WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Undetected: Kim Philby

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

In the first episode of season 2, Megan and Alessia dive into the story of Nicholas Elliot's best friend, the famous Kim Philby who set Western intelligence back decades with his traitorous work.

Welcome to Undetected on Radio Free Hillsdale. Go undercover with your hosts, Alessia Sandala and Megan Lee, as they uncover the stories of spies from every country and time. The most thrilling, yet the most secret of lives in history. Welcome back for Season 2 of Undetected. Megan, I am so glad to be back on talking about espionage again. Me too, Alessia, and there's no better way to start season two than to take a trip down memory lane

and become reacquainted with a major character in the story of Nicholas Elliott, spy we covered in the first ever episode of Undetected. Kim Filby was Elliot's best friend and a double agent for the Soviet Union, and it's about time we get to know Philby a little better. Philby was born as Harold Adrian Russell Filby on January 1st, 1912 in Ambala, India. He attended Westminster Academy and later University of Cambridge. Somewhere along the way of helping fugitives of fascist Germany escape and falling in love with Austrian communist Litsy Friedman, Philby became a communist himself. time between 1933 and 1934, Bilby met Arnold Deutsch, a Soviet agent recruiting promising Englishmen

as Soviet spies. After signing on, Philby worked as a journalist and war correspondent before he was approached by Guy Burgess in 1940, offering him a spot in MI6, the foreign branch of British intelligence services. Interestingly enough, Guy Burgess was also working for the Soviets as a double agent. He, Philby, and several other well-educated young men who had also joined the Soviets in the 1930s, up the Cambridge spy ring. And so began Philby's real work as a Soviet double agent. He quickly climbed the ranks to become the head of counter espionage at MI6 after World War II, which countered, or was supposed to counter Soviet subversion operations for MI6. I doubt there was much of that going on while Philby was in office, right? It probably looked like a one step forward, three steps back situation

thanks to the double agent. In 1949, Philby was even assigned to be the top liaison officer between Britain and America in Washington, D.C., where he had access to highly sensitive information. It was the height of his clandestine career. And it wasn't just the British and Americans that knew it. Philby alerted the Soviet Union that the Allies were sending anti-communist soldiers into Albania, and he also revealed the identities of Western agents working in Russia, resulting in their deaths. He also told Guy Burgess and Donald McLean, a Cambridge ring spy, that they were under suspicion. But when they booked it for Russia,

Philby himself became a suspect. Despite being accused as the third man in the traitorous trio of Burgess and Maclean in public, Philby was cleared of guilt and successfully convinced the journalists he was innocent. Philby was fired from MI6 as a precaution, and he worked as a journalist in Beirut. But Philby had been a popular figure amongst his colleagues due to his charisma, according to Ben McIntyre's book,

A Spy Among Friends. They rallied around him during this time, keeping him updated on intelligence, and his best friend, Nicholas Elliott, the head of the Beirou Station, told the embassy officers that Philby could be trusted. So Philby's work as the double agent continued. The exposure of Philby's treachery started with a chance conversation in Tel Aviv. Laura Solomon, a British-Russian social campaigner and reliable source for MI6, revealed that 30 years prior, Philby had tried to recruit her for the Soviets.

When she revealed this to MI6, our old friend, Nicholas Elliott, insisted that he be the one to interrogate Philby. He managed to extract a partial confession after three days of questioning. Oh, this is the part where he gets caught and receives justice, right, Alessia? If only, Philby hadn't survived this long as a double agent for nothing. Three weeks after the supposed confession on a stormy night in January, 1963, Philby boarded a train bound for the Soviet Union without looking back. What? How'd they let him get away?

Well, this is where it gets complicated. to McIntyre, Elliot had left the option of escape to Moscow open to Philby after leaving him in Beirut because the last thing MI6 wanted was a public trial of Kim Filby. Wow, MI6 couldn't handle the reality that one of their most high-ranking and trusted spies was a traitor all along, and they certainly couldn't let the public know that he had been working right under the agency's noses. Exactly. Philby lived out the rest of his days in Moscow. He died on May 11, 1988. Wow. Filby was certainly a larger-than-life character in the damage that he did. And that's only one of the takeaways we can find from Kim Filby's two lives, united in one man.

As for the rest, we'll leave that up to you. I'm Megan. And I'm Alessia. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Undetected. Tune in next week to hear the thrilling story of the small but mighty Marta Cone on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.