John Cairncross
John Cairncross was a Scottish-born individual who gained notoriety as a Soviet spy during and after World War II, being one of the members of the infamous Cambridge Five. Born in 1913 and educated at prestigious institutions such as Glasgow University and Trinity College, Cambridge, Cairncross studied modern languages and became involved in espionage with fellow Cambridge students, including Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby. After joining the British Foreign Office in 1936, he secretly aligned himself with the Communist Party in 1937. His spying activities reportedly began around 1939, when he began conveying sensitive information to the Soviets, including crucial military intelligence during significant battles like Kursk.
Cairncross's espionage work ultimately earned him the Order of the Red Banner from the Soviet Union, yet he faced repercussions after the war when his connections to fellow spies were uncovered. Despite being implicated, he avoided prosecution, which highlighted the shortcomings of British counterintelligence in identifying and acting against Soviet infiltrators at the time. His identity as a spy remained largely unknown to the public until the early 1990s, illustrating both the complexities of loyalty and betrayal during a tumultuous historical period.
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John Cairncross
British spy for the Soviet Union
- Born: July 25, 1913
- Birthplace: Lesmahagow, Scotland
- Died: October 8, 1995
- Place of death: England
Cause of notoriety: Cairncross’s espionage undermined British attempts to deceive the Soviets during World War II and aided Soviet efforts against Nazi Germany.
Active: c. 1939-1951
Locale: Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, England
Early Life
John Cairncross (KARN-kraws) was born in 1913 in Scotland, one of eight children. Following initial studies at Glasgow University, he completed a degree in both French and German at the Université Paris Sorbonne and acquired a degree in modern languages from Trinity College, Cambridge University. While at Trinity, Cairncross met four other young men—Donald Duart Macean, Anthony Blunt, Kim Philby, and Guy Burgess—who, together with Cairncross, would later become spies and came to be called variously the Cambridge Five, the Cambridge Ring, or the Cambridge Apostles. Cairncross was seduced into the group largely by Burgess. After graduating from Trinity, Cairncross began work at the British Foreign Office in 1936 after having achieved the highest score ever on both the foreign office and the home office exams. He secretly joined the Communist Party in 1937.
Espionage Career
While it is impossible to gauge precisely when Cairncross began passing information to the Soviets, most historians point to 1939 as the beginning of his career, when he first passed information to Burgess about British politicians and their attitudes toward Nazi Germany. In 1940, Cairncross became the secretary to Lord Maurice Hankey, the minister responsible for the various intelligence services in Britain. Upon Hankey’s leaving office, Cairncross was assigned to the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, England, where he decrypted communications intelligence. Cairncross states in his 1997 autobiography that at one point he attempted to stop passing information to the KGB (the Soviet intelligence agency) because he believed that the British government would not deliberately withhold such information from its allies. However, when he discovered that broken German codes continued to be kept from the Soviets, he returned to espionage. Cairncross passed along information concerning British knowledge of Soviet ciphers, the German Luftwaffe bases in the Soviet Union, German Tiger tanks, and the order of battle for the 1943 spring German offensive in the Soviet Union. Cairncross later wrote that the information he supplied helped the Russians win the Battle of Kursk in July-August of 1943. Cairncross later was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the Soviets for his espionage work.
At the end of World War II, Cairncross went to work for the British treasury. He was fired from the treasury when papers were found in his handwriting inside Burgess’s residence, although no charges were filed against him. He then went to work for the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome and retired to southern France.
After the MI5 (a division of the British intelligence agency) questioned Blunt in 1964, Blunt named Cairncross as a Soviet spy, and Cairncross, in exchange for full immunity, made a full confession to his espionage activity during the war.
Impact
John Cairncross and the Cambridge Five were an example of the way in which the disenchanted youth of Britain became susceptible to Soviet influence during an era when many intellectuals held Marxist theory in high regard and expressed disgust with Western governments’ appeasement of the Germans. The inability of MI5 to move quickly better enabled the activities of the Cambridge Five and highlighted the ineptitude of British counterintelligence to discover Soviet spies who had entered its ranks during and after World War II. The lack of prosecutions for the majority of the Cambridge Five, including Cairncross, was mainly a result of the British government’s embarrassment at counterintelligence failures and its desire to maintain secrecy. The public did not learn the identity of Cairncross until two KGB defectors identified him in 1990.
Bibliography
Cairncross, John. The Enigma Spy. London: Century, 1997. In his autobiography, Cairncross portrays his acts as patriotic, alleges that only the Soviets could have defeated Nazi Germany, and denies giving the Soviets any atomic secrets.
Gannon, James. Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2001. An account of the secrets stolen by Cairncross and his role in aiding the Soviet Union.
Volkman, Ernest. Espionage. New York: J. Wiley and Sons, 1995. Documents Cairncross’s activities and his involvement with the Cambridge Five.