Extracts of Kim Philby’s confession, dated January 11, 1963, and headed ‘Secret’, were finally released - but only in part - more than 50 years later.

Britain’s most treacherous spy Harold ‘Kim’ Philby was 22 when he met his Soviet handler for the first time in London’s Regent’s Park. Kim’s wife, Litzi, a communist, had promised to introduce Kim to ‘a man of decisive importance’ so Philby was intrigued by the short, stout figure seated on the bench next to him.

“The man described himself as Otto. I discovered much later from a photograph in MI5 files that the name he went by was Arnold Deutsch,” Philby said in his confession, an extraordinary document considered so explosive Britain’s National Archives released only excerpts of the 1963 confession. Much of it is still withheld by British intelligence.

Kim had no real job prospects in 1934 at that first meeting with his handler, but he’d graduated from Cambridge University, spoke German, and offered an entrée into the upper class. ‘Otto’ laid on the charm, telling Kim that his family connections and sensibilities could do far more for communism than the ‘run-of-the-mill’ party member or sympathizer.

It also helped that Philby was a master of deception who would feel no remorse betraying Britain, the US, and thousands of anti-communists who died as a result of Kim’s treason.

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Kim Philby’s first orders from his Soviet spymasters‍

Otto - aka Arnold Deutsch, aka Stephen Lang - represented the Soviet Union’s OGPU secret police, which would become the KGB. While Philby didn’t agree with everything his new spymasters stood for, he wasn’t overly concerned: “I joined the OGPU as one joined the army. There must have been many British soldiers who obeyed orders at Passchendaele although convinced they were wrongly conceived.”

Otto’s first instruction was for Kim and Litzi to break off ties with communist friends - a difficult order as Otto also wanted Philby to draft a list of his Cambridge University friends with communist sympathies and act as a talent-spotter. The Soviets had burrowed into one of Britain’s top universities. Now they wanted Philby to expand the Cambridge spy ring.

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Spy tradecraft‍

Philby was groomed in spy tradecraft during his first year. The regular drill consisted of synchronizing watches with a neighboring clock, appearing at the rendezvous point on the dot, and taking at least three taxis both to and from the rendezvous to ensure that nobody followed him. 

At each meeting, a time and place were fixed for the next rendezvous in outlying districts of London - Ealing, Acton, Park Royal - and almost without fail in the open air. 

Otto emphasized security above all. “He was always setting little traps for me in order to determine whether I had really broken off all communication with communist friends, was following the taxi drill, etc.,” Philby said. 
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The Cambridge communists‍

A few weeks after Philby supplied his list of Cambridge University communist contacts, Otto turned up with a man introduced as 'Big Bill': "He was a bull of a man and struck me as being quite ruthless,” Philby said. 

Big Bill wanted to go over Philby’s potential recruitment list. He zeroed in on Donald Maclean and dismissed suggestions that Guy Burgess was unreliable and indiscreet. When Philby approached Maclean, his friend agreed at once. Guy Burgess was next. Three of the Cambridge Five were in play. (Philby was not involved in recruiting Anthony Blunt, the Queen’s art advisor, or the much mooted fifth man, John Cairncross.)

Philby’s Soviet handler disappears‍

Philby described ‘Otto’ as a discreet man of ‘considerable cultural background’. So Philby was surprised when Otto called one evening and announced he’d be dropping by.

"I was much astonished at this since it was completely at variance with his normal security-mindedness,” Philby recalled. “He arrived in a state of great agitation with a suitcase. He used my telephone to book an air passage to Paris and left the following morning. I never saw him again.”

From then on a new handler, ‘Theo’ - Paul Hardt, a Soviet ‘illegal’ who operated in the UK from January 1936 to June 1937, took over as Philby’s handler. Theo disappeared in 1937.

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Philby, meanwhile, parlayed his job as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War into a role at MI6. During WWII, Kim made friends with the archivist who managed the most sensitive files and Philby smuggled out more than 900 documents. Each evening, he left MI6 with a briefcase full of reports to hand to his Soviet contact. The following morning, Kim returned the freshly photographed documents to MI6.

When Kim was appointed MI6’s CIA and FBI liaison in Washington D.C., the duplicity turned deadly. Kim betrayed an operation to send thousands of Albanians back into their homeland to overthrow the communist regime. Many of the Albanians died.

By 1963, the game was up. Nicholas Elliott, an MI6 colleague, flew down to Beirut where Philby was writing for The Economist. Elliott brought back Philby’s written statement but Philby slipped away and resurfaced in Moscow. He died a broken man in 1988, disillusioned with communism and drinking heavily. None of the Cambridge Five were arrested or tried, an incident that continues to haunt Britain and has strained relations with the US for decades.