My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy Read Online Free PDF

activity on a totally different basis. But where was I to go? The politics of the Baldwin-Chamberlain era struck me then, as they strike me now, as much more than the politics of folly. The folly was evil. I saw the road leading me into the political position of the querulous outcast, of the Koestler-Crankshaw-Muggeridge variety, railing at the movement that had let me down, at the God that had failed me . This seemed a ghastly fate, however lucrative it might have been.
    The third course of action open to me was to stick it out, in the confident faith that the principles of the Revolution wouldoutlive the aberration of individuals, however enormous. It was the course I chose, guided partly by reason, partly by instinct. Graham Greene, in a book appropriately called The Confidential Agent , imagines a scene in which the heroine asks the hero if his leaders are any better than the others. “No. Of course not,” he replied. “But I still prefer the people they lead—even if they lead them all wrong.” “The poor, right or wrong,” she scoffed. “It’s no worse—is it?—than my country, right or wrong. You choose your side once and for all—of course, it may be the wrong side. Only history can tell that.”
    The passage throws some light on my attitude in the depths of the Stalin cult. But I now have no doubt about the verdict of history. My persisting faith in Communism does not mean that my views and attitudes have remained fossilized for thirty-odd years. They have been influenced and modified, sometimes rudely, by the appalling events of my lifetime. I have quarrelled with my political friends on major issues, and still do so. There is still an awful lot of work ahead; there will be ups and downs. Advances which, thirty years ago, I hoped to see in my lifetime, may have to wait a generation or two. But, as I look over Moscow from my study window, I can see the solid foundations of the future I glimpsed at Cambridge.
    Finally, it is a sobering thought that, but for the power of the Soviet Union and the Communist idea, the Old World, if not the whole world, would now be ruled by Hitler and Hirohito. It is a matter of great pride to me that I was invited, at so early an age, to play my infinitesimal part in building up that power. How, where and when I became a member of the Soviet intelligence service is a matter for myself and my comrades. I will only say that, when the proposition was made to me, I did not hesitate. One does not look twice at an offer of enrolment in an elite force.

L IST OF A BBREVIATIONS
Abwehr
German Military Intelligence
ACSS
Assistant Chief of the Secret Service
BSC
British Security Co-ordination
CUSS
Cambridge University Socialist Society
GB
State Security Service of the USSR
GC & CS
Government Code & Cypher School
GUR
Soviet Military Intelligence
MI5
Originally the counter-espionage section of British Military
  
Intelligence—the usual name for the Directorate-General of Security Service
NKVD
Narodnyi Komissariat Vniutrennikh Del (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs)
OPC
Office of Policy Co-ordination
OSO
Office of Strategic Operations
OSS
Office of Strategic Services (USA), the American counterpart of SIS
PWE
Political Warfare Executive
SCI
Special Counter-Intelligence
SIS
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
SOE
SpecialOperationsExecutive

C URTAIN R AISER : A W HIFF OF THE F IRING S QUAD
    It was quite early in my career as a Soviet intelligence official that I first ran into serious trouble, escaping, almost literally, by the skin of my teeth. It was in April 1937, when my headquarters were at Seville in the south of Spain. My immediate assignment was to get first-hand information on all aspects of the Fascist war effort. The arrangement was that I should transmit the bulk of my information by hand to Soviet contacts in France or, more occasionally, in England. But for urgent communications, I had been provided with a code and a number of cover-addresses outside Spain.
    Before