Finding the Secret Soviet Spy...

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War and the Cambridge Five concludes with a video on the rest of the Soviet spies in the British high society.

#ColdWar #CambridgeFive #SovietSpy

[Aleksej]

Small suggestion: If you have the time it would be great to sort all these episodes in playlists for new people on the channel. Eg. Cambridge five, Asian wars of independence, Secret police etc.

[maxwelljw]

I definitely think there needs to be more of these biography episodes that covers all kinds of characters from the Cold War, from Generals and world leaders, to individual soldiers and spies, here’s some suggestions:
- Nikita Khrushchev
- Yuri Andropov
- Douglas MacArthur
- Ayatollah Khomeini
- Saddam Hussein
- Hafez al-Assad
- Muammar al-Gaddafi
- William Westmoreland
- Creighton Abrams
- Augusto Pinochet
- Che Guevara
- Oleg Gordievsky
- Yuri Bezmenov
- Aldrich Ames
- Roy Benavidez
- Carlos Hathcock
- Hans Konrad Schumann

[shaider]

Interestingly, the recently deceased John Le Carre's career as an intelligence officer came to an end due to the Cambridge 5 blowing up his cover along with others.

[bhutochakrabarti]

Well it's my birthday and a cold war video is a cherry on the top.

[justsomepersononyoutube]

The cold war
Yes it's quite chilly right here

[TheBoxOfRocksFTW]

no one else is amazed to hear Baron Rothschild be brought up? for a family widely steeped in conspiracies and controversy, they somehow never fail to surprise me by popping up throughout modern history in the weirdest places

[WillNGo]

Good video. The story of these spies ultimately is a moral story for all of us to well heed. Definitely find John LeCarré's account of Kim Philby's defectioin in his memoir book The Pigeon Tunnel. I've read a lot about these spies and I have to conclude that they were allowed to defect to the Soviet Union because they were 'upper crust' and to minimize embarrassment or exposure to the other 'upper crusts' who totally missed catching them at it, and who probably blithely handed restricted information to someone who was immediately trusted because he was of the 'right class, ' (wore the correct school tie, belonged to the proper club, etc...)
What if anything did happen to more lowly born traitors in the UK? That would make an interesting comparison. I get the feeling spying in the UK was treated more as a hobby. In the U.S. the Rosenbergs got executed, while in the UK, Kaus Fuchs who handed the Soviets everything about the bomb got 9 years even though, his exposure led to the U.S. cancelling plans to share nukes with the UK, and while in prison helped an IRA inmate to escape. After his release he went to the GDR and then helped the Chinese make their first bomb.

[oldesertguy]

It just seems so odd to find out someone was working against your own government, and then just letting them go on like "nothing to see here." Especially allowing the one guy to have access to the Royal Family after knowing he had worked for the Soviets.

[danceswithbadgers]

The thumbnail shows a young Cairncross but Blunt is represented by a pic of Samuel West, who portrayed Blunt in a BBC drama documentary.

[HistoryDose]

Another great installment! Love the tone of this one

[mcfontaine]

There was no such thing as ‘Project Ultra’. Ultra was simply the name for the most high level intelligence from all sources, not just codebreaking. British codebreaking was carried out by GC&CS at Bletchley Park.

Neither Blunt nor the Soviets would have known the Intel he was passing on was from Enigma as it was always said to ‘customers’ to have come from a human source called Boniface. Very few people were read-in on what the real source was.

I’ve produced The Bletchley Park Podcast for more than 8 years so know a bit about the subject :)

[joslynscott]

I really liked your series, however I do believe Cairncross was more dangerous than what you led on. The Soviets were able to develop the atomic bomb due to him. So critical.

[freeaboo]

Please do a video on Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. Also please do a video on the Soviet Major General turned spy for the US Dmitri Polyakov and Adolf Tokachev. Obviously there were many KGB defectors and double agents for the US. But these two stand out. Their ideological convictions and personal experiences with the Soviet state was their reason for spying, they were hugely important. Tolkavhevs espionage work is a big reason for the technological superiority of later Cold War western fighters.

[shafiqishaq]

Sir Roger Hollis head of MI5.

Peter Wright was adamant that the head of the British Security Service MI5 was a KGB agent in his book Spycatcher and gives a damming verdict on the infamous 5 and his reasons for doing so.

[kingmichealthefirstofroman]

Can we get an episode on communist foods with sergi sputnikov?

[smplemgic]

"We've got a job to do..."

[alexmatthews]

I do love your videos. Well done and keep it up. Many thanks!

[chedders]

Whats with the background noise since moving to a new set?

[zacharybrown-silverstein]

Just starting, but I sure hope you tie this in with that insanely popular game all the kiddos are playing right now. Where you gotta catch the traitor...

[RAM-wvvr]

Is there official stories of western spies operating in USSR or other country behind the Iron Curtain?? If yes, it would be good an episode about it!!