Why Did Elite Cambridge Graduates Become Soviet Spies? Revisiting the Cambridge Five, with Antonia Senior

为什么精英剑桥毕业生成为苏联间谍?重访剑桥五杰,与安托尼亚·森尼尔对话

Intelligence Squared

2026-04-17

40 分钟
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The Cambridge Five - Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, John Cairncross and Keeper of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt - made up one of the most notorious spy rings of the 20th century. Besotted with communist ideology and radicalised while at Cambridge University in the 1930s, their clandestine supply of British and US intelligence material gave Stalin an inside track on US and British decision-making until May 1951. So how did this collective come into being, what brought about its downfall, and why did four of the five never answer for their crimes? In this episode, Antonia Senior draws on recently declassified files to reexamine the story of the Cambridge Five. Discussing her new book Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire with historian and philosopher Sophie Scott Brown, Senior explores how a generation shaped by the crises of the 1930s was drawn to communism, and how elite networks within Cambridge and the British establishment enabled one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in modern history. Antonia Senior is a journalist and writer. She is the author of Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire. Sophie Scott Brown is a historian and philosopher specialising in modern intellectual history and political thought. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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单集文稿 ...

  • Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet.

  • I'm producer Mia Sorrenti.

  • How did some of Britain's most privileged and well-connected young men come to betray their country?

  • And what does the story of the Cambridge Five reveal about ideology, loyalty and power in times of political upheaval?

  • On today's episode, Antonia Senior, journalist and author, joins Sophie Scott-Brown, historian and philosopher,

  • to discuss her new book, Stalin's Apostles, The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire.

  • Together, they discuss the forces that drew a generation towards communism and enabled one of the most

  • damaging intelligence breaches in modern history.

  • Let's join our host, Sophie Scott-Brown, now with more.

  • Antonia, hi.

  • It's great to meet you.

  • It's great to be chatting here on the Intelligence Grid podcast.

  • I'm going to be talking about your new book, Stalin's Apostles, The Cambridge Five and the Making of Stalin's Empire.

  • Really excited to get into this.

  • Now, first of all, let's just dig into a little bit more.

  • These five guys, I mean, they are pretty well written about.

  • I mean, there's an absolute plethora of histories, of fictions.

  • You know, they're just the five that keep on giving.

  • Now, but you come at this and straight off the bat,

  • you 're saying, well, okay, we think we know this story, but in fact, we do n't.