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They were originally known as the Cambridge Spy Ring because all known members of the ring were recruited at Trinity College, Cambridge, probably by Anthony Blunt (who was a Fellow there while the others were undergraduates). At least two members of the spy ring, Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess, are known to have been members of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret society based around Trinity College and King's College. A third Apostle, Victor Rothschild, is suspected by many of being the so-called Fifth Man, who has never been formally identified.
In 1951Events January events January 9 United Nations headquarters officially opens ( New York City). January 15 Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald," wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in We, Burgess and Maclean - both under secret investigation - made international headlines by very publicly defectingA defector is generally a person who gives up allegiance to a certain country in exchange for allegiance in another. This act is usually in an illegal way (as opposed to changing citizenship). For example, during the Cold war, the many people escaping acr to the Soviet Union. It was immediately apparent to investigators that they had been tipped off, and Philby quickly became a prime suspect. Investigation of Philby found several suspicious matters but nothing for which he could be prosecuted, and he was forced to resign. He was named in the Press as chief suspect for "the Third Man" in 19551955 is a common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January events January 2 Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated. January 19 The Scrabble board game debuts. February events February 8 Nikolai Bulganin ousts Georgi Mal, and called a press conferenceBush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the White House. A news conference or press conference is a media event staged by an individual or group who wishes to attract media coverage for something claimed to have news value. Television stations and n to deny it. By this time, he was working as a journalistA journalist is a person who practices journalism that is, who creates reports as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, documentary film, and the Internet. Origin and scope of the term In in the Middle EastThe Middle East is a geographical and cultural area comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Afr. In 19611961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year i. one that looked the same upside down since 1881, and the last until 6009. Events January January 1 The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, cease, defector Anatoli Golitsin provided information which seemed to point to Philby. An MI5 agent was sent to interview Philby in Beirut, and reported that Philby knew he was coming (indicating the presence of yet another mole) but freely confessed. Shortly afterwards, apparently fearing he might be abducted in Lebanon, Philby also defected to the Soviet Union.
By 1979 Blunt was publicly accused of being a Soviet agent by investigative journalist Andrew Boyle, in his book Climate of Treason. In November 1979 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher admitted to the House of Commons that Blunt had confessed to being a Soviet spy 15 years previously. By that time already in a position without access to classified information, he had secretly been granted a formal immunity by the Attorney General in exchange for telling everything he knew. He had provided a considerable amount of information, and preventing the Soviets from discovering his confession would have increased its value.
The "Five" comes from KGB defector Anatoli Golitsin, who named Philby, Maclean and Burgess as part of a "Ring of Five" whose other two agents he did not know. However all three agents named by Golitsin had already defected to the USSR, and of all the information provided by Golitsin, the only item that was ever independently confirmed was the exposure of John Vassall . Vassall was a relatively low ranking spy whom some researchers believe may have been sacrificed to protect a more senior one. Golitsin's information was also suggestive of Philby being a member, but Philby was already under suspicion - indeed, had been accused in newspapers - and was in a country with no extradition agreement with Britain. Golitsin also provided other information that is widely regarded as highly improbable, such as the claim that Harold Wilson (then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) was a KGB agent. To this day Golitsin's reliability remains controversial, and as such there is little certainty of the actual number of agents in the Cambridge ring. To add to the confusion, when Blunt finally confessed he nominated several completely different people as among those he had recruited. Altogether, at least twelve persons have been seriously indicated as possible members of Golitsin's "Ring of Five".