Misdefending The Realm: How Mi5's Incompetence Enabled Communist Subversion Of Britain's Institutions During The Nazi-soviet Pact Mi5defending The Realm

When, early in 1940, an important Soviet defector provided hints to British Intelligence about spies within the country's institutions, MI5's report was intercepted by a Soviet agent in the Home Office... She alerted her lover, Isaiah Berlin, and Berlin's friend, Guy Burgess, whereupon the pair initiated a rapid counter-attack. Burgess contrived a reason for the two of them to visit the Soviet Union, which was then an ally of Nazi Germany, in order to alert his bosses of the threat and protect the infamous 'Cambridge Spies'. The story of this extraordinary escapade, hitherto ignored by the historians, lies at the heart of a thorough and scholarly expose of MI5's constitutional inability to resist communist infiltration of Britain's corridors of power and its later attempt to cover up its negligence. This book will be of interest to all students of history, international relations, espionage and civil, national and international security. This is the story of how the Soviet Union successfully infiltrated the UK government in the years leading up to WW2, and specifically when the USSR was an ally of Nazi Germany (August 1939 - June 1941). Historians have previously argued that this success was due to the existence of a Communist super-mole within MI5, and that in the fight against Fascism, multiple indulgences towards communists were an unavoidable strategy. The reality was very different. When a key Soviet defector warned of the deep insertion of agents within the corridors of power, the Comintern were obliged by the Hitler-Stalin pact to launch an aggressive counteroffensive in 1940. Britains Security Service was persuaded that the threat from communist subversion was minimal. When this most damaging espionage was detected, MI5s officers engaged in an extensive cover-up to conceal their deficiencies. Exploiting recently declassified material and a broad range of historical and biographical sources, Antony Percy here reveals how the Soviet Union caught up so swiftly with Western expertise and weaponry, and so removed a key Western advantage over its Communist adversary as the Cold War ensued. By Antony Percy. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 321-335) And Index.