Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 30
Page 33
33 / 69
tost months, buf it musi have dcen
then, probably in Moscow, t
he was ‘debriefed“—a no do
meticulous, laborious and wide-
ranging interrogation.
"On arriving in Moscow he had
been put in a small flat overlook.
ing the river, in the care of a fat
old housekeeper whose main
object, he told me, was to see
how mpch food she could make
him t. She was constantly
scoldigf® him and cooking enough
food for four people. He spent
a good deal of time in confer-
enacs with Russian Intelligence
officers, but when he was free he
roamed the city on foot, getting
to know it. exploring the layout
of its pattern of streets in the
way be loved to do wilh a new
city. “He was. I used to reflect,
like a fictional secret agent, walk-
ing everywhere and remember-
ing everything he saw. He bad
a phenomenal memory and a
remarkable sense of direction.
For reasons of their own,
which I could not quite under-
stand, the Russians kept us under
very strict control. Guy Burgess,
the man who had from early
manhood shared most closely
Kim's great clandestine love-
affair with Russia, had died in
a Moscow hospital that August
—some six weeks before f[
arrived. Donald Maclean at-
tended the funeral and delivered
a brief oration, A drass band
played the Imrernationale. Kim
told me that he was not per-
[ mitted to go, but [ later found
rout that he saw Burgess very
‘briefly, as he lay dying in
| hospital, .
: Kim never complained of this
| rigid discipline, but I suspect there
were few things in life he would
have liked more than a long,
intimate, allusive dialogue with
‘ Burgess—like old times. ft might
even have kept Burgess alive a littl:
: longer. t
Burgess legacy
Burgess left his books an
clothes to Kim but the rest of his
possessions were to be divided be-
tween ourselves and the Macleans.
Kim had already taken a charming
little dressing-table that had be-
longed to Burgess’s mother, and a
portative organ, a medieval instru-
ment with a narrow, limited key-
board. used in procewions, on
which Guy used to bang out his
favourfe Cambridge rowing songs.
It now’ stood in a corner of our
Moscow flat, but I could barely get
a moan out of it, Te was broken-and
I could never find anyone to mend
Oe | —
on all the events that had happened
during those eight long months
apart. He wanted to know in great
detail about all his children and
the difficulties I had encountered.
But he said very litte about nim-
self, except for his first impressions
of Moscow, his dificuites ard 2x-
periences in finding and furnishing
one flat, which he described in his
usual, very amusing way. Looking
back on those early days I now
realise that he told me very little
of his own far mora dramatic
experiences since leaving Beinn.
eeting him then in Moscow,
after so many months of separa-
tion, I found to my great relief that
it was not so Very different from
meeting him ia Beirut after one of
our long separations. He was the
same lovable, completely charm-
ing, sentimental man I adored.
There was mo question or doubi at
all that this feeling was completely
mutual. However, a tiny strip of
mo -man's- land had already
ppeared between us which had not
en there before.
Almost the first serious thing wa
did in my early days in Moscow
was to si¢ down together and put
on paper a detailed account of my
experiences with the British and
American security authorities in
the months that f was alone.
guessed this was information Kim's
Russian friends wanted. I went
over every detail I could think of
in several long sessions.
Biggest mistake \
These interrogations began to
take the form of a grilling, with
Kim getting me to repeat the same
things over and over again. This
went on for several days; and I
was becoming extremely bored with
the whole thing. Kim was patient,
but unusually stubborm and insis-
tent. It was only then that I con-
fessed that I had had to take the
British fully into my confidence and
haw, from photographs provided by
Y's chicf, [ had identified his
mysterious Russian friend who had
called on me that early May morn-
ing in Beirut.
That was perhaps the biggest
mistake I made. But, as far as I
was concerned, I had never kept
anything from Kim, and therefore .
saw no reason to do so now. My
error was human, but I felt thar
Kim was angry. Thanks to me, his
wife, the Russians had fost a valu-
able agent. ‘Whata pity!’ he said.
“He was ans of my greatest friends
and our best man in the area. His
areer is finished.’ The barrier be-
ween Us widened.
I also reported to him what the
ritish Intelligence chief bad said & -
to me in London at our meeting in ih Y
Y's apartment—that he had
definitely known for seven years
What Kim was working without pay
for tht Russians. This seemed to
interest Basrintensely, He mads me
Reveal the original PDF page, then click a word to highlight the OCR text.
Community corrections
No user corrections yet.
Comments
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Continue Exploring
Agency Collection
Explore This Archive Cluster
Broad Topic Hub
Topic Hub
Related subtopics
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic