open some chocolates.

As a chocolate is being offered to Philby, there's a massive explosion. And it's funny because Philby later says he thought it was exploding chocolates. But actually, the car has been shelled by the Republican side. And the other three men in the car, one of them are Pulitzer Prize winning America journalist. They are all going to die from their wounds of that shelling. All of them apart from Philby will be dead. And the fact that he'd taken the backseat is just that crazy bit of love. luck, that the shrapnel from this shell kills, you know, kills the other three and all the

other seats in the car. But in his one seat in the back, you know, he's protecting. He gets a slightly bloodied head and that's it. And, you know, next day, New Year's Day, it's his 26th birthday. And he will always look back on that day and think he was lucky. And I think he was. Well, it gives him, I guess, something of a heroic shine, doesn't it? Because he's, he's survived. He's been bloody. He's this kind of. brave war correspondent. I mean, I find this fascinating. He's given a medal by Franco personally for surviving this attack.

I mean, it just gives you this sense, I guess, seen from the perspective of his Soviet handlers. This is a guy who, you know, despite maybe, you know, sort of against all odds, although I guess with a bit of help from his dad and the times, you know, has actually succeeded in the mission that he's given in Spain of getting close to penetrating Franco's, maybe not inner circle, but penetrating the people around Franco and giving the Soviets actual intelligence about what the nationalists are up to in Spain. So that's a success for Kim Filming. Yeah, he's a kind of successful war correspondent, which gives him, you know,

because of this injury, because of the medal, he's got all the access he needs, and that in turn makes him a better agent for the Soviets. He's able to get some pretty good information, which he can feed back to his handlers if he meets them in France. So, you know, Philby's reputation is definitely enhanced. This is the point where he's no longer a failure. And the nationalist as well, who he's covering, are steadily advancing until eventually they win that civil war. And Philby is there in Barcelona in January 1935 when Barcelona falls to the nationalists and reports from the front line as it falls.

And then soon after that, Madrid will fall and the civil war will be over. Well, I mean there, Gordon, with Philby having succeeded at his mission in Spain and with a return to England imminent, let's take a break when we come back. We will see how Kim Filby joins the British Secret Intelligence Service and begins to hollow it out from the inside. This episode is brought to you by Atio, the CRM for the AI era. Now, David, people think that SpyCraft is just car chases and secret codes, but an awful lot of it is just idling around, waiting for the action. It's a bit like starting your own business. You think it's going to be as easy as creating and selling a product,

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Hi, everybody. It is Dominic Sandbrook here from The Rest is History. Now, you have probably been watching the scenes on the streets of Iran. You may be wondering where all this comes from. So on the Rest is History, we have just recorded a four-part series on recent Iranian history. So it kicks off with the Iranian Revolution that brought down the Shah Mohammed Razar Pahlavi in 1978, 1979. And it's actually his son, who is now leading opposition to the Ayatollahs from exile in the United States. So in this series, we explore the history behind the Islamic Revolution in Iran at the end of the 70s. Where did people like Ayatollah Khomeini come from? Where did their ideas come from? Why did they have so much support? Why was the Shah driven out of Iran in the first place. And what did it have to do with American intervention and indeed British intervention in the 1950s? And we look at the unfolding story of the revolution

and then the amazing story of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the taking of initially 66 hostages by the Iranians. This is probably the story that I most enjoyed researching and writing. So please, if you're interested in Iranian history and what's going on, check it out. And if you want to Taster, we have a clip for you at the end of this episode. Welcome back. It is the summer of 1939. And Kim Filby has just returned from Spain. He is back in Britain. He is tougher. He's more experienced. He's more disciplined. He's got a reputation now, Gordon. He's got some experience on the front lines. And I guess you could say he's kind of someone who has had his first taste of success in the spy game.

Yeah, and it's interesting. Tim Milne, his old friend from school, definitely finds him changed. He says, it was not just that he'd grown fatter too fat for a young man, but he seemed to have discarded all his previous asceticism and idealism, which I had admired. Now the talk was all about the flesh pots of Spain, the booze, the marvellous seafood. He was more cynical, more worldly wise, more interested in material comforts, more gregarious. You know, that's, he also talks about how it's with some glee, Philby boasts that a doctor had told him that he, then 27 years old, had the arteries of a man of 50. I mean, that doesn't sound like a thing to boast about to me. But he's back, he's back in London. He's passing his material to Moscow.

But this is a really interesting point, kind of 3940, because he's back in London. Because, you know, he's actually poorly handled by Moscow at this point. You know, having been brilliantly recruited by Arnold Deutsch. I can't imagine why. Everything was going so smoothly inside the intelligence apparatus of the Soviet Union in the late 1930s. What could have possibly happened, Gordon? What possibly happened was that in 1937 to 1938, the great terror of the purges strike Moscow. I mean, yes, this mad bit of Stalinism, isn't it?

where, you know, Stalin's purges of the kind of military and of the Communist Party then extend to, you know, the NKVD or the KGB itself. And, you know, basically they can't start purging all the spies, including all these people who'd handled, you know, Philby. And Philby's got no idea what's going on, but his handlers, you know, keep getting withdrawn very quickly. You know, and the reason is because they're getting purged. You know, Theodore Malley, this, you know, this kind of brilliant of the illegals, the one who'd sent him, to Spain gets recalled, tortured and shot in 1938 as a German spy, which he wasn't. Others, you know, there's a couple Kravitsky and Orlov, who knew a little bit about Philby, who defect, but don't, you know, spill the beans, but they kind of leave, very interesting.

Orlov is a very interesting case because he'd handled Philby and he defacts to the West, but says to Stalin or sends a message through to the top going, I know lots of secrets and I will agree not to reveal them if you don't harm my family still in the Soviet Union. And the deal basically holds. So even though he's defected to the West, he never reveals the kind of, you know, the fact of what Philby is doing. It's kind of interesting. That is. Kind of a mutually assured destruction in a way there because Stalin could go after his family and he's got the secrets that could uproot one of Stalin's best spies.

So they just stay quiet. That's incredible. Yeah. And so, you know, what about Deutsch? Yeah, what about Deutsch? Well, Deutsche, it's a little bit mysterious because he's not, we don't think purged. So the best guess is he dies during the war, it's thought, possibly on a, on a sea. But it's not, it's not entirely clear what happens to him, which is a bit of a shame because he's such a kind of interesting character that you kind of like to know a bit more about that. But there's, there seems to be some mystery to it. But the result is all these handlers getting purged. Moscow is worried. the British embassy has been penetrated. There's only one person left. They're also a bit suspicious about the Cambridge spies because also, of course, technically the people who recruited and ran them have now been purged as German spies. So does that mean that these agents were compromised? So it's all a little bit kind of actually haphazard for Filby. And Philby is complaining, you know, to Burgess McLean and the others and kind of going,

I'm really struggling to contact, you know, my Soviet handlers. And then you get as well this other big moment, August 1939, which is the Nazi Soviet Pact. And I think this is so interesting, isn't it? Because this is when, you know, Hitler and Stalin briefly make a deal that they're going to be allies. And you kind of think to yourself, well, how must that feel to someone like Philby? You know, who anti-fascism had been his thing. I mean, it's wild, isn't it? What it must have been like when you read that in the news.

Philby and others, including Burgess, will basically say, I mean, some people just totally walk away from the communist cause, you know, when this happens. But I guess Burgess and Philby basically say that this is a necessary tactical move on the sort of march toward the glorious communist future that sort of Stalin had to do this, you know, to kind of... live to fight another day, I guess you could say. But even so, I mean, it's got to be very disturbing to watch. Yeah, yeah. And I think, I think, I think that must be the lowest moment for Philby, because he's got, he's kind of badly handled, intermittent contact, struggling to talk to the

Nazi Soviet pact. I mean, he must, I think, have had doubts about his choice at this point, you know, and wonder, what have I done? But what's interesting? And I think this is very Philby is he doesn't walk away. I've made my, you know, I've made my bed a lie. I'm going to keep going. And, you know, he does. And he gets this next journalistic assignment from the Times, which is now the Second World War proper, as we think of it, starts when Hitler invades Poland at the start of September 39. And the Times newspaper can send one correspondent to be accredited with the British Expeditionary Force in France, the kind of British Army in Europe. And they picked Philby, you know, because he is their

Star War correspondent, having you know, done the Spanish Civil War. So he goes out to the kind of headquarters of the British Army in Europe, you know, sits with the British military, he's reporting on what's happening. I mean, it's not that much happening at this point. But he's actually

in military uniform. I mean, I hadn't realized this. I saw some of the pictures. You know, he gets a British military uniform to wear. But now he is crossing a line because the Nazis and the Soviets at this point are allies and against the British. I mean, it doesn't last long.

But I think this is interesting because this is the first moment where, you know, you raised this earlier, when does he, when's he really betraying his country, really betraying his country? But I think this is the first moment where he's really crossing a line, but very briefly. Yeah, I mean, I guess it seems unlikely if, even though he'd been in touch with Deutsche, and other handlers prior to this point. It seems unlikely that if even if all of that had come to light, you would have been able to prosecute Filving for espionage, right? I mean, there may not have even been a willingness to do it.

But there may not have been enough of a there there to do anything about him at this point. I guess you think about it. You know, you're right. To this point in time, he has not, I mean, I guess he spied on his own father, which is a psychological piece we sort of glossed over. But, you know, he hasn't spent that much time actually directing his energies at British interests. Most of his work to this point has actually been, you know, working to penetrate the Franco regime in Spain. He is passing on information about British military. And I think that is definitely crossing a line. But of course, you know,

here's the crazy thing. At this point, Moscow is in a kind of bit of a mess. The London residency, the London spy base in the embassy of the Soviet Union is in a mess. And effectively, they're not, they're pausing contact with him. He's kind of not being handled at this moment where actually he's perhaps doing his most dangerous thing so far. And so it's a kind of odd situation, I think he's in. And then finally, Germany attacks France and the low countries. You know, the Germans make this rapid advance, you know, through Belgium and France.

And, you know, very quickly, of course, those countries collapse. and their militaries collapse, and just ahead of the evacuation of what's left of the British Army from Dunkirk on these famous little boats, Philby heads back to Britain. So, you know, by the summer of 1940, he's back in Britain. But his relationship with the Soviets seems effectively to have broken down. You know, he's struggling to make any contact with them. This is what I think, this is remarkable, I think, and it shows the extent to which Philby was a sort of self-driven true believer because even though his relationship with the Soviet Union is in shambles and even though, I mean, even, you know, by this point the Moscow center has kind of concluded insanely that the Cambridge network was not actually working for the Soviet Union and had been, you know, sort of, you know, controlled by enemies of the people, right?

it's Philby who patches it back up and restarts the relationship with the Soviet Union. It's not the other way around. It's his energy that brings it all back together, which again, is just another data point in how deeply committed he is to this cause. Yeah, yeah. So he's kind of trying to get McLean and others to say, can you get me in touch? And he, you know, he's not getting much back, but he keeps the, the faith, because I think it is a faith. I think that's the point. And it's only actually

after a few months that Moscow will respond to that. And that's because basically Philby himself is incredibly successful. And it's worth saying at this point, until now, the other Cambridge spies have been doing much, much better at penetrating the bourgeois institutions. You know, Donald McLean is at the Foreign Office and he's a rising star. He's passing on tons of secrets, tons of documents to his handler. You know, they're kind of running out of film. to photograph it all. Burgess has recruited Blunt, who's in turn recruited others.

Blunt is in MI5. He's in the security service. John Cairncross, we talked about, has joined the foreign office and then the treasury and then is the kind of private secretary to a cabinet minister, Lord Hankey. And he has tons of access to secret documents.

I mean, Carecross is really important. I mean, he possibly gives the first information about the plan of the Allies to develop an atomic bomb to the Soviets, So it was definitely one of the first. 1935, if we go back a few years, he decided the best way to distance himself from his communist past was to being an aide to a right-wing Tory MP.

And then they go on a fact-finding trip around Nazi Germany, where, according to Guy Burgess, he has sex with lots of men from the Hitler youth, which is like, again, is just kind of classic Guy Burgess, which is kind of mixing work with pleasure, I think, on his, on his, and he's got this amazing network of Wrens, many of them gave, but not all of them, in London. And famously, this will be known as the homintern, as opposed to the common turn, the kind of, and it's a kind of gaggle of people who is, with his flamboyic, you know, characters he's mixing with. Where does he join, though, David, in 1936? Where is the best, you know, on his path to the establishment, BBC, where else would you go? BBC, BBC. Yeah, I mean, I guess he, I,

It's blazing the straight path from having sex with tons of Ben and the Hitler youth, straight to the BBC. Yes, exactly. I don't think that's an option anymore. And on the career when you're doing your kind of previous experience that qualifies you for this job. But he ends up in the BBC as a talks producer where he's persuading people to come on a talk. And again, he's so well connected. He's so charismatic.

He's got this just brilliant network. And, I mean, he gets to know Churchill pretty well before Churchill's prime minister. Churchill inscribes one of his books to Guy as a present. And then in January 39, guys left the BBC for a position in something new, which is called Section D of MI6. What's the D for, David? The D is for destruction. Destruction, yes. I mean, these guys, I wish we got to name sections this way of intelligence agencies.

It reminds me, you know, I think we did those episodes. This is now over, I think almost over a year ago, Gordon on North Korean cyber bank robbers. And we talked about the North Korean reconnaissance general bureau. And they have like a, I think they had a unit called like the enemy destruction sabotage unit or something like that. This is very redolent of those kind of. muscular North Korean naming conventions. I'm a fan. Yeah, so it's a new section for MI6, focusing on sabotage and destruction, but also propaganda. It's a new, a bit of a side show.

And Burgess is in the bit basically dealing with propaganda because he's got his background in talks at the BBC. So he's a kind of liaison between Section D propaganda and Ministry of Information. But then, of course, he's now into, it's a new bit, it's a kind of adjacent. to the main British secret service, but it's part of it. And of course, he lobbies to get Philby into it, his old friend. And Philby, you can see why Philby is perfect for it, because he's an experienced war correspondent. He knows Europe. He's good at languages. He knows about the military. You know, he's been embedded with the military in France, but he also knows about irregular warfare from having covered the Spanish Civil War. And, you know, Philby has also been trying to drop, you know, hints with all his contacts. in the previous months, you know, journalists and others love to do something for the war. And, you know, in a female journalist, I think, with intelligence links is the one he thinks plays a role. But definitely Burgess is the one who kind of helps get him in.

Philby says, now he's talking about this beating with Burgess, says, I was sitting in the office in the Times with very little to do. When suddenly the telephone rang and a voice asked me to go to a certain room in a certain hotel on a certain day. and I asked why. And they said, well, look here, it's rather a special work we are thinking for you about and please be as discreet as you can. Simply come to us and don't say anything. And so this is the connection that I guess Burgess helps facilitate for Philby to the Secret Intelligence Service that is going to really shape all of Philby's rabbidic life and legacy.

Yeah, that's right. So, you know, he has a couple of interview at the St. Irman's Hotel, which is still there. And he's asked to sign the Official Secrets Act. He's into this Section D. And Guy shows him up to his new office. You know, no one knows what it's doing because it's new. It's the start of the war.

There's, you know, reorganisation. It's all a bit of a mess. He's got a vague role, Philby, helping Burgess of all things. And there's a great description in Philby's memoir. And it's, I have to say, his memoir is pretty unreliable in parts. But I do love the type of... Shockingly. Yeah, shockingly.

Helped written partly by the KGV. But it is called My Silent War, which I think is a great title for his memoir. And he says, sometimes in the early weeks, I felt perhaps that I had not made the grade after all. It seemed that somewhere lurking in deep shadow, there must be another service, really secret and really powerful, capable of backstairs machination on such a scale as to justify the perennial suspicions of, say, French. But it soon became clear that such was not the case. It was the death of an illusion. Its passing caused me no pain. You feel like that when you entered in the CIA, David, first time? Yeah, I was going to say, I think all sort of, you know, intelligence officers and analysts, people who joined these secret services must go through some version of this moment. Because you have been,

you have been fed this image of these services as being. extremely capable, omniscient, omnipotent in subways, like all seeing. And then you get in and you realize that they're organizations that are run by human beings. And they're just, you know, they're broken and messed up and insane in all the ways that, you know, non-secret organizations are. And sometimes it's even worse. I think, I think this is a very common feeling. I think it's interesting, though, that, you know, for people who are loyal to these institutions in some way, shape, or form, the passing of that illusion does cause some pain because you'd idealized

some picture of this thing that is now gone. And I think in Philby's case, because he's an enemy within, he's probably more than happy to see that it's run to some degree as any other organization would where you've got lunatics and incompetence who are staffing some key positions, right? Yeah. It's a bureaucracy. Yeah. It's a bureaucracy. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So he's going to, He's in this Section D. He's going to go to a kind of training school and be involved in training exiles in propaganda. And he's good at it, actually. And at this point, the Soviets finally respond to his contact requests. And you can imagine how surprised they must be. Because like this guy who they thought was a kind of, you know, he's doing okay. And suddenly he's like, I'm in

MI6. You know, I've got into a kind of bit of the British Secret Service. But Section D doesn't really last very long because it sits, you know, they're real, this is a kind of period of great change from British intelligence, it's the start of a war. So soon they're going to create the Special Operations Executive, this famous organisation, to set Europe ablaze and to do sabotage, which means that MI6 can therefore focus much more on just intelligence gathering. And so this kind of creation of the SOE is bad news for Burgess, because the new bosses at SOE can see that he is just not, he's not their kind of guy.

They're a bit more military. He's not SOE material. Not SOE material. Burgess is not SOE material. This drunk and lecturers young man who's basically been trying it on with all the soldiers is not suitable to be in, to be training in S.O.E. And he's living this kind of wildlife at this flat in Bentik Street. And he's also just gets done for drunk driving at this point as well. So as a result, Burgess, you know, who's got Philby in is thrown out.

But what do you do with someone like that, you know, who's been clearly not suitable for this kind of work? I know. Back to the BBC. Back to the BBC. It's where I'll be going with my tail between my legs one day, David. He does go back to the BBC, though. Bony briefly, yeah. I'll be briefly.

And then he goes to the foreign office. Yeah, of course, because he's a drunk, lecturer is dangerous. Where else would you put him in the foreign office with access to secrets? Diplomacy. You've got a future in diplomacy. But meanwhile, Philby, though, of course, you know, but that's Burgess. But Philby, who's been brought in by Burgess partly, I think they can see he's, he looks capable. So here is the crucial moment, which is can you get into the real MI6? You know,

not this offshoot which is being now kind of absorbed, but the inner sanctum. And there is this chance. So MI6 decide they need to check him out before joining up. You know, there's a quick cursory check of the files, nothing found. Now, the number two in, in MI6 was one of the number two. There were two deputies, one of Valentine Vivian, VV, kind of head of security, decides that to check out Philby, whether he's, you know, good enough to join the British Secret Service. What do you do? You have lunch with him and his dad because, you know, Valentine Vivian has known his father. It's very British. Very British, Gordon. Shingen Philby had known Valentine Vivian back in India when, you know, Vivian had been there 30 years

earlier. They used to play bridge together. Philby's mother, Kim Filby's mother is an old friend of you know, Valentine Vivian's wives. So they decide they're going to meet. And of course, we'd slightly lost track of the mad Sinjin Filby story, hadn't we? I think where did we leave him last? I think he'd converted to Islam, hadn't he, in the 30s? He'd converted to Islam, potentially to help secure more lucrative business deals in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And also, by the kind of late 30s, he's very anti-war. pro peace with the Germans, and he becomes a little bit pro-Hitler, you know, not totally, stands for Parliament in Britain for a far-right party, and then, crucially, at the start of the war,

he's actually encouraging the Arabs to stay out of the Second World War when it starts. And he bin Saudis clearly kind of sufficiently kind of worried about this behaviour, that he kind of tells the Brits. And then Sinjin Filby gets detained and deported to Britain, where he's held for months as a kind risk to public safety. This is the bit where you just go, this is just so weird and it's so Britain. So he gets held for a few months. Then he gets released. And yet just after that, he's having lunch with the number two of MI6 because they're old friends. I mean, it's just like, it's nuts, isn't it? I've actually been bottling up this question on the British class system

because I think we, we Americans, at least Americans like me, Gordon, you know, a pretty decent middle-class guy from a flyover state who isn't part of any sort of class establishment. Ordinary Joe's like me, Gordon. We don't get the class system, but I guess is this a demonstration of that class system in action here where if you're kind of in, and I know Sinjin isn't exactly in the upper class, but if you're kind of in or if you know a few people who sort of vouch for you, that's enough.

I mean, what is the best way to understand this? dynamic that we've just seen here where this guy, a bigamist, a bigamist who converted to Islam and who has actually been deported back to his home country from abroad because he is a threat to safety and security winds up vouching for his son to join the British Secret Intelligence Service. Like, why do you unpack that dynamic for us? Why does that work? So I think it's partly about class, although it's worth saying none of these people are like upper class. They're not the aristocracy and they are they are kind of upper middle professional class and they're not rich but they are from a certain world where everyone knew each other so I think the way to think of it

is partly about class but not as upper class but more as what people call the old boys network which is people who'd been to school together and where if you're one of them and you're trusted by them then you're okay and I mean you see that with you know with this lunch you know this fascinating lunch because it's the three of them having lunch. Deputy Head of, you know, one of the number two's at MI6, Sinjin and Kim. Kim goes to the bathroom and Valentine Vivian from MI6 turns to the father and says, he was a bit of a communist at Cambridge, wasn't he? And Sinjin replies, that was all schoolboy nonsense. He's a reformed character now. And that is it. It's an astounding misjudgment on the part of the father. Exactly. Because he probably actually

believes it too. Yeah. Right. I mean, he's not, he's not covering up for his son. He genuinely thinks that it was schoolboy nonsense. Yeah. VV's got the stamp of approval. Yeah. And he's been vouched for by one of us. It's clear now. He's been told he was once a communist. And yet it's fine to employ him. And Valentine Vivian later says, I mean, I love this line as well. Later he will say, he let him in because he was vouched for. And he said, I was asked about him. And I said, I knew his people. That's what Valentine Vivian says. Valentine Vivian, you know, I was asked about him, Philby, and I said, I knew his people. In other words, his father, his type of people.

And I think it's so interesting because that is the kind of old-fashioned British elite and establishment in action. It's a good lunch. Someone's saying you're a good chap, a good egg, and you're in MI6. Well, Gordon, I think there is the perfect place to stop for right now with Kim Philby. about to enter the inner sanctum, thanks to a very good lunch and a completely out-to-lunch father who has no idea what's going on in his son's life. But he is about to join SIS and when we come back next time, we'll see how Kim Filby begins to penetrate this most bourgeois institution, the British Secret Intelligence Service.

But of course, just a reminder if you want to hear the next couple of episodes right away you can go join the Declassified Club at the Restisclassifier.com. Lots more there for you, including some bonus material and that tape where you can hear Kim Filby himself talking about being recruited into MI6. So we'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. Hi there, it's Dominic Sambrook again from the Restis History. Now I mentioned during the break that we have a new series on recent Iranian history.

So here is a short extract for you. If you want to hear the whole series, then search for Revolution in Iran on the rest is history, wherever you get your podcasts or search for us on YouTube. There are crowds in the streets every day. There are attacks on banks and restaurants every day. And already in some towns in Iran, power has been taken from the legitimate authorities and it's been taken over by revolutionary strike committees. Now, if you're with the revolution, this is very exciting. If you're not with the revolution, it is terrifying. And And in his memoirs, Ambassador William Sullivan describes standing at the U.S. Embassy and looking

out through an upstairs window. And he sees in the distance, troops holding back demonstrators. He sees cars burning in the middle of the road. He sees smoke rising from burning buildings. And he thinks something has to change. We have to do something. So on the 9th of November, he sends a secret cable to Washington with the title, Thinking the Unthinkable. And he says,

the Shah is finished. It's over. And if we don't act now, Iran, which is so vital to us, will slip out of our hands forever. He says we should ditch the Shah right now, and it may well be time to do a deal with the Ayatollah Ruhola Khomeini.

If you enjoyed that clip, then please search for the rest is history wherever you get your podcasts.