◆ SpookStack

the Red Militagy Cross on hi chestCoumes tise new aot the extensive tles between the English spy and fie rul- ing circels of Hitler's Ger- many, the fgct that Philby regularly visitid Berlin before the war, ere he quite simply met von Ribben- trop. He was an outstanding specialist and the C.LA, knew ‘It Was a Catastrophe’ One of the most significant operations of the C.1.A., care- fuily concealed throughout the subsequent 17 years of the cald war, ended in an un- expected failure. The team of dropped men was greeted in a proper way. It was @ catas- trophe, and mounring was observed in C.LA. headquar- ters. : ‘ All the services were turnéd usside down, All the wei see Tepe Se Te ede CE LE possible hypotheses linked with the failure of the opera- tion that had been so pains- takingly prepared were pains- takingly analyzed. All but one, Dulles, a man with imagination, could imagine everything that suited him, ut even ina nightmare he could not Sentarre” that a staff worker of the Soviet intelligence had sat opposite him at the tabie in his office that August morning. Soviet spy Kim Philby had fulfilled his latest assignment from the center, — . And now it became our turn to sit at the game table with Kim Philby. The tabie was & small one, the polish does not shine. An English tabie, covered with old work papers. The rest of the furni- ture, which seemed to have - arrived in this Moscow apart- ment straight form the novels of Dickens, also suited him— the darkened wood of the bookshelves, the armchair that seems almost preten- tious to our modern taste and the fireplace, an electric one though. The apartment is filled with dooks, of all kinds for the most part Eng- lish. . The host of the apartment fits harmoniously in this en- vironment, He re very calm, unhurried, his Big gray head with a straight part is seated On strong shoulders and his weathered, masculine face is “softened by bright eyes with a slight squint. When he smiles, wrinkles run from the corners of, his eyes ta his te: ama his face becomes Cc even armer. Kirg.Philby, a man great destiny, is re- ceiving us, two Soviet jour- nalists, for the first time. There are millions of ques- tions in our heads, but where should we begin? Comrade Philby quite obviously catches the confusion on our faces. “Let us start with the be- ginning,” he proposed softly, from the stove, as the Rus- pies &, ay. His English reveals him as a man of high culture. He was born-.in the In- dian town of Ambala and spent the first four years of his life in India. “On Jan. I I will be 56,” Comrade qd Philpy says. “M father served as fo ome. of the—Tngligh colgaial —adg ministration in India. He waca man nf areat anidi- was a omian of great erudi tion and varied knowledge; he distinguished himself by hig conservative views and was desperately fascinated by Arabic studies. This certainly explains that his second wife was of Arabic origin. The Hindi and Arabic languages entered my life very early, and then later-—~ German, French, Spanish, Turkish and then Russian.” “But what kind of a strange name, Kim, did they give you?” “Strictly speaking my full name sounds more pompous —Harold Adrian Russell Phil- by. er named me Kim after one of Kip- ling’s characters. And so the hame stuck all my life.” “What happened then?” “Then my family moved to | London, and in 1929 T en-: tered Cambridge, Trinity, one of the biggest and mast, aristocratic colleges, 1) studied well, and read a lot.’ This is where my story be- gins. England, like the other, capitalist countries, was liv-: ing through a devastating] economic crisis in’ ‘those, years. The country was: scourged by unemployment, ' the labor market was broken by lines of hungry, desperaie people. But the funereal cold of Fascism was alread blowing through the world. Repercussions of all: this reached even our very prop- er collage er (Oucee. _ “We argued a good deal, sought out the answers our sproblems in prohlem pooks apd’ strove ta understand what C could give people some kind of ost the wties that were overcoming them. “Trips that my friends’ and I made on summer vacations to certain Western European countries—primarily Germany and Austria~—became decisive for my subsequent life. All this helped me to broaden my idea of the world. Meet- ings with new people, from arharm T had id haan ent aff at TRAE 2 SY POSE Se WR Cambridge, opened the truth of life. Austria was coveréd with the blood of the workers, it was going through a particu- larly difficult time: 7I under- stood on which side of the barricades my place was. I felt every minute that my ideals and convictions, my sympathies and desires, were on the side of those who fight for a betier future for mankind. In my native Eng- land, in my own homeland, I also saw people seeking the truth and fighting for it. “I painfully sought out the ameans of being useful to the ATSAIS Uh Sree, feet ats great movement of madern times, the name of which is Communism. The personifi- cation of these ideas is the Soviet Union and its heroic people, who have laid the foundation for the construc- tion of a new world. And I found the form for this strug- gle in my work in Saviet espionage. I felt, and I still feel, that by doing this work I also served my English people.” “Can you still recall, Com- rade Kim, what your first as- signment from Soviet intelli- gence was?” -_—_o “OR-i-waeso disenchanted that first time,” #o—laugbs. “| imagniec tall much more romantically. But the assign- ments during that period were, ag. it seemed to me, insignificant, although they. were a real school for the big work. I had much more enthusiams at that time than experience, and af course they could not entrust seri- ous operations to me.” Comrade Philby takes out a package of Pamir cigar- ettes, and we all start to smoke. "F am used to the stro kind,” he explains to us, and then, = after a morkens silencé, continues: bse ry . ft, ne? . “T dysthasI could at the time and I was feipy re Jearn one day that I had been enrolled on the sta of Soviet intelligence.” ‘A Rather Long Story* “How, comrade Kim, did you happen to get into the ngiish intelligent service?’ “That's a rather jong story,” he says.’ “After finish- ing Cambridge, I worked for a while a3 an editor aad then set Out as @ war correspond- ent to Spain for The Times. It was February, 1937. That battle against Fascism that was developing on the fields of Spain wag in the heart of every honest person. For me, ‘a8 as py, it was a university of practical experience. i ‘learned the knack of hiding my thoughts, of passing my- self off as something other than what I was. In public statements I passed myself off as as upporter of Franco. This naturally found reflec- tion in my correspendence. They were very pleased with me in the nracc danartraant Me i One Press Geparumence of Franco's staff.” Kim Philby thotightfully looks out the window-——he is continually frowning slight- ly—and them takes from a box on the table a cross on an ornamental ribbon, holds it out to us and continues his narrative. ,. ; + “E lived at the time in Bilbao. One day an officer on Franco’s staff came to me, ‘Sat, me in a car and drove me off to the Fascist head- quarters in Burgos. They led ‘Tat into a hail where a group ‘of ridiculously pompous gen- herals was standing. ~ i “fn the center was -“Generalissimo” himself. 1 noticed that all of them, in- cluding Franco, were very sohrt, I was introduced. After a few minutes the Cau- dillo with extreme ceremony handed be this very cross. He then showed great pleasure in my work—of all the West- em journalists I was one of the few to be given this exotic award. The cross also piayed its role in my entry into the intelligence service. “I returned to England, and after some time I went ‘out again’ as Times corre- spondent who had been scorched by the winds of war ‘to illuminate the military ace tions @ Britisr—expedi- tionaty=-—seefs in France. tha the a all we Vg aatae Te he dee or eae og wet ~~. ep mage SEE Me ad ee gig je ie ie oy