The 20th century spy, almost the head of British intelligence MI6 and at the same time an outstanding Soviet agent, Kim Philby has recently been in the news more than once. First, the documents that he obtained during the war and which helped change its very course were declassified, then an exhibition was opened in his honor and, finally, Philby’s portrait adorned the gallery of People’s Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov.

But has all this brought us any closer to understanding what he was like? What did you live for? How did you feel about the fact that he was considered a “traitor of the century” in his native Britain? What has a true English gentleman never been able to get used to over the years of living in Moscow?

Only one person knows the answers to these questions - his widow, Rufina Pukhova-Philby. The greatest intelligence officer of the era, who managed to fool Churchill himself and remain undetected for more than 30 years, trembled, standing at the window, if she was even half an hour late home. The love story of the great intelligence officer - in a frank interview with his beloved Rufina PHILBI.

Kim and his love Rufina.

"I am an English man"

- Rufina Ivanovna, I believe that scouts do not meet each other on the street. How did you first meet Kim Philby?

I have never worked in intelligence and had nothing to do with it. She was an editor at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute. But my friend Ida also worked there as a translator, who became the wife of British intelligence officer George Blake, who came to the USSR in 1965 (English intelligence officer, worked for the USSR, sentenced to 42 years, escaped from an English prison. - Author's note).

Ida once mentioned that a very interesting person, Kim Philby, came to see them. That was the first time I heard this name. But I immediately forgot. Then Ida asked to get tickets for the whole family, including Blake’s mother, to an American play that was shown in Moscow (and I had such an opportunity - my mother worked at the House of Actors). This was in August 1970. We met before the performance, and I saw an unfamiliar elderly man and a young man next to the Blakes. It was Kim and his son, who were visiting Moscow. That's when we were introduced.

Kim suddenly said to me: “Please take off your glasses. I want to see your eyes” (it was a very sunny day, I put on sunglasses while still leaving the house). I lowered my glasses and looked at him over them with undisguised surprise.

We walked with Ida in front, chatting as usual, and the men behind (Kim didn’t make it to the concert because he couldn’t buy an extra ticket from the theater).

Later, when we lived together, he said that during these “seconds”, when I walked in front of him, he firmly decided that he would marry me. I asked him: “But why? After all, you couldn’t even really see me, you were always walking behind me.” He answered very funny: “If you only knew how you walk!” That is, he liked my gait! He didn’t speak Russian very well, but I never corrected him because it was funny. On the contrary, I tried to remember his phrases.

- Did you like him right away?

It never even occurred to me to fall in love with him. I just perceived him as a nice person. For some reason I noticed that he has a very interesting profile.

I was 38 years old, he was 58. He was 10 days older than my mother. He has more than one marriage behind him, five children. I have never been married and did not aspire to be. Why? I do not know. I never liked the word “fate,” but only later, replaying my life like a film, I realized that I could have married this one, that one, the third one, but for some reason everything didn’t work out, as if I was waiting for Kim. And I thought with horror: what if I hadn’t waited for him? How would I live with someone else? No one could even come close to him. He was so delicate and subtle. The ideal man.

- Is it true that you got married a few days after you first met?

Yes. He proposed already at the third meeting.

The second was at the Blakes' dacha, where I was invited. I remember Kim brought a huge bag that contained a saucepan, a frying pan, a rooster, wine, and porcini mushrooms. He said that he would cook the rooster in wine. He only entrusted Ida and I with peeling the mushrooms; he did the rest himself. Kim was generally a wonderful cook.

Dinner dragged on. I retired to bed, but the room was next to the veranda, where Kim was sitting with George’s mother, who, at 80 years old, was sipping vodka like men. They chatted in English with Kim. Everything was audible. I didn’t understand a word, but my name was repeated all the time. Then suddenly, in complete silence, I heard the creak of the door and saw a red light approaching me. It was Kim who came into my room with a cigarette (he did not part with the cigarette until his death). He sat on the edge of my bed and said solemnly: “I am an English man.” For some reason it was very funny. I noticed through my laughter: “Of course, of course, you are a gentleman.” He got up and left, but came back a couple of minutes later and said the same thing. This was repeated five times. I was already starting to go hysterical with laughter. Finally he went to bed. The next morning we went for a walk in the forest, he was very serious. I thought that he was embarrassed for his “nightly adventures,” and gave him a torn bell as a joke. If you only knew how he then rushed around the house with this flower, picking out a vase for it!

A small fraction of Philby's awards.

Soon he organized a trip along the Golden Ring for me (we went on the trip in the Blakes’ car). I already felt his caring attitude towards me, I was embarrassed, so I tried to stay close to the Blakes the whole trip. At some point, Kim couldn’t stand it, grabbed me by the hand (he was an excellent swimmer, he still had a grip), sat me on the bench and seriously said: “I want to marry you.” I didn’t even laugh at the funny way he pronounced that word. I was speechless. Then she started babbling, like, we barely know each other, you don’t know me. He answered: “No! I see right through you” (he pronounced the word “through” very funny with an emphasis on the “z”). I began to scare him, saying: “I’m lazy, I’m not good at housekeeping, I don’t know how to cook.” He replied: “It doesn’t matter. I will do everything myself." At the end he asked: “Can I hope?” I arrogantly said “yes” - rather to get rid of it. But soon we got married!

-Have you ever regretted it?

Of course not. It was very easy with him! He called me a comedian because I loved to laugh and teased him. Kim himself has a very subtle sense of humor.

In all the years of our life together, he made a reprimand to me for the only time (and then very gently). Here's how it happened. He bought me a robe for foreign currency, which was more beautiful than all my dresses (I generally had a modest wardrobe). And I walked in it until lunch. And my husband told me: “A lady like you shouldn’t wear a robe during the day.” He always emphasized that I was a lady.

-Where did you live with him?

I moved into his apartment - it is in the very center of Moscow, it was given to him by the Soviet government in gratitude for his services (Rufina Ivanovna still lives here. - Author's note). Kim immediately said that the kitchen is his territory. He could cook anything, but he especially liked baking in the oven. His favorite dish is Indian lamb curry. We had spices specially brought from India for it.

Kim idolized my mother; there was a separate room for her in our apartment (she visited often). They talked for hours, and it was possible to watch it like a performance. Kim spoke English, mom spoke Russian (she didn’t understand a word of English). But they communicated very interestingly. We often went to see our mother; Kim loved her pancakes, which she cooked amazingly.

He took every little thing with gratitude. He constantly thanked me for my care and attention, which at first was even a little wild. After all, men usually take it for granted. But Kim once told me: “They took from me all the time. And you give.”

Rufina Ivanovna and a MK columnist at a memorial plaque in honor of the intelligence officer.

“He did not consider himself a traitor”

- Did you know from the very beginning that he was the greatest intelligence officer?

Of course not. In the USSR at that time there was only one article about him in the newspaper - “Hello, Comrade Kim.” I didn’t read it, but those who did couldn’t understand who this Kim was? In those days, some communists came to the USSR from abroad. And then, when I began to live with Philby, I saw in his library entire shelves of books dedicated to him. The covers featured his name and portraits. But they were all in a foreign language. I didn’t understand what I was talking about, but then I realized the scale of the personality.

- The greatest Soviet intelligence officer dedicated his book to you?

Yes, he wrote at the very beginning that the wives of all intelligence officers bear a special kind of burden, because they are not allowed to know anything about the work of their husbands.

- And you knew nothing at all?

Well, he, of course, told something - something that was no longer a big secret. He, for example, spoke with pride about the Kursk Bulge. The outcome of the battle largely determined the course of the war, and the information that Kim conveyed to the USSR was priceless. He conveyed to the Center that the Germans, when attacking the Kursk Bulge, were relying on tank divisions, and that Soviet guns would not be able to penetrate the Tigers and Leopards, which had powerful armor protection. Having received this information, our Ural factories created new armor-piercing shells before the start of the battle. The USSR was ready to attack. But the length of the Kursk Bulge is more than 200 km, it was necessary to know where the German army would strike. Kim said that this would be the village of Prokhorovka. And the Soviet command believed his information, all forces were pulled there, reserves. But Churchill tried to misinform the Soviet government, assuring that he had information that the Germans were abandoning the offensive and there would be a respite.

- Did Kim explain where he got all the German data from?

The British managed to obtain the German codes. It was a top-secret data exchange system. The Germans were absolutely confident in its reliability. Churchill received all the information about the plans of the Nazis, but he did not share it with the USSR.

Kim worked for British MI6 from the very beginning of the war and had access to these secret documents. A lot of information also came from other members of the Cambridge group. He liked to say: “Those were very energetic times. Time was ticking like a bomb, counting every moment.”

- Was he offended by the fact that in his homeland he was considered a “traitor of the century”?

He himself never considered himself a traitor. Kim has always been true to his convictions, which consisted of working for the interests not of a single state, but of all humanity. He was an anti-fascist. You need to understand who Kim actually was.

He was of “blue blood” (he had relatives in the royal family), graduated from Cambridge University, and held the most progressive views. When Philby was a 28-year-old journalist for The Times, he was recruited to work by illegal Soviet intelligence officer Arnold Deitch. There was a clear proposal to work for Soviet intelligence. Kim agreed quite deliberately, because he was looking for contacts where he could apply his strength in the fight against fascism. He could not come to terms with the idea of ​​exterminating the Jews and all the other sentiments that reigned in Germany. He ended up in the British intelligence service MI6 after he began helping Soviet intelligence. They immediately saw that Kim was an analyst, psychologist, and strategist. And it was the idea of ​​the Soviet foreign intelligence service - for him to work in MI6. When he, working for British intelligence, handed over documents to the USSR, he did so with one noble goal - to save the world from the Nazis.

- How did he usually transmit information to the Center?

At first he tried to redraw something, rewrite it by hand. But it's long and tedious. Then he started taking out the files to re-photograph them. Well, I returned the originals to their place. Kim's reports were reported personally to Stalin. He knew almost everything thanks to Kim Philby. And when I met with Roosevelt and Churchill, I felt completely confident.

- Did Kim talk about how he became the head of the British intelligence department for the fight against the USSR?

He was in very good standing with British intelligence. Soviet intelligence helped a little to get Philby to take over as his boss. If not for this, perhaps all of us, residents of Moscow, would have died. After all, Churchill agitated Truman to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow. The USSR could not answer with anything...

- Philby has many awards, but is it true that he himself did not really like them?

Well, why, he appreciated them. He is the only one in the world who received state awards for services in intelligence from two states. Received them from the English king and from Stalin. But most of all, Kim valued the Order of the Red Banner; he believed that he was awarded precisely for information on the Battle of Kursk.

- Was Kim worried that he was discovered too early?

He worked for Soviet foreign intelligence for more than 30 years. And in 1963, due to the threat of failure, he was forced to come to the USSR.

Long before this, in August 1945, an employee of the Soviet embassy in Turkey, Konstantin Volkov, in exchange for political asylum in Britain, offered to reveal the names of three Moscow agents in Britain, among them Philby. But Soviet intelligence found out about this. Kim himself went to Turkey from the British MI6 to meet with Volkov. It is not surprising that after this visit it turned out that no Volkov had ever worked at the embassy and that such a Soviet diplomat did not exist (Kim returned to London with such a report). In reality, Volkov was arrested, taken to the USSR, and sentenced to 25 years for treason. But you probably know that when Kim came under suspicion, the leadership could not find evidence of his work for the USSR. The investigation lasted more than one year; there were only interrogations for several months. Kim even gave a press conference in London. And then everything worked out.

Was he not offended by his friend Burgess, one of the Cambridge group, because of whose escape suspicion fell on Philby?

Burgess's escape effectively exposed Philby. But Kim loved his friend to the last. He wore the hat that he got from Burgess all the time, even though it didn’t suit him. We have a Burgess chair at home, it has these “ears” on the back. Kim joked that this was to prevent it from blowing. Shortly before his death, Burgess wanted to see Kim, but he was told that Kim was supposedly not in Moscow. And Kim himself was not even informed about this. He was very worried.

- Did Philby watch the main Soviet film about intelligence, “Seventeen Moments of Spring”?

Yes. I laughed a lot. He said that with such an expression on his face, our scout would not have lasted a day. Kim immediately put me at ease. He had such charm that he wanted to tell everything. And already in Moscow at one time he taught young intelligence officers this charm. I came up with role-playing games. He himself played the role of either a Foreign Ministry official or a border guard officer.

- Did you talk about intelligence techniques?

He said that there are secrets that even I cannot know about. But he was talking about how he realized it was time to run. There was an agreement that a messenger would pass under his balcony at a certain time. If you are empty-handed, then everything is fine. If you have a newspaper or book in your hands, this is a sign of the need for an urgent escape.

Philby's office.

“He never got used to Russian traditions”

- How did Kim spend his day?

In the morning he woke up at 7 o'clock and, no matter what happened, sat by the radio, listening to the BBC with a glass of fresh tea with lemon.

He loved to read. I subscribed to American and British newspapers - The Times, Tribune... We went together to pick them up at the Main Post Office once a week. But the newspapers were not always fresh, sometimes they were given to us a week ago, this irritated Kim. Soon I could also read in English (I learned the language because it was unpleasant: when guests come to visit, everyone speaks English, but I don’t understand anything).

I read a lot of classics in English. While still at the university, he re-read all of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Pushkin - he was familiar with Russian literature. But in Moscow he loved to re-read it all. There was a table near the bed with a book and an ashtray on it. Kim suffered from insomnia, and I often woke up in the middle of the night and saw him reading and smoking enthusiastically.

He loved music, especially Wagner. It often happened that he began to conduct himself. In general, he admitted that he dreamed of becoming a conductor. If he hummed, it was pleasant to listen to - he has such a velvety voice.

Kim also loved to walk. I studied Moscow completely, made a map myself, and knew the city better than me. He knew all the flora and fauna, every corner, every flowerbed.

- Did he say he misses Britain?

No. He said that everything had changed there now, that he would hardly like living in London. Moreover, he was a realist. He understood that he would never return.

Once he said “with us,” meaning England. I corrected him: “Now you need to say “from them.” He replied: “Correct.” And I was no longer mistaken.

But, of course, he remained English. He couldn't get used to people being late. So a man calls him and says that he will be there in 10 minutes. Time passes, it's gone. Kim is already nervously walking along the hallway, waiting. And a person can appear in 40 minutes, in an hour, without calling or warning, without apologizing. This perplexed and shocked Kim. And this happened at every step.

He did not accept rudeness, did not understand the attitude of Russian men towards women.

He told a lot of funny stories. Once at the Eliseevsky department store he opened the door to let a woman through. The woman passed, and a stream of mostly men followed her. He said: “I, as a doorman, held this door.”

It was very difficult for him in the metro (we didn’t have a car, we either called a taxi or took the metro). It was agony to travel with him. You know, as the crowd walks, he backs away and lets everyone onto the escalator and into the carriage. I kept losing it on the subway.

There was a case when a young girl in a carriage stood up to give him a seat (he was already gray-haired). What happened to him! He blushed and hid somewhere in the corner. He never sat in the presence of women. Every time I entered the room, he jumped out of his chair. I said: “It’s impossible to live like this!” But he couldn't do it any other way.

- Have state leaders visited you?

No, only the leadership of foreign intelligence. Andropov invited him to the Kremlin several times. But it was official, businesslike.

And so KGB officers often came to us. They often warned that they would come to a birthday party. Kim was surprised that everyone invited themselves to his birthday. By the way, for some reason they didn’t invite us to their place.

The “spy of the 20th century” spent every morning at this radio.

- Did Kim fall in love with Russian entertainment - hunting, fishing?

Fishing was a challenge for him. I remember he went fishing to Vologda for several days and, when he returned, he told me what a nightmare it was. “I haven't slept these days. Strange, noisy people kept appearing in my tent. And each one had another bottle.”

- It’s just like a plot from “Peculiarities of National Fishing”! But the British love to drink, don't they?

They have elevated it to the level of art. Tee time at 5 p.m., ring time at 6 p.m. At this time, Kim poured himself a little whiskey, always with water. I wanted cognac with orange juice, it was called “orange blossom”. We took a sip and that was it.

At some point, Kim began to get carried away. I couldn't look at it. He said about me: “Poor heart that doesn’t know how to have fun.” But where's the fun in that? He listened to my comments in silence, hanging his head. And suddenly he said: “I’m afraid of losing you. This won't happen anymore." And he kept his word.

-Did you travel with him?

Only for socialist countries. But we even visited Cuba. We could only travel on a dry cargo ship, so that there would not be a single stop and not a single passenger. The 300-meter-long steamship was all ours! In general, Philby was protected throughout the 18 years that he lived in the USSR, because they were afraid of kidnapping. And he was always accompanied by an “entourage”. Sometimes even he, a very patient and tolerant person, was infuriated by this. He even once said: “I only want to go out with my wife.” And we were alone on the ship (not counting the crew). In the rain and storm, we stood on a small deck together, looked at the sea and were immensely happy. It snowed on the way back, but that was absolute happiness!

- Rufina Ivanovna, thirty years have passed since he left you. Are you bored?

This is beyond words. I remember how he stood at the window and waited for me. Once I stayed late with a friend after a movie, and he calculated when the show ended, how much I needed for the trip, and waited and waited... When I entered, he was trembling. I was so worried that something had happened to me. No one has ever waited for me like this. Kim Philby was and remains the ideal man for me.

HELP "MK"

According to Western estimates, K. Philby is the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. His candidacy was considered for appointment to the post of head of SIS. When information about Philby's true role was made public in 1967, former CIA officer M. Copeland, who knew him personally, stated: “C. Philby's activities as a liaison officer between SIS and the CIA led to the fact that all extremely extensive Western intelligence efforts between 1944 and 1951 were unsuccessful. It would be better if we did nothing at all.”

In the Young Guard series “ZhZL”, Nikolai Dolgopolov’s book “Legendary Scouts” has just been published, which immediately became a bestseller. Among its 23 heroes are Abel Fisher, Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Dmitry Medvedev, Nadezhda Troyan, Alexander Feklisov, Vladimir Barkovsky, Africa de Las Heras, Yuri Drozdov, George Blake, Yakov Serebryansky, Pavel Gromushkin and many others, with whom the author was well known.

Here is a short excerpt from the book. Of the 23 heroes, we chose Kim Philby.

Philby himself, who was sometimes asked what he considered the most important thing he had done in his life as a Soviet intelligence officer, answered with one word, “Prokhorovka.” And I turned to his wife, Rufina Pukhova-Philby, for an explanation.

The Englishman Harold Adrian Russell Philby, known to the whole world, without exaggeration, under the name Kim, was a great Soviet intelligence officer. In the 23 years that I have been writing about intelligence, I have never seen examples of a foreigner, and even a representative of high society, doing so much for our country. Perhaps there were even more selfless people, but their dedication and the results they brought cannot be compared in any way with what Philby achieved, only by a turn of changeable fate did he not become the head of the Secret Intelligence Service - one of the most powerful, qualified and aggressive intelligence services in the world.

Kim donated a lot of invaluable materials. And when in the early 1950s he worked as a representative of SIS in Washington, the Americans and British themselves later admitted: “It would be better if we did nothing at all. The Soviets knew absolutely everything about us.”

During the war, Philby first gained access to Abwehr telegrams deciphered by the British. He was one of the first to report on secret negotiations between its head, the German Admiral Canaris, and the British, on the exact timing of the admiral’s arrival in Spain. Kim, seemingly with the consent of his superiors, developed a plan to destroy Canaris, which his London leadership unexpectedly rejected. Kim suspected that SIS was playing its own game with the Abwehr leader.

The admiral, who was shot by Hitler in 1944, gave the British information that was beneficial to a group of people who planned to physically destroy the Fuhrer, end the war with the USA and Great Britain, and concentrate all their efforts on the fight with the USSR. And Canaris, with his German agents scattered around the world, remained a link between the generals dissatisfied with Hitler and our then allies. The capture or murder of the admiral was disadvantageous to the British.

Philby also managed to obtain documents that reported on the post-war plans of the British. And they were as follows: without delay, already during the war, the outcome of which was clear, to begin work against the USSR. The initiator of the creation of a special department for the fight against the Soviet Union in SIS was Philby’s patron, Victor Vivian.

Kim's first reports about these plans were received with alarm in Moscow. Philby was not even given the task of getting all these documents; they were asked to at least inform him of their contents. And Kim once again did the impossible. The most experienced intelligence officer Vivian gave examples of what methods to fight against Soviet intelligence, how to sow enmity between the USSR and the communist parties of the West, how to split and incite the international communist movement against the Soviet Union through disinformation. All these documents were kept in a secret folder, which was called “Vivian’s Documents.”

But Philby outplayed his family friend, Vivian, who so touchingly looked after him and paved the way for Kim to the very top steps of the career ladder. In Moscow, the “Vivian Documents” sent by Philby were studied with special care. How it helped later, and even during the war. Philby collected data on agents sent by England to various countries.

American sources flashed information about the connections of Philby, who constantly worked as a representative of the SIS in Washington, with another legendary Soviet intelligence officer - illegal immigrant William Fisher - Colonel Rudolf Abel. But they also met with him, apparently Philby knew from his work in pre-war England, far from the American capital, presumably on Canadian territory. It must be admitted that there was no great friendship between the two pillars. Fischer was ascetic and strict. And in this regard, Philby was seen, including by his counterpart, as a typical antipode. But this did not interfere with the joint efforts of the two intelligence officers who ended up in the States.

Some of Kim’s friends, who worked with him in the USSR, eventually left the race. Philby remained with us always. More than 45 years of work for the Soviet Union - and far from the USSR, and then 25 years in Moscow, which turned into a home. 1946 showed that the British did not have any suspicions about Philby. He was awarded OBE - Order of the British Empire. It is somewhat blasphemous to compare it with the Order of Lenin, which Philby was also awarded, but the essence is clear. The award and subsequent celebrations at Buckingham Palace further boosted Philby's stock.

Rufina Ivanovna recalled this in her conversations with me. Kim was very offended by Guy Burgess, who fled to Moscow. MacLean listened to Philby, saved his life, escaped, and escaped inevitable arrest. Why did Burgess stay in Moscow? After all, if not for his disappearance, Philby, he firmly believed in this, he could work and work. Suspicions, investigations, and Philby managed to remain free, even getting a job as a journalist in Beirut. But in 1963 he had to escape from there on a Soviet cargo ship.

Kim Philby is already over 50, the situation is unusual, and he finds himself in Moscow, in our political stagnation. Sees and understands everything. When I watched the protracted kisses of the Secretary General with his comrades, he, according to Rufina Ivanovna, cursed. But he didn’t renounce. Philby is inactive, his powerful potential is not used. New recognition, his studies with young intelligence officers, even the publication of books came later.

But the truth always breaks through, even if some want it, some don’t, but Kim Philby has already become a legend, he is a hero. And not British at all, but ours and only ours. His burden was heavy, and Kim carried it to the end with dignity.

How to buy a book?

Residents of Russian regions can order and purchase Nikolai Dolgopolov’s book “Legendary Scouts”.

For a long time it was impossible to talk about these people officially, but it was they who made a significant contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War - the bloodiest and most brutal confrontation of the last century. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service will soon celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding person who occupies a special place in the galaxy of legendary intelligence officers - Kim Philby (1912-1988).

What is the mystery and uniqueness of this person? Philby is a British subject who deliberately began to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, realizing that only the Soviet Union could resist the Nazi threat. The name of this man was included in all training manuals of Western intelligence services. British intelligence still shudders at the mention of Kim Philby.

What achievement did Philby consider the most significant in his activities and whether archival materials relating to the activities of this legendary intelligence officer will ever be fully opened, the head of the Press Bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Ivanov, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

- Almost everything is known about Kim Philby, what new things did you discover when studying materials about him?

It is a big misconception to think that everything is known about Kim Philby. This figure, this personality will not be fully studied either by our contemporaries or by subsequent generations of intelligence officers - this man had too many-sided talent. The book contains references to his views, facts from his biography, and his attitude to the dramatic events that took place in the world in the last century. The facts presented in the book are of interest to scientists, researchers, and people deeply interested in the history of intelligence services. I am delighted that the book was published this year in anticipation of the centenary of Kim Philby's birth.

It turns out that only the “tip of the iceberg” has been revealed, and all documents about the activities of this legendary intelligence officer will never be published?

I think that's exactly the case. It is customary in intelligence that all materials related to the activities of an intelligence officer are not fully disclosed, despite the passage of time. There are objective reasons for this; first of all, this is caused by the operational need to keep secret some details of his biography and his activities.

- What was Philby particularly proud of?

For me, the most amazing thing was that when Philby was asked what was the most important thing he did in his biography, he repeatedly repeated: “Prokhorovka.” For a man who devoted his entire life to the fight against fascism, assisting Soviet troops in the fight against Nazi Germany in one of the most difficult and dramatic battles of the Great Patriotic War was probably a real achievement. The fact that Philby was proud until the end of his days that he and his friends were able to convey to the USSR materials about the plans of the fascists on the eve of the Battle of Kursk characterizes the man as a true humanist, an anti-fascist. What the “five” did on the eve of the war, as well as during the war against fascism, deserves the highest awards and the kindest words of today’s generation of people living on earth.

- How did a scout and a husband, a father, a family man get along in this man?

This question, of course, first of all should be asked to Rufina Ivanovna ( Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova-Philby is the wife of Kim Philby. - approx. edit). She always talks about him as a very caring, gentle, intelligent and smart person. He had a brilliant understanding of psychology and had a keen sense of his interlocutor. Philby has always been a support for his wife, and she was the human support for him that helped him adapt to our life after arriving from abroad.

- Kim Philby is English by birth, and worked for the Soviet Union. It turns out that he worked against his Motherland?

You understand, he did not work against someone, he worked “for”. He worked for the idea of ​​​​creating a more just world. He worked for the creation of an anti-Hitler coalition. He worked so that the Soviet Union could win that terrible war. Because he understood perfectly well that the USSR is the only country that can really resist Hitler’s Germany. His views were shared by a large number of people not only in England, but in France, the USA and other countries. Rather, Kim Philby acted not against his country, helping the Soviet Union, but for it.

- How will the SVR celebrate the centenary of Kim Philby?

I think this will happen behind closed doors; we have a military ritual when we honor veterans, honored people, on their birthdays.

The activities of Kim Philby are carefully studied by foreign intelligence services in intelligence schools, and our intelligence officers take a course in class about Kim Philby’s work abroad?

The SVR is strong because it stands on the traditions laid down by our senior comrades. We respect not only their gray hair or their awards, but also their invaluable experience. I would like to note that the book about Kim Philby, published by the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house in the Life of Remarkable People series, is of great importance for young guys who have just joined intelligence or for those who are just planning to join the SVR.

"Kim Philby" by Nikolai Dolgopolov

The book of writer and journalist Nikolai Dolgopolov “Kim Philby” tells about Kim Philby. It was prepared with the assistance of the Press Bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the intelligence officer’s birth (1912-1988).

To prepare the book, the SVR declassified some of the documents about the intelligence officer’s activities in different years - Kim Philby’s notes on work in British intelligence, his reports to Moscow, confidential messages, an alarming letter to the resident of Soviet intelligence in Beirut, an inventory of secret documents transferred to the Center.

The book also reveals a number of little-known pages from the life of the legendary intelligence officer after his flight in 1963 from Beirut to Moscow. The narrative includes the memories of the intelligence officer's widow Rufina Pukhova-Philby, his students and colleagues.

The Philby phenomenon has been studied by all intelligence services in the world for more than half a century. Hundreds of articles, books and a number of films are dedicated to him, a member of the famous “Cambridge Five”, which included high-ranking intelligence officers and the British Foreign Office who secretly worked for the USSR in 1930-1950.

"World is not fair"

Harold Adrian Russell Philby born on January 1, 1912 in India in the family of a British official. His father gave him the nickname Kim, in honor of the hero of the novel of the same name. R. Kipling. But his grandmother raised him in England. A representative of one of the oldest British families, he graduated with honors from Westminster School, and in 1929 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. “As a 19-year-old student, I came to the conclusion: the rich have a damn good life, and the poor have a damn bad life, and it’s time to change all this. The English poor at that time were considered inferior people. I remember my grandmother telling me: “Don’t play with these children. They are dirty, and you can catch something from them,” Philby said in an interview with the writer Phillip Knightley in 1988 - Once I came to the conclusion that the world was so damn unfair, I was faced with the question of how to change this situation. I became interested in the problems of socialism."

This photo is considered by Kim R. Pukhova to be the best (England, 50s). Photo: From personal archive

In 1931, Kim went to Europe and was horrified: Mussolini had already come to power in Italy, it was not long before the Nazis came to Germany. “However, there was a strong base of left forces - the Soviet Union, and I believed that I had to make my contribution to ensure that this base continued to exist at all costs,” Philby said. Kim began to work for the USSR not for the sake of money, not because of blackmail and threats. He simply hated Nazism. “In the spring of 1934, they established contact with me and asked if I would like to join the Soviet intelligence service. I accepted this offer without hesitation.”

Influenced the outcome of the war

Kim began working as a special correspondent for the Times newspaper during the Spanish Civil War, carrying out assignments for Soviet intelligence. According to Spanish journalists, Philby not only penetrated the inner circle of the future dictator Franco, but also managed to receive from his hands in 1938 the “Order of the Red Cross for military merit.”

In August 1939, Philby returned to London, where he joined SIS, Britain's foreign intelligence service. And already in 1941 he became deputy head of counterintelligence SIS! Thanks to him, the USSR had accurate information about all British operations. For example, when a “club” of politicians from the Third Reich prepared the ground for a secret conspiracy with London to start fighting together against the Soviets and Stalin, Philby blocked the conclusion of this agreement. It was he who rejected the Nazi proposal transmitted through secret channels. admiral V. Canaris to meet with SIS head S. Menzies. “The complete defeat of Germany was a matter of principle for me. It was difficult for me to forget what the Germans had done,” Kim recalled.

But he himself admitted that his most important business was Prokhorovka. In 1943, information was received from Philby in the USSR about the movements of German troops - in particular, that the Wehrmacht’s attention was focused on the Kursk Bulge and the enemy knew the plans for the upcoming Soviet military operation. It was thanks to these messages that the Soviet command changed the plan of attack, and the famous largest tank battle took place, which turned the tide of the war.

In total, during the war years, Philby transferred 914 important documents to Moscow. Many of them are still marked “secret”.

Failure and Escape

In 1949, Kim Philby was sent to Washington to oversee the joint activities of the British intelligence services, the FBI and the CIA “to combat the communist threat.” This appointment spoke of absolute confidence in Philby in London. Moreover, his next post was to be... the head of the British intelligence services! During that period, Kim actually thwarted anti-Soviet protests in socialist Albania and prevented a bloodbath in the Balkans. He coordinated a joint operation between the CIA and SIS to infiltrate agents into that country in the late 1940s and early 1950s in order to stir up an insurrection there. Philby reported this operation to the KGB, and the agents were caught and shot after landing.

The most important issue for the Cambridge Five was the nuclear issue. They were the first to inform the Center about the work of US and British nuclear scientists on the atomic bomb. All Philby's reports were delivered immediately Stalin. In 1947, the Soviet leader signed a decree awarding Philby the Order of the Red Banner. And two years earlier Elizabeth II For his services to intelligence, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Awards from the legendary intelligence officer Kim Philby. Photo: Moscow Agency / Andrey Lyubimov

However, in 1951, two members of the Cambridge Five, Donald McLean And Guy Burgess, under threat of exposure, fled to the Union. Philby, who lived in the same house with Guy for some time, came under suspicion. He was recalled to London. Endless interrogations at MI5 counterintelligence. But the experienced intelligence officer did not flinch. Due to lack of evidence, Philby was released. In 1955 he was forced to resign.

But already in 1956, Kim Philby was again taken into British intelligence. Under the cover of a correspondent for The Observer newspaper and The Economist magazine, Philby is sent to Beirut. Documents about his exploits there have not yet been declassified, but in his book “My Secret War” Philby wrote: “In any case, it was of interest to Soviet intelligence to know about the subversive activities of the CIA and SIS in the Middle East.” Until January 1963, he continued to work for Soviet intelligence. But he was still exposed. Kim disappeared from Beirut in one evening and a few days later found himself in the USSR.

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I didn't regret anything

“At first, Kim was given a passport in the name Fedorov Andrey Fedorovich. But when he pronounced his Russian first, patronymic and last name with his accent, Homeric laughter began, recalls the intelligence officer’s widow Rufina Pukhova. — And then he himself suggested a neutral surname — Martins. In the “place of birth” column there was “New York”, and in the “nationality” column there was “Latvian”.

In Moscow, comfortable conditions were created for him: a luxurious apartment in the center, a salary of 500 rubles, no problems with food and English newspapers. But it was a golden cage. Kim dreamed of working in intelligence and leading an active lifestyle. However, the Soviet intelligence services understood that Philby’s figure was causing great irritation in London; they could have tried to kill or kidnap him. Due to depression, the Englishman began to drink. Only his Russian wife was able to save him from drunkenness. When they met in 1970, Rufina Pukhova was 38, and Kim was nearly 60. “We lived together for 18 years, and after two years the problem with alcohol no longer existed. He worked a lot, he had students,” says the widow.

The widow of Soviet intelligence officer K. Philby Rufina Pukhova-Philby during the opening of an exhibition dedicated to Soviet intelligence officer Kim Philby in the house of the Russian Historical Society. Photo: Moscow Agency

“In 1973, new personnel came to intelligence. And then they remembered that a man of exceptional talents and qualities had been living in Moscow for 10 years, and the department that deals with England was simply obliged to get to know him,” recalls retired SVR Major General Yuri Kobaladze. “A whole galaxy of Soviet intelligence officers studied with him.”

Kim spent 25 years in the USSR. He said: “My home is here, and although life here has its difficulties, I would not exchange this home for any other.”

The Riga tube receiver "Festival" still works properly. Photo: Moscow Agency / Andrey Lyubimov

According to Rufina Pukhova, although Kim was considered a traitor in England, his home library (12 thousand volumes) and an antique table of the 17th century. delivered to Moscow in containers. The children, and then the grandchildren of the intelligence officer, who lived in the West, were sent annually to the USSR to see Philby. Kim Philby died on May 11, 1988, and was buried in the new Kuntsevo cemetery. On September 15 of this year, a unique exhibition opened, presenting declassified archival documents of the SVR, reflecting Philby’s operational work, his awards and personal belongings. Opening the exhibition Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin noted that Philby consciously made a choice in favor of cooperation with Soviet intelligence and never regretted it. In 1988, answering the writer Knightley’s question whether he would do the same if he had to do it all over again, the intelligence officer answered without hesitation: “Certainly.”

Rufina Pukhova-Philby: “He did not consider himself a traitor”

The 20th century spy, almost the head of British intelligence MI6 and at the same time an outstanding Soviet agent, Kim Philby has recently been in the news more than once. First, the documents that he obtained during the war and which helped change its very course were declassified, then an exhibition was opened in his honor and, finally, Philby’s portrait adorned the gallery of People’s Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov.

But has all this brought us any closer to understanding what he was like? What did you live for? How did you feel about the fact that he was considered a “traitor of the century” in his native Britain? What has a true English gentleman never been able to get used to over the years of living in Moscow?

Only one person knows the answers to these questions - his widow, Rufina Pukhova-Philby. The greatest intelligence officer of the era, who managed to fool Churchill himself and remain undetected for more than 30 years, trembled, standing at the window, if she was even half an hour late home. The love story of the great intelligence officer - in a frank interview with his beloved Rufina PHILBI.

Kim and his love Rufina.

"I am an English man"

- Rufina Ivanovna, I believe that scouts do not meet each other on the street. How did you first meet Kim Philby?

I have never worked in intelligence and had nothing to do with it. She was an editor at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute. But my friend Ida also worked there as a translator, who became the wife of British intelligence officer George Blake, who came to the USSR in 1965 (English intelligence officer, worked for the USSR, sentenced to 42 years, escaped from an English prison. - Author's note).

Ida once mentioned that a very interesting person, Kim Philby, came to see them. That was the first time I heard this name. But I immediately forgot. Then Ida asked to get tickets for the whole family, including Blake’s mother, to an American play that was shown in Moscow (and I had such an opportunity - my mother worked at the House of Actors). This was in August 1970. We met before the performance, and I saw an unfamiliar elderly man and a young man next to the Blakes. It was Kim and his son, who were visiting Moscow. That's when we were introduced.

Kim suddenly said to me: “Please take off your glasses. I want to see your eyes” (it was a very sunny day, I put on sunglasses while still leaving the house). I lowered my glasses and looked at him over them with undisguised surprise.

We walked with Ida in front, chatting as usual, and the men behind (Kim didn’t make it to the concert because he couldn’t buy an extra ticket from the theater).

Later, when we lived together, he said that during these “seconds”, when I walked in front of him, he firmly decided that he would marry me. I asked him: “But why? After all, you couldn’t even really see me, you were always walking behind me.” He answered very funny: “If you only knew how you walk!” That is, he liked my gait! He didn’t speak Russian very well, but I never corrected him because it was funny. On the contrary, I tried to remember his phrases.

- Did you like him right away?

It never even occurred to me to fall in love with him. I just perceived him as a nice person. For some reason I noticed that he has a very interesting profile.

I was 38 years old, he was 58. He was 10 days older than my mother. He has more than one marriage behind him, five children. I have never been married and did not aspire to be. Why? I do not know. I never liked the word “fate,” but only later, replaying my life like a film, I realized that I could have married this one, that one, the third one, but for some reason everything didn’t work out, as if I was waiting for Kim. And I thought with horror: what if I hadn’t waited for him? How would I live with someone else? No one could even come close to him. He was so delicate and subtle. The ideal man.

- Is it true that you got married a few days after you first met?

Yes. He proposed already at the third meeting.

The second was at the Blakes' dacha, where I was invited. I remember Kim brought a huge bag that contained a saucepan, a frying pan, a rooster, wine, and porcini mushrooms. He said that he would cook the rooster in wine. He only entrusted Ida and I with peeling the mushrooms; he did the rest himself. Kim was generally a wonderful cook.

Dinner dragged on. I retired to bed, but the room was next to the veranda, where Kim was sitting with George’s mother, who, at 80 years old, was sipping vodka like men. They chatted in English with Kim. Everything was audible. I didn’t understand a word, but my name was repeated all the time. Then suddenly, in complete silence, I heard the creak of the door and saw a red light approaching me. It was Kim who came into my room with a cigarette (he did not part with the cigarette until his death). He sat on the edge of my bed and said solemnly: “I am an English man.” For some reason it was very funny. I noticed through my laughter: “Of course, of course, you are a gentleman.” He got up and left, but came back a couple of minutes later and said the same thing. This was repeated five times. I was already starting to go hysterical with laughter. Finally he went to bed. The next morning we went for a walk in the forest, he was very serious. I thought that he was embarrassed for his “nightly adventures,” and gave him a torn bell as a joke. If you only knew how he then rushed around the house with this flower, picking out a vase for it!

A small fraction of Philby's awards.

Soon he organized a trip along the Golden Ring for me (we went on the trip in the Blakes’ car). I already felt his caring attitude towards me, I was embarrassed, so I tried to stay close to the Blakes the whole trip. At some point, Kim couldn’t stand it, grabbed me by the hand (he was an excellent swimmer, he still had a grip), sat me on the bench and seriously said: “I want to marry you.” I didn’t even laugh at the funny way he pronounced that word. I was speechless. Then she started babbling, like, we barely know each other, you don’t know me. He answered: “No! I see right through you” (he pronounced the word “through” very funny with an emphasis on the “z”). I began to scare him, saying: “I’m lazy, I’m not good at housekeeping, I don’t know how to cook.” He replied: “It doesn’t matter. I will do everything myself." At the end he asked: “Can I hope?” I arrogantly said “yes” - rather to get rid of it. But soon we got married!

-Have you ever regretted it?

Of course not. It was very easy with him! He called me a comedian because I loved to laugh and teased him. Kim himself has a very subtle sense of humor.

In all the years of our life together, he made a reprimand to me for the only time (and then very gently). Here's how it happened. He bought me a robe for foreign currency, which was more beautiful than all my dresses (I generally had a modest wardrobe). And I walked in it until lunch. And my husband told me: “A lady like you shouldn’t wear a robe during the day.” He always emphasized that I was a lady.

-Where did you live with him?

I moved into his apartment - it is in the very center of Moscow, it was given to him by the Soviet government in gratitude for his services (Rufina Ivanovna still lives here. - Author's note). Kim immediately said that the kitchen is his territory. He could cook anything, but he especially liked baking in the oven. His favorite dish is Indian lamb curry. We had spices specially brought from India for it.

Kim idolized my mother; there was a separate room for her in our apartment (she visited often). They talked for hours, and it was possible to watch it like a performance. Kim spoke English, mom spoke Russian (she didn’t understand a word of English). But they communicated very interestingly. We often went to see our mother; Kim loved her pancakes, which she cooked amazingly.

He took every little thing with gratitude. He constantly thanked me for my care and attention, which at first was even a little wild. After all, men usually take it for granted. But Kim once told me: “They took from me all the time. And you give.”

Rufina Ivanovna and a MK columnist at a memorial plaque in honor of the intelligence officer.

“He did not consider himself a traitor”

- Did you know from the very beginning that he was the greatest intelligence officer?

Of course not. In the USSR at that time there was only one article about him in the newspaper - “Hello, Comrade Kim.” I didn’t read it, but those who did couldn’t understand who this Kim was? In those days, some communists came to the USSR from abroad. And then, when I began to live with Philby, I saw in his library entire shelves of books dedicated to him. The covers featured his name and portraits. But they were all in a foreign language. I didn’t understand what I was talking about, but then I realized the scale of the personality.

- The greatest Soviet intelligence officer dedicated his book to you?

Yes, he wrote at the very beginning that the wives of all intelligence officers bear a special kind of burden, because they are not allowed to know anything about the work of their husbands.

- And you knew nothing at all?

Well, he, of course, told something - something that was no longer a big secret. He, for example, spoke with pride about the Kursk Bulge. The outcome of the battle largely determined the course of the war, and the information that Kim conveyed to the USSR was priceless. He conveyed to the Center that the Germans, when attacking the Kursk Bulge, were relying on tank divisions, and that Soviet guns would not be able to penetrate the Tigers and Leopards, which had powerful armor protection. Having received this information, our Ural factories created new armor-piercing shells before the start of the battle. The USSR was ready to attack. But the length of the Kursk Bulge is more than 200 km, it was necessary to know where the German army would strike. Kim said that this would be the village of Prokhorovka. And the Soviet command believed his information, all forces were pulled there, reserves. But Churchill tried to misinform the Soviet government, assuring that he had information that the Germans were abandoning the offensive and there would be a respite.

- Did Kim explain where he got all the German data from?

The British managed to obtain the German codes. It was a top-secret data exchange system. The Germans were absolutely confident in its reliability. Churchill received all the information about the plans of the Nazis, but he did not share it with the USSR.

Kim worked for British MI6 from the very beginning of the war and had access to these secret documents. A lot of information also came from other members of the Cambridge group. He liked to say: “Those were very energetic times. Time was ticking like a bomb, counting every moment.”

- Was he offended by the fact that in his homeland he was considered a “traitor of the century”?

He himself never considered himself a traitor. Kim has always been true to his convictions, which consisted of working for the interests not of a single state, but of all humanity. He was an anti-fascist. You need to understand who Kim actually was.

He was of “blue blood” (he had relatives in the royal family), graduated from Cambridge University, and held the most progressive views. When Philby was a 28-year-old journalist for The Times, he was recruited to work by illegal Soviet intelligence officer Arnold Deitch. There was a clear proposal to work for Soviet intelligence. Kim agreed quite deliberately, because he was looking for contacts where he could apply his strength in the fight against fascism. He could not come to terms with the idea of ​​exterminating the Jews and all the other sentiments that reigned in Germany. He ended up in the British intelligence service MI6 after he began helping Soviet intelligence. They immediately saw that Kim was an analyst, psychologist, and strategist. And it was the idea of ​​the Soviet foreign intelligence service - for him to work in MI6. When he, working for British intelligence, handed over documents to the USSR, he did so with one noble goal - to save the world from the Nazis.

- How did he usually transmit information to the Center?

At first he tried to redraw something, rewrite it by hand. But it's long and tedious. Then he started taking out the files to re-photograph them. Well, I returned the originals to their place. Kim's reports were reported personally to Stalin. He knew almost everything thanks to Kim Philby. And when I met with Roosevelt and Churchill, I felt completely confident.

- Did Kim talk about how he became the head of the British intelligence department for the fight against the USSR?

He was in very good standing with British intelligence. Soviet intelligence helped a little to get Philby to take over as his boss. If not for this, perhaps all of us, residents of Moscow, would have died. After all, Churchill agitated Truman to drop a nuclear bomb on Moscow. The USSR could not answer with anything...

- Philby has many awards, but is it true that he himself did not really like them?

Well, why, he appreciated them. He is the only one in the world who received state awards for services in intelligence from two states. Received them from the English king and from Stalin. But most of all, Kim valued the Order of the Red Banner; he believed that he was awarded precisely for information on the Battle of Kursk.

- Was Kim worried that he was discovered too early?

He worked for Soviet foreign intelligence for more than 30 years. And in 1963, due to the threat of failure, he was forced to come to the USSR.

Long before this, in August 1945, an employee of the Soviet embassy in Turkey, Konstantin Volkov, in exchange for political asylum in Britain, offered to reveal the names of three Moscow agents in Britain, among them Philby. But Soviet intelligence found out about this. Kim himself went to Turkey from the British MI6 to meet with Volkov. It is not surprising that after this visit it turned out that no Volkov had ever worked at the embassy and that such a Soviet diplomat did not exist (Kim returned to London with such a report). In reality, Volkov was arrested, taken to the USSR, and sentenced to 25 years for treason. But you probably know that when Kim came under suspicion, the leadership could not find evidence of his work for the USSR. The investigation lasted more than one year; there were only interrogations for several months. Kim even gave a press conference in London. And then everything worked out.

Was he not offended by his friend Burgess, one of the Cambridge group, because of whose escape suspicion fell on Philby?

Burgess's escape effectively exposed Philby. But Kim loved his friend to the last. He wore the hat that he got from Burgess all the time, even though it didn’t suit him. We have a Burgess chair at home, it has these “ears” on the back. Kim joked that this was to prevent it from blowing. Shortly before his death, Burgess wanted to see Kim, but he was told that Kim was supposedly not in Moscow. And Kim himself was not even informed about this. He was very worried.

- Did Philby watch the main Soviet film about intelligence, “Seventeen Moments of Spring”?

Yes. I laughed a lot. He said that with such an expression on his face, our scout would not have lasted a day. Kim immediately put me at ease. He had such charm that he wanted to tell everything. And already in Moscow at one time he taught young intelligence officers this charm. I came up with role-playing games. He himself played the role of either a Foreign Ministry official or a border guard officer.

- Did you talk about intelligence techniques?

He said that there are secrets that even I cannot know about. But he was talking about how he realized it was time to run. There was an agreement that a messenger would pass under his balcony at a certain time. If you are empty-handed, then everything is fine. If you have a newspaper or book in your hands, this is a sign of the need for an urgent escape.

Philby's office.

“He never got used to Russian traditions”

- How did Kim spend his day?

In the morning he woke up at 7 o'clock and, no matter what happened, sat by the radio, listening to the BBC with a glass of fresh tea with lemon.

He loved to read. I subscribed to American and British newspapers - The Times, Tribune... We went together to pick them up at the Main Post Office once a week. But the newspapers were not always fresh, sometimes they were given to us a week ago, this irritated Kim. Soon I could also read in English (I learned the language because it was unpleasant: when guests come to visit, everyone speaks English, but I don’t understand anything).

I read a lot of classics in English. While still at the university, he re-read all of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Pushkin - he was familiar with Russian literature. But in Moscow he loved to re-read it all. There was a table near the bed with a book and an ashtray on it. Kim suffered from insomnia, and I often woke up in the middle of the night and saw him reading and smoking enthusiastically.

He loved music, especially Wagner. It often happened that he began to conduct himself. In general, he admitted that he dreamed of becoming a conductor. If he hummed, it was pleasant to listen to - he has such a velvety voice.

Kim also loved to walk. I studied Moscow completely, made a map myself, and knew the city better than me. He knew all the flora and fauna, every corner, every flowerbed.

- Did he say he misses Britain?

No. He said that everything had changed there now, that he would hardly like living in London. Moreover, he was a realist. He understood that he would never return.

Once he said “with us,” meaning England. I corrected him: “Now you need to say “from them.” He replied: “Correct.” And I was no longer mistaken.

But, of course, he remained English. He couldn't get used to people being late. So a man calls him and says that he will be there in 10 minutes. Time passes, it's gone. Kim is already nervously walking along the hallway, waiting. And a person can appear in 40 minutes, in an hour, without calling or warning, without apologizing. This perplexed and shocked Kim. And this happened at every step.

He did not accept rudeness, did not understand the attitude of Russian men towards women.

He told a lot of funny stories. Once at the Eliseevsky department store he opened the door to let a woman through. The woman passed, and a stream of mostly men followed her. He said: “I, as a doorman, held this door.”

It was very difficult for him in the metro (we didn’t have a car, we either called a taxi or took the metro). It was agony to travel with him. You know, as the crowd walks, he backs away and lets everyone onto the escalator and into the carriage. I kept losing it on the subway.

There was a case when a young girl in a carriage stood up to give him a seat (he was already gray-haired). What happened to him! He blushed and hid somewhere in the corner. He never sat in the presence of women. Every time I entered the room, he jumped out of his chair. I said: “It’s impossible to live like this!” But he couldn't do it any other way.

- Have state leaders visited you?

No, only the leadership of foreign intelligence. Andropov invited him to the Kremlin several times. But it was official, businesslike.

And so KGB officers often came to us. They often warned that they would come to a birthday party. Kim was surprised that everyone invited themselves to his birthday. By the way, for some reason they didn’t invite us to their place.

The “spy of the 20th century” spent every morning at this radio.

- Did Kim fall in love with Russian entertainment - hunting, fishing?

Fishing was a challenge for him. I remember he went fishing to Vologda for several days and, when he returned, he told me what a nightmare it was. “I haven't slept these days. Strange, noisy people kept appearing in my tent. And each one had another bottle.”

- It’s just like a plot from “Peculiarities of National Fishing”! But the British love to drink, don't they?

They have elevated it to the level of art. Tee time at 5 p.m., ring time at 6 p.m. At this time, Kim poured himself a little whiskey, always with water. I wanted cognac with orange juice, it was called “orange blossom”. We took a sip and that was it.

At some point, Kim began to get carried away. I couldn't look at it. He said about me: “Poor heart that doesn’t know how to have fun.” But where's the fun in that? He listened to my comments in silence, hanging his head. And suddenly he said: “I’m afraid of losing you. This won't happen anymore." And he kept his word.

-Did you travel with him?

Only for socialist countries. But we even visited Cuba. We could only travel on a dry cargo ship, so that there would not be a single stop and not a single passenger. The 300-meter-long steamship was all ours! In general, Philby was protected throughout the 18 years that he lived in the USSR, because they were afraid of kidnapping. And he was always accompanied by an “entourage”. Sometimes even he, a very patient and tolerant person, was infuriated by this. He even once said: “I only want to go out with my wife.” And we were alone on the ship (not counting the crew). In the rain and storm, we stood on a small deck together, looked at the sea and were immensely happy. It snowed on the way back, but that was absolute happiness!

- Rufina Ivanovna, thirty years have passed since he left you. Are you bored?

This is beyond words. I remember how he stood at the window and waited for me. Once I stayed late with a friend after a movie, and he calculated when the show ended, how much I needed for the trip, and waited and waited... When I entered, he was trembling. I was so worried that something had happened to me. No one has ever waited for me like this. Kim Philby was and remains the ideal man for me.

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According to Western estimates, K. Philby is the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. His candidacy was considered for appointment to the post of head of SIS. When information about Philby's true role was made public in 1967, former CIA officer M. Copeland, who knew him personally, stated: “C. Philby's activities as a liaison officer between SIS and the CIA led to the fact that all extremely extensive Western intelligence efforts between 1944 and 1951 were unsuccessful. It would be better if we did nothing at all.”

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