Kim
Philby
1912-1988
Kim Philby (full name Harold Adrian Russell «Kim» Philby) was a Soviet intelligence officer and a high-ranking member of the British intelligence services. He was the son of the British Arabist St. John Philby. A member of the Cambridge Five – a network of Soviet agents in Great Britain recruited in the 1930s at Cambridge University by Soviet intelligence officer Arnold Deutsch. He was born on January 1, 1912, in Ambala, British India, into the family of a British official serving in the colonial administration. He received his primary education in Britain and later entered the prestigious Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In 1933, Philby met Arnold Deutsch, an agent of Soviet intelligence. Deutsch proposed collaboration, and Philby agreed to work for the USSR. During the 1930s, Philby was at the epicenter of international events. Working as a special correspondent for The Times, he covered the Spanish Civil War. Being in key locations and having access to important state documents made him an especially valuable agent. Philby’s career in the British structures advanced rapidly. Within just a few months of service, he became the deputy head of British counterintelligence. In 1944, Philby took charge of Section IX of SIS (MI6), whose tasks included countering communist influence and surveilling communists within the United Kingdom. After the end of World War II, Philby was sent to Turkey, where he headed the British intelligence residency in Istanbul. On January 1, 1946, Philby was awarded the Order of the British Empire (Officer grade) – «as a member of the Foreign Office». However, by a Queen’s decree of August 10, 1965, the award was annulled, and Philby’s name was removed from the register of recipients. In the late 1940s, he actively collaborated with U.S. intelligence agencies, participating in the development of operations aimed against communist governments. He was later sent to the Middle East, from where he subsequently moved to the Soviet Union. For his services to the Soviet Union, he was awarded high state honors. These included: the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class, the Order of Peoples’ Friendship, and the badge «Honorary State Security Officer». The figure of Philby entered the annals of world history – he is recognized as one of the finest Soviet intelligence officers. Thanks to this agent’s actions, many British and American operations directed against the Soviet government proved futile. The name of this outstanding intelligence officer is commemorated in the name of a square in Moscow.
Address: Moscow, Kim Philby Square
