‘Fifth Man’ in Philby Spy Ring Identified

A former KGB double-agent has identified the long-secret “fifth man” in a notorious Soviet spy ring as John Cairncross, a former British intelligence officer.

Oleg Gordievsky, a career KGB agent who worked for the British as a double-agent before escaping to the West in 1985, disclosed the man’s identity in “KGB: The Inside Story,” a new book excerpted today in the Times of London. It was written with Christopher Andrew, a Cambridge University historian.

The identity of the “fifth man” has been speculated upon for years, and a number of people have been suspected, including Cairncross.

Gordievsky said Cairncross played an important part in the spy ring led by Harold (Kim) Philby and including Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt.

Philby, said to be the most damaging double-agent in British history, spied for the Soviets for 26 years until he defected to Moscow in 1963. Philby rose to become head of the anti-Soviet section of MI6, the British service responsible for gathering foreign intelligence.

All went to Cambridge University, and it was there that Blunt spotted Cairncross and Burgess recruited him, the excerpt from the book says.

“Although Cairncross is the last of the five to be publicly identified, he successfully penetrated a greater variety of the corridors of power and intelligence than any of the other four,” according to the book, which is to be published Friday in the United States and Britain.

The excerpt quotes KGB Officer Dmitri Svetanko as saying: “Cairncross’ achievements were the equal of any of the five except Philby.”

The newspaper said the Scottish-born Cairncross confessed to British counterintelligence agents in 1964. He now lives in the south of France and is the only member of the spy ring still alive.