Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Her crime: the shortening of the Soviet Union's atomic bomb project by up to 5 years. Virtually any topic for the virtual learner. It was that arrest that connects Norwood to the Cambridge spies.Appalled by what he saw in the archives, Mitrokhin had decided to expose the KGB’s actions by compiling the papers.Professor Christopher Andrew, a fellow at Corpus Christi college, is one of the few to have seen the actual papers when he collaborated on two books with Mitrokhin.He said: “The only reason these papers are here is because of Vasili Mitrokhin’s courage. Unlike most articles on Britannica.com, Book of the Year articles are not reviewed and revised after their initial publication.
Given that Norwood … Melita Norwood. John Cunningham. This article was most recently revised and updated by While a student at the University of Cambridge, Philby became a communist and in 1933 a Soviet agent. He was absolutely determined that this material should be available for the world to see.“There are only two places where you can find KGB intelligence files like this – one is in the KGB archives and the other is here.”Over 12 years Mitrokhin smuggled handwritten copies of the files from the archive and hid them in his country house outside Moscow.After the fall of the Soviet Union he travelled to Riga in 1992– dressed in scruffy clothes to avoid attention – with a small number of documents in a suitcase, hidden under a pile of dirty clothes.Staff at the American embassy were not convinced by his story but he was able to meet with MI6 representatives at the British embassy, who were astonished to discover the material, detailing the innermost machinations of Soviet intelligence.The documents, which were smuggled back to Britain by MI6, contain information about hundreds of Britons who were spying for Russia, including the notorious Cambridge spy ring.Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, John Cairncross, Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby were a group of disaffected undergraduates at Cambridge University who began spying for the Soviet Union during the Second World War.The Mitrokhin papers paint detailed – and often critical – profiles of the five men, according to Russian researcher Svetlana Lokhova who has translated parts of the archive into English.In the first six months of 1945, Burgess handed over 369 top secret files to the Russians but his record was blotted after the Second World War.Ms Lokhova said: “It says Burgess was not taking care of his looks and was constantly under the influence of alcohol.“Once on his way out of a pub he was seen dropping on the floor the file he had to hand over from the Foreign Office.”The documents contain details of Burgess’ sex life, including a number of affairs he had while in America.Maclean’s file said he was “not very good at keeping secrets” since he told his brother and a girlfriend about his intelligence work whilst drunk.Kim Philby is often regarded as Britain’s most notorious double agent but these documents reveal the Russians valued a secretary from Bexleyheath named Melita Norwood far higher.The file on the now-grandmother spy reveals she was awarded a lifetime pension in 1962 for “many years of excellent work”.Prof Andrew said: “It’s interesting that in all that time, there is never a moment when the KGB lose contact with Melita Norwood but they completely drop Kim Philby.”There are more than 30,000 files within the archive, which contain an array of material, including coded directions to secret weapon caches all over Europe.Mitrokhin and his family were exfiltrated to the UK in 1992, where he lived until his death in 2004.The 2018 spy drama, released in the UK on April 19, 2019, is based on the novel of the same name by Jennie Rooney.
Norwood's spying is credited with bringing the Soviet nuclear weapons program ahead by two years. This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that
But the Cold War was a busy time for spies from the USA and the Soviet Union. Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year.
You can unsubscribe at any time.Joan Stanley (Sophie Cookson) and Leo Galich (Tom Hughs) in Red JoanVasili Mitrokhin soon after defecting from the Soviet UnionVasili Mitrokhin's handwritten notes on the members of the Cambridge spy ringFour members of the 'Cambridge Five', graduates of Trinity College, Cambridge, who passed information from British Intelligence to the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 1950s.
Presented as archival content. Mon 27 Jun 2005 20.03 EDT. Anthony Blunt, British art historian who late in his life was revealed to have been a Soviet spy. 93-year-old spy still keeping war secrets - BBC News - YouTube
Melita Norwood, the last of the atomic spies, had finally been run to ground, but at 87 she was deemed too old to prosecute. The ring had been run by Percy Glading, co-founder of the British Communist Party, who was caught by MI5 passing on naval secrets.In Glading's notebook he noted Norwood's codename 'Hola' several times.
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Kim Philby, British intelligence officer until 1951 and the most successful Soviet double agent of the Cold War period. The real Melita Norwood, known as 'Hola' by the Russians was an Englishwoman who worked at the Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Trenchcoats, bugs and secret agents are things we all know from the movies.