Kim Philby. The price of disappointment in communism

The last wife of the British Soviet KGB agent Kim Philby says that he was a real English “gentleman” and fled to the Soviet Union, hoping to see the embodiment of the communist ideals of justice.

Rufina Pukhova in a recent interview told about Kim Philby’s last years in Moscow, where he fled in 1963 year.

Those who know the realities of life in the Soviet Union, it is not difficult to guess that the Briton of almost aristocratic descent filled with idealized ideas about communism, formed in Cambridge, is destined to be disappointed in advance with what he saw with his own eyes.

Although his life in Moscow by Soviet standards was completely secured and, compared to the overwhelming majority of people, privileged, Kim Philby could not help but see the sad realities.

“Why do older people live here in such poverty? After all, it was they who won the war,” Rufina Puhova quotes Kim Philby, who also says that after a while his depression turned into alcoholism and he noticed that to sleep to death was “easy a way to commit suicide. "

“I came here overflowing with information. I wanted to give everything, but nobody was interested in it,” Mrs. Pukhova recounts his words, who could not take her husband’s name, for he lived to the end under false names, and was sometimes accompanied by security. to the store.

But he calmly lived out his life, and nothing happened to him like the poisoning in London of the former KGBist Alexander Litvinenko.

Kim's granddaughter - Charlotte Philby - once wrote: "He made a choice that led to the pain and suffering of many ... I would like to think that he did it, wanting a better future. Whether it is reasonable or not reasonable - I will never know , but I know that he is involved in the deaths of many people who considered him a friend and colleague, and I will never try to justify this. "

Kim Philby, working as the counterintelligence leader of the British MI-6 and a representative of the British intelligence service in the CIA, in the 40 and 50-s transmitted information about Western intelligence officers to the Stalinist NKVD.

Representatives of the Ukrainian post-war immigration in Britain specifically on Philby blamed for the fact that many Ukrainian "parachutists" who were thrown at Western Ukraine by Western intelligence services at the beginning of 50's, fell into the hands of the Stalinist NKVD.

The British have a saying that on the other side of the fence "the grass always seems greener."

Kim Philby would probably have acted differently in life if he had the opportunity to first see for himself what the life under Russian communists really was.

However, in Moscow they create an opinion that Philby had no problems or doubts. In December last year, a commemorative bas-relief was erected in his honor on the building in which one of the successors of the NKVD-KGB is located - the foreign intelligence service of Russia.

Comments

[Escander]

Oh. Let's cry already.

--- "The British have a saying that on the other side of the fence" the grass always looks greener "."

Far fields seem greener - this is in Russian (and shorter). This also applies to foggy Albion (how many of our white emigrants have slept and died from outright boredom and indifference, pettiness and lack of scope).
The islander needs to live on the island.
In due time, ours would have drunk in the Aglitsky state much earlier (we will lower the Jews).


And where did the traitors of the Motherland feel comfortable? The attitude towards them is biased everywhere.
His alcoholism did not develop with age from the realities of the USSR, but from the realization that he was a traitor to his homeland, he handed over co-workers and friends, i.e. - of their own. He did not have to drink too much, but to shoot himself, moreover, in England.

[cabin boy]

Could it be better to get the point of view of Philby himself? For skeptics, pay attention to where the interview is published.

Interview with Kim Philby given to English writer and publicist Philip Knightley in Moscow in January 1988.
(First published in the London Sunday Times March-April 1988).
Knightley: Let's take another look at your life. Would you do the same if you had to do it all over again?
Philby: Definitely.
Knightley: And you regret nothing?
Philby: About the loss of friendships. Tommy Harris and some of my close friends must be very angry with me, and rightly so. From a professional point of view, I could have worked better. I made mistakes - the Burgess case was one and paid dearly for them.
...
Knightley: And you do not feel any guilt about your lack of patriotism?
Philby: Patriotism is a difficult feeling. Russians love their country very much, but over the years, many have emigrated and started a new life abroad, although they lack Russia. Incidentally, I think that free exit from the Soviet Union should be allowed. It seems to me that the authorities would be surprised at how few Soviet citizens would want to leave the country and how many would want to return later. But this is just my personal opinion. Millions of people fight and die for their country, but millions emigrate in search of a new homeland. I myself am a descendant of emigrants. My ancestors came from Denmark. When I think of patriotism, I am puzzled by the words of Mrs Thatcher: "I passionately love my country." What country is she talking about? About Finchle and Dulige? Or Liverpool and Glasgow? Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre, historian) wrote that in his opinion I did no harm to England. From my point of view, this is certainly true, but I was surprised and moved that this is also true from his point of view, the point of view of the devout Tory.
...
Knightley: So, England already means nothing to you?
Philby: Oh, I would really like to go there, to see my grandchildren. But if I were given only one chance, I would prefer to visit France. There I experienced a very happy time. Well, today's England is a foreign country for me ...
My house is here, and although life here has its difficulties, I will not exchange this house for any other. I enjoy the abrupt change of seasons and even the search for scarce goods.
One of the virtues of the Soviet social system is living for cash. There is no credit here, but there is no constant going into debt. God only knows what will happen to the Western economy if you suddenly need to pay all personal debts. "