Declassified files reveal new details about notorious British spies and how Queen Elizabeth II was kept in the dark

Queen Elizabeth II She was not told details of her longtime art adviser’s double life as a Soviet spy because palace officials did not want to heighten her fears, newly declassified documents reveal.

Files relating to royal art historian Anthony Blunt are among a treasure trove from the intelligence agency MI5 released by Britain’s National Archives on Tuesday. They have shed new light on a spy ring linked to Cambridge University in the 1930s, whose members leaked secrets to the Soviet Union from the heart of the British intelligence establishment.

Blunt, who worked at Buckingham Palace as a surveyor of the Queen’s portraits, was under suspicion for years before finally admitting in 1964 that, as a senior MI5 officer during World War II, he had passed secret information to Soviet agents.

In one newly released file, an MI5 officer noted that Blunt said he felt “deeply relieved” after he had unburdened himself. In exchange for the information he provided, Blunt was allowed to keep his job, knighthood and social standing, and the Queen was apparently kept in the dark.

In 1972, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, told MI5 chief Michael Hanley that “the Queen did not know and he saw no point in telling her now; it would only increase her fears and there was nothing that could be done about it.” “.

The government decided to tell the King in 1973, when Blunt was ill, fearing a media uproar once Blunt died and journalists were able to publish stories without fear of libel suits.

Charteris stated that she “dealt with the matter very calmly and without surprise” and “remembered that it had long been suspected” in the early 1950s. Historian Christopher Andrew says in The Official History of MI5 that the Queen had previously been told about Blunt “in general terms”.

Queen Elizabeth II He died in 2022 At the age of 96 years.

Blunt was publicly exposed as a spy by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons in November 1979. He was eventually stripped of his knighthood, but was never tried, and died in 1983 at the age of 75.

Files held by Britain’s secret intelligence services usually remain secret for decades, but the agencies are moving towards greater openness. Some of the newly released documents will be on display in an exhibition titled ‘MI5: Official Secrets’, which will open at the National Archives in London later this year.

Two Cambridge spies, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, fled to Russia in 1951. The third, Kim Philby, continued to work for the foreign intelligence agency MI6 despite coming under suspicion. As evidence of his duplicity mounted, his friend and fellow MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott confronted him in Beirut in January 1963.

The declassified files include Philby’s written confession and a transcript of his discussion with Elliott.

In it, Philby admitted that he had betrayed Konstantin Volkov, a KGB officer who had tried to defect to the West in 1945, taking with him details of spies within British intelligence – including Philby himself. As a result of Philby’s intervention, Volkov was kidnapped in Istanbul, brought back to Moscow and executed.

Elliot reported that Philby said that if he had his life to live over again, he probably would have acted the same way.

“I already felt tremendous loyalty to MI6. I was treated very well there, and I made really great friends there,” Philby said, according to the transcript. “But the overriding inspiration was on the other side.”

Philby told Elliott that the choice he faced now that he had been exposed was “between suicide and prosecution.” Instead, he fled to Moscow, where he died in 1988.

The Cambridge spies have inspired countless books, plays and television shows, including the 2023 series A Spy Among Friends, starring Guy Pearce as Philby and Damian Lewis as Elliot. Blunt appeared in a 2019 episode of The Crown, played by Samuel West.

According to files released in 2014, members of the Cambridge spy ring were viewed by their Soviet officers as hopeless drunks and incapable of keeping secrets. BBC reported.

One clip describes Burgess as a man “constantly under the influence of alcohol,” and another note describes Maclean as “not good at keeping secrets,” the BBC reported. He adds that he was “constantly drunk” and was an alcoholic.