We're still with the most famous spies who changed the face of the world.. and the Cold War between the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States of America. In 1950, British intelligence lays its hands on an old coded message and breaks its code.. so as to uncover a fascinating story.. and a frightening one at the same time.
Four individuals from Cambridge.. code names for them appeared in the message.. and London began searching for the owners of these names. English intelligence men set off, each working in a different direction, searching for the men behind the names "Homer" and "Hicks" and "Johnson" and "Liszt".
No thread emerges that could lead to the owners of these names, even though their appearance in Soviet documents means that they rendered great services to the Soviet Union during the war, and right up to that very moment.. until a new coded message arrives, supposedly addressed to "Homer".. by the "One-time pad" method.
And this method is an extremely difficult cipher.. every letter in it is encoded through random calculations that never repeat more than once. The message reaches you, and afterwards one of them hands you the way to break the cipher, a way that is then useless for breaking any similar message.
And here the English call in the Americans.. who pass the message to the code genius "Meredith", whom we spoke about in previous episodes.. so that he can solve the riddle.
But before "Meredith" breaks the cipher.. "Homer" learns of the matter by virtue of his sensitive work, and decides to flee England.. and only then.. do the English learn the identity of "Homer".. and when they review the documents they discover that all the threads had been pointing to him from the very beginning.
"Donald Maclean".. an English intelligence man in the British Foreign Office.. who travelled the world and learned many English secrets, and was responsible for delivering them to specific agents in every country on earth, so much so that he was head of the British diplomatic mission in Cairo itself, during and after the war in Palestine.. in 1948.
And with "Maclean's" sudden escape.. the English intelligence men are driven mad, and they decide to arrest his wife and interrogate her.. but she surprises them with a call to his workplace, asking about him there in genuine bewilderment.. because he had not called or come home for two days.
And convinced of her truthfulness, they become entirely certain that she knows nothing about him.. and as they search for him, everyone is surprised by the escape of another person.
"Guy Burgess".. who they discover is the owner of the code name "Hicks".
And "Burgess" was in turn another intelligence man at the Foreign Office, and he worked for a period at the BBC.. and it appears from the documents that he rendered great services to the Soviets as well.. and he too disappeared without the slightest trace once his cover was blown, exactly like "Maclean", in the same year, 1951.
And then a third person disappeared.
The former cipher expert and Foreign Office employee "John Cairncross".. whose disappearance would not have pointed to anything strange, were it not for the context of events at the time.
And because "John" was not well-versed in intelligence work like "Burgess" and "Maclean".. and he fled with the mentality of the clerk who tells you "go up to Madame Zuleikha on the fourth floor".. he was arrested immediately afterwards, as he was trying to flee from London to Russia on British Airways.. an idiot, in other words.
"John" was fond of music and had a taste for it, and he was a distinguished piano player, which is why the Soviets gave him the code name "Liszt".. after the Hungarian composer "Franz Liszt".
Upon his arrest, he threw the English a fake story, exactly as the Soviets had trained him. And while the English were studying his fake story, help arrived from the American cipher expert "Meredith".. in a private message, carried by a highly important envoy from the American "VENONA".. which is the equivalent of military intelligence among us.
And the English open the message, so as to learn the owner of the fourth name.
The great historian "Anthony Blunt", owner of the code name "Johnson".
And "Blunt" served in the English army in 1939.. and English intelligence brought him into its ranks in 1940.. because he was a man of broad knowledge, wide culture and abundant learning. They used to call on him in supremely sensitive matters, and he represented London culturally at dozens of international forums.. to the point that he sometimes travelled to certain meetings on behalf of King George, the King of Britain himself, whose last years, by the way, were the year of "Blunt's" fall.. 1952.. and Queen Elizabeth took over after him in the same year.
The strange thing is that "Blunt's" name was not a surprise to the English.. because he was an extremely close friend of "Burgess" and "Maclean", who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.. so they had been suspicious of him in the first place.
The truth is that "Blunt" was an excellent gentleman with no taste for fuss and noise.. as soon as they knock on his door and take him along to the intelligence office.. he asks for a cup of tea, and his favourite fine cigarette.. and he offers to give them a full and true confession.. with not one letter wrong.. on condition that they neither try him nor expose him before his family and his people.. and the deal is done.. and "Blunt" obtains special immunity, protecting him from being arrested or prosecuted on charges of espionage and high treason.. along with a written promise that his confession will remain secret.
But in "Blunt's" confession there was something very strange.
There was a thread pointing to another name, known to no one, not even "Blunt" himself.. but he knows that he has two code names.. "Stanley" and "Sonny".
And that means they were no longer the "Cambridge Four". The network consists of five... the "Cambridge Five".
So who is this dangerous fifth man who has two names?
And here.. "Meredith" sends, with the envoy of American military intelligence, his final message.
This final message carries the name of the "Fifth Man".. but it is a terrifying name.. it was truly a horrifying surprise.. the faces of the English went pale.. and they realised that they were facing a catastrophe by every measure, at that time, and that it had to be put before the Prime Minister himself.
And this fifth man - no one in all of Britain could believe, whether from the general public or from the authorities and those in decision-making positions.. that he could be a traitor, and a Soviet spy.
The identity of the Fifth Man was a surprise to everyone.. but it seems that time has robbed us today and the talk has run long.. so we will learn together the identity of the "Fifth Man" and his story next time.
And there's still more of this talk to come, God willing.
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Previous episodes in the first comment.