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Cambridge Five Spy Ring — Part 8

101 pages · May 23, 2026 · Broad topic: Intelligence Operations · Topic: Cambridge Five Spy Ring · 99 pages OCR'd
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‘The one reach ay of Eton and . two years later. “Iactean In 1913, sambusge by Trinity, the ot oO © Guy Burgess, though he preferred __What_was common to both Bur tne Zompany of the apie to eer and Maciean at this time was Artistic. nlxo moved on the edge of their instability: both were athe the same world, He was of a very and ambitious young men of hist erent que, tall - medium intelligence and good conn, who were somehow parod ‘i ol in height, with blue eyes. an In- ies quisitive nose. sensua) mouth, curly what they set ‘out to be, Nobody ov Gresham's pool and Trinity ite seriously; ‘ They hair and alert fox-terrier expres- could take them qu n ree er, reader, aster. Jussi ee members of the Jeftewing circle | “ralker, who swam like an otter and engaged to piay, Tallegrand and . hat appre no evid- | Grank, not like a feckless under- the younger Pitt, Burgess, ie ce of that oppressive parental | authority which drives young men w revolt. 1 Pre-War Cambridge Marxists J? Nas more than ten years since’ the end of the first world war, and @ new generation was growing up which found no outlet in home politics for the adventurous or aitruistic impulses of the adole- scent. Marxism satisfied both the rebelliousness of youth and its craving for dogm: ‘The Cambriage stituted @ new a. Communists sub- ather or super-ego new justice 8 authority, They felt they hed exposed the weaknesses of Liberal- rom glong with their elders’ ignor- ce of economic affairs. Te this reneration Communism made an ntellectual appeal. standing for ove, liberty and social justice and lot ‘@ new approach to life and ‘rt Yet it was connected with » political party, and this party is ot inclined to relinquish Its hoid. rhe Comintern,” ‘says Arthur "<Soestler, “carried on @ white-siave fic whose victims were young ally, was & great reader ‘of fiction; his favourite authors were) Mrs. ell and Balzac and, later bn. Mr. E. M. Forster. " Lenin had said somewhere that he had learnt more about France from Balzac’s novels tMan 1rom au niswiy-Dooks pul together. Accordingly Balzac gw" the greatest writer of all vrkes (Koestler. Donald was seldom heard to talk politics. Guy hever seemed to stop. le was the type of bumptious Marxist who saw himself as Saint- Just, who enjoyed making the flesh of his bourgeois listeners creep by G raduate, as Donald was apt to do, But like ‘some. Rabelaisian bottle: swiper whose thirst was unque fe. ¥ Contrasts in Their Characters a i heed physical type to which Donald Maclean, despite his Puppy fat, belonged was that of the elongated, schizophrenic, sad- countenanced Don Quixote— introverted and diffident, an idealist and a dreamer given to his picture of the justice w sudden outbursts of’ aggression; ‘ history would | mete out then. rubby, rate - Perens Oy ae dtaced, Guous, Hie loved to moralise aver his friends and satirise their smug golden-pated Sancho Panza, ¢lass- unconscious behaviour, so extrovert. exhibitionist, manic, reckless of the reckoning in store. cynical and argumentative, avidly But when bedtime came, very late, curious, yet sometimes vague and it was the moment to put the and incompetent. With all his analyses away. the word “Prepos- toughness. moreover, Guy Burgess terous” dying on his lips, he would wanted intensel, liked and imply a dispensation under which was indeed likeable, a good conver- , this one house at least. this family, salioalist and an enthusiastic ‘these guests, might be spared the builder-up of his friends. Beneath worst consequences, thanks to the the“ terrib! of his Marxist protection of their brilliant nalyses one divined the affection. . hunger-marching friend wh te moral cowardice of the publi sition Wougl be se commandibs a extreme ealists, ficvin hoolboy. the happsf workers’ Utopia. calists, Birting ew POL Ne - ube™e? Tae feelings of . . ch young men | ‘HIS IS WHE FIRST instalmen| f Mri are described in , a numerous novels 1 Connolly's personal and intimate study of Guy \ and poems. or in syed tracts as || Burgess and Donald Maclean, the ttvo members | rT. Stephen 5 . ; Spender’s Pro: ' of the Foreign Office staff who vanished towards | ward fro A apt rirealisn | the end of May last year, It will be read with They involved ! : . . 1 betraval ot , Particular interest by those concerned with the , vanes ne 1 peculiar problems arising in an age of ideological , jose of Marxism | conflict which is often projected on the plane of 1 ripe at were | private personality. A second. and concluding ! these two young | A 7 4 these two youn article will appear next week. Maclean wes L..—-—-- -\---~----------~-- sandy - haired, ms weneenees =. ll. with great latent physical | An old Etonian, an “ Apos was the fime when AD pia ngth, but fat and’ rather who had taken a First in History mattered. BYR le and the lube. Meeting “him, one was at Cambridge, and was tempted to purges bie. WES Or" Communist Snscious of both amiability and become a don, he yet seemed an especial DIMA Hee O There were weakness. He did not seem adventurer with a first-class mind. contro communists, and the political animal but resembled who would always be in the know, very feW OTT OH represent the ne clever helpless youth in a a framer of | becmeady cand a left-wing was not disouteg. ‘Tuxley novel, an ogtsize Cherubino ntent on amoroug experience but oo Shy and clums: succeed. The yadow of an august atmosphere vty heavy on him, and he sought efuge on the more impetuous and ‘unlike all other political parties, future editor, at least, of “The Times.” Though “he ‘enjoy bout of Iuxury, he was indilferent to appearances and even hostile to his own, Urilike Donald. he mancipated fringes of Bloomstuxy—concenled his sexual diffidence by nd Chelsea. Such @ young man fn. be set right by the devotion of @) intelligent, older woman, and it hs a misfortune that Donald was o|st not quite able to inspire such attachment; charming, clever i_affectionate, he was still too (Aformed. _ over-confidence.
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