1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:03,520 Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody. Today's story is going to be the 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:06,360 double Agent Kim Philmy. Before we get to Kim Philby, 3 00:00:06,799 --> 00:00:09,080 what I wanted this to promote a little bit is 4 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,480 my news book Dog Psychology, which you can get at Amazon, 5 00:00:12,519 --> 00:00:15,519 on kindle and paperback. If you ever wondered why your 6 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:18,160 dog does certain things, or how to work with your 7 00:00:18,199 --> 00:00:21,559 dog and train your dog and I understand the dogmind, 8 00:00:21,559 --> 00:00:24,600 then Dog Psychology by doctor Carlos is the book for you. 9 00:00:25,719 --> 00:00:28,359 All right, let's go to the Enigmatic betrayal the Double 10 00:00:28,399 --> 00:00:31,679 life of Kim Philby. The reason I brought this podcast 11 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,679 up is because there's a great show on Prime called 12 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:38,880 Spies Among Friends, and it was a great story about 13 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:43,240 Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby. Some of it is not accurate, 14 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:45,280 which is what they tell you ahead of time anyway, 15 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,359 but it was still a great spy show. It I 16 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:51,159 think it's six episodes, but an hour apiece. So Harold Philby, 17 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:53,759 known to the world as Kim, was born on January first, 18 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,240 nineteen twelve and am Bala, India under the shadow of 19 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,079 the British Raj. His father, the renowned explorer Harry Saint 20 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:05,359 John Philby, instilled in young Kim a fascination with Asia, 21 00:01:05,879 --> 00:01:08,400 but it was the turbulent inter wars years that forged 22 00:01:08,439 --> 00:01:11,120 his path. Was one of history's most notorious double agents. 23 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,640 Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. 24 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,959 Philby emerges a brilliant but restless intellect. He was drawn 25 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,319 to left his causes amid the rise of fascism in Europe. 26 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,640 In nineteen thirty three, a formative trip to Vienna exposed 27 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:29,640 Philby to the brutal suppression of socialists during the Australian 28 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,920 Civil War. The Austrian Civil War, he married a woman 29 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,560 by the name of Litzi Friedman, an Austrian communist firebrand 30 00:01:36,599 --> 00:01:40,280 twenty years is younger, in a hasty union that facilitated 31 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,799 his escape. But that wasn't it. This clandestant marriage, rarely 32 00:01:43,799 --> 00:01:47,519 discussed in biographies, marked the inception of his covert existence. 33 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,719 You see back in London, Philby was recruited by Soviet 34 00:01:50,719 --> 00:01:54,799 agent Arnold Deutsch in a dimly lit rendezvous orchestrated by 35 00:01:55,560 --> 00:02:00,319 his wife Friedman herself. By the nineteen thirties, phil had 36 00:02:00,359 --> 00:02:05,120 infiltrated the British establishment, suggesting fellow Cambridge graduates for Soviet 37 00:02:05,159 --> 00:02:09,599 recruitment does birthing the infamous Cambridge five, spiring his audacious 38 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:12,879 foray into the Spanish civil wars of freelance journalists for 39 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,319 the time consumed a darker mandate, which was to assassinate 40 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:20,360 General Franco. Lacking the resolve for direct action, Philby instead 41 00:02:20,719 --> 00:02:24,400 survived the Republican shell explosion in nineteen thirty seven that 42 00:02:24,479 --> 00:02:28,800 obliterated his car and fellow reporters, but it earned him 43 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,919 an unlikely medal from Franco. In an entrede of fascist 44 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,599 in his circles. The near death exp episode, coupled with 45 00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:39,919 a fleeting affair with pro Hitler aristocrat Francis Dobel, revealed 46 00:02:40,039 --> 00:02:44,680 his chameleon like contradictions and character. Philby's assent in six 47 00:02:44,759 --> 00:02:48,080 during World War Two was meteoric and ironic. In nineteen 48 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,400 forty four, he was appointed head of Section nine, the 49 00:02:51,439 --> 00:02:55,520 Anti Communist Division, a position from which he sabotaged operations 50 00:02:56,479 --> 00:03:00,120 in Albania. He dispatched British agents to certain doom, betraying 51 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,879 them to Soviet handlers without remorse a lists or non 52 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,759 narrow escape. In nineteen forty five, when he neutralized the 53 00:03:06,759 --> 00:03:10,280 threat of defector Konstantine Volkoff, who held most secrets that 54 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,840 could have unmasked the ring, but by ensuring Volkov's swift 55 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:19,840 rendition to Moscow, suspicions mounted. In nineteen fifty one, after 56 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:24,199 colleagues Guy Burgess and Donald McLain defected, prompted by Philby's 57 00:03:24,199 --> 00:03:28,919 cryptic telegram urging Burgess to move his convertible. Cleared by 58 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,360 a British inquiry and astonishing lapse and vigilance, Philby resumed 59 00:03:32,439 --> 00:03:35,520 duties in Beyroute. Were there he married an American by 60 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,479 the name of Eleanor Brewer amid another affair. Yet in 61 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:42,879 nineteen sixty three, cornered by mounting evidence, he fled to Moscow, 62 00:03:43,759 --> 00:03:47,159 leaving behind a trail of shattered lives, including five children 63 00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:51,280 from his bigamous union with Eileen Firs. In the Soviet Union, 64 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,919 Philby indulged in heavy drinking and further entanglements, notably an 65 00:03:54,919 --> 00:03:58,360 affair with Melinda McLain that's right, the wife of his 66 00:03:58,439 --> 00:04:03,400 former comrade, and his handlers grew where Yelena Mortshkinskaya, a 67 00:04:03,479 --> 00:04:06,599 Soviet intelligence chief, long suspected of him being a triple 68 00:04:06,639 --> 00:04:11,360 agent loyal to Britain due to his uncanny successes. Philby 69 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,280 died eventually as a disillusion figure in drab Moscow flat 70 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:18,199 in nineteen eighty eight. His legacy is a testament to 71 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,839 ideological fervor's corrosive toll. And that's the story of Kim Philby, 72 00:04:23,399 --> 00:04:25,639 at least part of it. It's a big story. There's 73 00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:27,480 a lot of books out there that cover much more 74 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,839 than we covered today. I just wanted to give you 75 00:04:29,879 --> 00:04:33,199 a brief story for your week to enjoy, and that's 76 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:33,759 it for now.