History's Most Infamous Double Agent
Story by Jamie Hayes • 8mo
1. He Was Born in India
Kim Philby was a man of the British Empire. Born in India in the British Raj, his father was the famed explorer St John Philby. Kim touched many corners of the Empire in his early years, from his birthplace in India to the deserts of the Arabian peninsula to the prestigious schools of England. But while he grew up in the midst of the Empire, he would turn his back on it before long.
Wikipedia 3. He Met a Young Woman
©Wikipedia
While helping refugees in Vienna, Kim Philby fell in love. Her name was Litzi Friedmann, and she was unlike anyone he had met before. From the moment he laid eyes on her, Philby suddenly found himself on the path that would end decades later with him a hollow, alcoholic wreck in an apartment in Moscow.
. She Didn't Mess Around
©Kim Philby: His Most Intimate Betrayal (2014– ), BBC History Production
Friedmann was a frank person, and she instantly made an impression on Philby. Right when they met, she abruptly asked him how much money he had on him. He replied ;100—hopefully enough to keep him going for a year in Vienna. Her response was unforgettable. Friedmann did some quick math in her head and concluded he only needed ;75. That would leave ;25, which Friedmann told him to donate to the International Organisation for Aid for Revolutionaries,.
Philby left that encounter with ;75, and suddenly, his life was entwined with this young, fiery revolutionary.
5. The Newlyweds Had to Flee
©Piqsels
Philby and Friedmann married in 1934, just as their world fell apart around them. Fascists won the Austrian Civil War, and Vienna was no longer safe for people like them. The two of them fled back to England before they found themselves rotting in a cell—or worse.
6. A Soviet Recruiter Appeared in London
©Wikimedia Commons
Not long after Philby and his new wife returned to England, another mysterious figure appeared in London. Arnold Deutsch, an Austrian academic, arrived from Vienna to study at University College London. What the university did not know was that Deutsch had a secret agenda. He was a Soviet agent, there to recruit England's brightest young minds—minds like Kim Philby's.
7. His Wife Set Him Up With "Otto"
©Cambridge Spies(2003), BBC
In June 1934, Litzi Friedmann told Philby that she had arranged a meeting with "a man of decisive importance". Philby pressed her further, but she never said anything more than that. Soon after, he went to London's Regent's Park, where he met a man who called himself "Otto". Philby wouldn't learn this was Deutsch until years later. Such a clandestine affair might have unsettled many men, but Philby couldn't help but be intrigued.