Misdefending the Realm: How MI5's incompetence enabled Communist Subversion of Britain's Institutions during the Nazi-Soviet Pact - Softcover

Percy, Antony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908684968 ISBN 13: 9781908684967

Publisher: University of Buckingham Press, 2017

Synopsis

When, early in 1940, an important Soviet defector provided hints to British Intelligence about spies within the country's institutions, MI5's report was intercepted by a Soviet agent in the Home Office...

She alerted her lover, Isaiah Berlin, and Berlin's friend, Guy Burgess, whereupon the pair initiated a rapid counter-attack. Burgess contrived a reason for the two of them to visit the Soviet Union, which was then an ally of Nazi Germany, in order to alert his bosses of the threat and protect the infamous 'Cambridge Spies'.

The story of this extraordinary escapade, hitherto ignored by the historians, lies at the heart of a thorough and scholarly expose of MI5's constitutional inability to resist communist infiltration of Britain's corridors of power and its later attempt to cover up its negligence. 

This book will be of interest to all students of history, international relations, espionage and civil, national and international security.

About this title

About the Author

Antony Percy is an academic historian. He read German and Russian at Christ Church, Oxford, and developed a career in IT that culminated in his role as Vice-President and Research Fellow with the Gartner Group, the world s leading consulting organisation in the analysis of Information Technology. Percy has pursued a lifelong interest in history, language and literature, and combines his experience from a highly successful career as an IT analyst/futurist with a solid understanding of intelligence tradecraft to the study of history.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Buckingham Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908684968
• ISBN 13: 9781908684967
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380