The Posh Brits Betraying Their Country - WW2 - Spies & Ties 20

Being allies does little to discourage Moscow from recruiting double agents in the British establishment. The most famous of them all, Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five, penetrate deep into MI5, MI6, and Bletchley Park. With friends like the NKVD, who needs enemies?

Follow WW2 Day by Day on Instagram: @ww2_day_by_day
Follow TimeGhost History on Instagram: @timeghosthistory

Hosted by: Astrid Deinhard
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Ian Sowden
Written by: James Newman
Research by: James Newman
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
- Mikołaj Uchman
- Daniel Weiss

Special thanks to supporters:
Kelley Laughlin
jaicne

- Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal, Bloomsbury 2000
- Max Hastings, The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939—1945, HarperCollins Publishers, 2015.
- Keith Jeffery, The Secret History of MI6, Penguin 2010

Image sources:
- Portrait of Anthony Blunt courtesy of Українець
- Hammer and Sickle with Red Star courtesy of Jorko2009
- Europe 1933 credit David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
- Women working in Bletchley Park courtesy of Bletchley Park Trust
- Imperial War Museusm: WPN 109
- Icons from the Noun Project: Chandelier by Vectors Point, Glass by art shop, Champagne By Pete Baker

Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
- Break Free - Fabien Tell
- Last Point of Safe Return - Fabien Tell
- London - Howard Harper-Barnes
- March Of The Brave 4 - Rannar Sillard
- March Of The Brave 10 - Rannar Sillard
- Other Sides of Glory - Fabien Tell
- Please Hear Me Out - Philip Ayers
- Potential Redemption - Max Anson
- Remembrance - Fabien Tell
- Sailing for Gold - Howard Harper-Barnes
- The End Of The World 2 - Håkan Eriksson
- The Inspector 4 - Johannes Bornlöf
- Weapon of Choice - Fabien Tell

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

The Cambridge Five show just how deep Soviet intelligence was able to penetrate into the key institutions of world powers. What innovations and ideologies enabled the Soviets to be so effective?

[maxsmodels]

In the end, thanks to the American Verona project, they were outted and two of them defected to Russia. Afterwards, Burgess eventually died in Russia as an alcoholic; Maclean also became a drunk and eventually ruined his marriage. Years later Philby was uncovered and also defected to Moscow where, in a bitter irony, he later had affair with Maclean's wife thus causing Philby's wife to leave him. If you wrote this as a movie people would think it was over the top.

[alexhussinger]

The Soviets not understanding British Classism is kind of funny. "What do you mean upperclass Oxbridge people can get away with this? It has to be a trick! There's no way the British would make a publicly known Communist head of counterintelligence against Communist infiltration!"

[SHAdEheart]

I love the navy-blue cable-knit polo sweater-vest Astrid! It’s a good look!

[Sock]

Astrid always reminds me of the one aunt at every family party that somehow knows everyone's secrets, and after four bourbon higballs becomes the most interesting person in the room

[GeneralSmitty]

Ah yes the Cambridge Five, an inspiration to a lot of future spy fiction like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

[gunman]

Learnt a lot about the Cambridge Five from Astrid in this video today, and in a pretty entertaining way. And (12:16) it is somewhat funny that the Soviets get a little paranoid and can't believe that they are not high up in the British priority list. Of course all these changes after the war ends with the start of the Cold War though.

[TheEvertw]

This story is another example of fact being harder to believe than fiction.

[IudiciumInfernalum]

The main mistake Soviet Paranoia seems to make is expecting everyone to be as paranoid as they are. Oh that and having the inability to make sound judgements on actionable intel.

[WillNGo]

I love that number: MI-6 spies in the Soviet Union ZERO; yet Stalin had shot in the basement of the Lubyanka, or sent to the Gulag a million of them.
I think the best trick any anti-Soviet intelligence operation could do is rapidly expand it's intelligence analysis dept. 'Why would they have just hired 200 people to analyze intelligence from our country if they didn't have at least that many spies in our country?'
I think John LeCarré's autobiographical The Pigeon Tunnel has the most remarkable account of pre-defection Philby. One British diplomat is going on and on about the consequences if Philby is indeed a traitor - No one will talk to him anymore, he'll be ostracized - and that was it.

[Larrymh]

I've nothing but scorn for these two faced prix. Advocating for one form of tyranny while working for another.

[allanlank]

When Igor Gouzenko defected from the Soviet Union, the opposite of what the Cambridge Five did, he went to the RCMP because he knew there were no NKVD agents there.

[tommcdonald]

"Secret Agent Man, Secret Agent Man, they've given you a number and taken away your name..." Steve Barri written for Johnny Rivers

[DrVictorVasconcelos]

Well, it turns out MI6 was right about MI5 and SOE 😂😂 Of course, then Philby goes on to be a senior officer at the MI6.

[abrahamlevi]

Guy Burgess once said, and I quote: "If you don't belong, you betray". He, of course, had referred to betrayal on ideological grounds. Recruitment on ideological grounds has been proven to be the most effective form of recruitment. A lot of youngsters in continental Europe as well as England turned to Communism because in the 1930s because they believed that only the USSR could stop Hitler. Litzi Friedmann, Kim Philby's first wife, and Arnold Deutsch were among them. Litzi was a top notch operative by any standard, and Arnold was probably one of the best recruiters that the NKVD had ever had in continental Europe.

[waynegordon]

There once was a Viennese Jew
Who valued a vigorous screw
A pinch and a tickle
For hammer and sickle
Make one a communist true!

Cambridge produced a quintet
Five secret hearts Soviet
Despite paranoia
From old Modrzhinskaya
They'd wreak havoc for many years yet!

Another fine episode! Bravo!

[StrangerOman]

Astrid really stepping up her expression game with this episode. :)
The binoculars shot was amazingly smooth.

[cmdrflake]

Sorgi and the Cambridge lads could have done a lot more damage to the Western Allies than they actually accomplished when Stalin refused to believe there were credible external threats to the security of the Soviet Union. After all, Stalin was looking for internal threats to the Soviet Union, upon which he placed far too much importance. He was convinced that he had to deal with “more important” internal threats. He had dealt with external threats so he felt like he could freely slaughter enemies of the state, real or imaginary. Here, the “bad guys” were winning.

[villagerintheshire]

😂😂😂 This lady at 1.5x is pure comedy ... I love her. It's true what she says ... Received Pronunciation can help you get away with a lot...even today

[spamspum]

“A bayonet that’s a weapon with a working man on either end, Betray your country, serve your class, Don’t sign up for war my Friend.”