All About History

CAMBRIDGE SPY RING APPREHENDED

Who were the Cambridge Five?

The Cambridge Five were five undergraduates recruited in Cambridge during the 1930s. They’re normally regarded as Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross, but this is a slight misnomer as there were many other students recruited by the Russians at Cambridge and other universities during the 1930s. The Russians called the group the Magnificent Five because they all knew each other and were very closely connected. Guy Burgess, for example, had affairs with both Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt at Cambridge, a bit like the Bloomsbury set, which I think is why everyone is so interested in them. There was a sort of romantic or sexual connection as well as a more public one.

What information did they pass on?

They all passed on enormous amounts of information because they all had extremely important roles. Burgess worked

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