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Overview

It is hard not to romanticize the British espionage operations of the twentieth century. In many ways, Kim Philby’s story reminds us that we should be careful about being taken in by such romance. He was a charming traitor who never wavered in his allegiance to Moscow, even as he rose through the ranks of British intelligence and caused thousands of deaths with his treacherous actions.

Philby is a classic example of a double agent. Indeed, his story inspired John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and many other works of fiction. In this article, you’ll learn about the worst spy in history; how to charm people into believing your innocence; and what handlers teach new recruits.

Big Idea #1: Kim Philby’s nascent Socialist inclinations were formed at Cambridge and in revolutionary Vienna.

Kim Philby was no outlier when he attended Cambridge University. He, like many other first-year students, came from a wealthy family and had academic ambitions. But his political views shifted to the left, taking him in a different direction than most of his classmates. When he went to Berlin during Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, he saw Nazi thugs beating up Jewish citizens.

By this point, he was personally committed to the Socialist cause. However, there’s no evidence of him preaching Communist ideas or reading Karl Marx’s works in any detail. He did purchase some of Marx’s books but it is not known whether he read them or studied them at all. Philby eventually devoted himself to the Socialist cause while living in Vienna, Austria in 1934 when a revolution was brewing and tensions were high between right-wing and left-wing groups.

In the early 1930s, a young man named Philby went to Vienna. Within weeks of his arrival, Austria’s chancellor Dollfuss began a crackdown on socialists and trade unions. A short but violent civil war erupted in Vienna over these issues.

During the chaos of World War II, Philby fell in love with a Jewish Socialist activist. The woman was on a proscription list and would have been arrested if she stayed in Germany. Therefore, Philby married her so that she could flee to Britain for safety. Even though they divorced shortly after the war ended, it’s thought that he loved her more than anyone else in his life.

After this adventure, Philby returned to Britain and was determined to fight for the Socialist cause.

Big Idea #2: Philby started out as a journalist before being recruited by the secret services.

A spy has to have many tools. Philby was lucky in that he had a great one: charisma. It helped him throughout his career, and it was especially helpful when he worked for the Times as a correspondent after college. He also benefited from good luck along the way because of his charm and intelligence.

In 1937, Philby was sent to Spain to report on the Civil War. One day, a bomb went off near his car while he was inside it with other journalists. The others died but Philby escaped with minor injuries and got a lot of credit for this heroic act.

After the war began, Philby was sent to France to report on Nazi advances. He filed amusing stories about what he saw in Amiens near the English Channel.

It was a great adventure, but Philby wanted to do more. He wanted to become a British spy. Back then, it was common for the secret services to find new recruits through networking or chance encounters. Philby’s first contact with them happened when he shared a train compartment with Hester Harriet Marsden-Smedley, who was also interested in becoming a spy and recommended him after talking for just two days. After another background check and interview, Philby became an official British spy.