James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Feb 19, 2018 23:42:01 GMT
Counter-intelligence does the vetting, naturally... Sensitive jobs such as the head of SIS... Who wouldn't want to control Six. Some guys in Moscow... Thinking on it, probably a lot more too. Off the top of my head, parliamentary staff need security clearance and back in the day - I believe - organisations such as the BBC had vetting done by MI-5 as well. There has to be a lot more. |
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 20, 2018 13:11:37 GMT
17th January 1952
Saw Don today for lunch, poor chap looks broken. Kim had apparently been a bit of a shit to him about getting caught, however it seems that Guy has tried to go easy on him. Guy as ever manages come up smelling of roses, word is his "good friend" Liddell is going to give him a promotion. That won't help Don for the moment. Have suggested he takes a holiday somewhere, seems the lack of work is taking it's toll. Have loaned him £100 and suggested he tries the South Of France for a bit to lay low. I don't expect to see the money again, but it came from Otto so easy come, easy go.
20 January 1952
Don came and said his good byes. Seems a friend of a friend has got him some research work of the Vichy archives near Marseilles. It's not great pay but it's for one of the American Universities so they seem less concerned about the lack of references. Things are looking up indeed.
Otto has been in touch, they seem happy MacClean is leaving the country and my role in it, they've given me an extra £50. I shall certainly have a drink on them this evening. In less happy news, Kim has been in touch, tried to tell me any contact with Don will sink them all. I don't think he know's where Guy is heading. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? We shall see. many a slip twixt cup and lip as they say.
14 February 1952
Apparently Guy has got his dream job. He is now Director for Counter Intelligence for MI-5. At least we know Burgess thinks the right way even if he doesn't swing it. This could be an opportunity to start getting the Americans out before they plunge us back into another world war. We're stuck in Korea which is bad enough but at least that has settled down a bit without that idiot MacArthur using atomic weapons. God knows what Stalin would do if they did, probably use Soviet weapons to do the same back. Its only a matter of time before we have our own bomb too. At least Clem has a head on his shoulders, the Devil alone knows what Churchill would have done if we'd had them with him in power.
-- From the Diaries of Anthony Blunt
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Feb 20, 2018 13:38:57 GMT
So we now know that Atlee has stayed in Downing Street post the 50 or the 51 election.
Where is Blunt now? Back at Five or elsewhere.
I like the continued little clues. Each post I've read it once when it is posted and then gone back a second time and seen more.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 22, 2018 13:59:47 GMT
"I think after MacClean was revealed, we all felt that we would be next and some, including Burgess and Blunt began to make solid plans, especially a few of them had much more to lose than I. Since leaving SIS and Bletchley after the war I had managed to get myself a good berth in the Treasury and had rather hoped to leave all of that behind. Indeed, this seemed to be the case until I started receiving requests in about 1952-53 for analysis on the American economic impact of the Marshall Plan on Yugoslavia and whether it could be sustained. The source of the request took a while to unravel, however it was pretty obvious where it had come from once I found that Kim had sent it, especially given that Yugoslavia, like the rest of their, by then former, Warsaw Pact allies refused aid under the actual Marshall plan, but had only asked for it after their 1950 ideological split with the USSR. However, it had an official seal on it so that was no problem. This is something that would happen more and more often, certainly as Burgess and Philby rose in their relative positions. As the information was also destined for the Prime Minister's office, I did seriously wonder at that point if the Soviet penetration had reached the very top already. It was only afterwards, in the middle 1980's that I found how high up the penetration had gone and how far the taint had spread".
[Interviewer]"At what point did you start to feel safe sending this information"?
"I think once Guy Burgess had been confirmed by the Commons Intelligence and Espionage Committee. And it wasn't long after that that Philby was promoted to head of Section V, the counter espionage department of SIS as well. In terms of discovery, having those two where they were must have allowed all number of people to act with impunity almost. It all came to an end eventually, as soon as I found out that Peter Wright had defected to the Americans, I began setting up my retirement. As a Senior Treasury civil servant it was expected that I would do so at some point either just before, or just after my knighthood. That I went before I turned 60 meant I missed out on that particular honour which I feel may have been a blessing in disguise considering later events. However it gave time for my memory to slip out of certain people's minds until it no longer mattered.
[Interviewer]"In 1985, the British Prime Minister named you as one of the Cambridge Five in the Houses of Parliament, did they make any attempt to have you arrested"?
"From around 1980 or so, with the arrest of Anthony Blunt, I received an invitation to attend an interview in London. I was able to stall the request as I was due to speak at a University in Norway. While there, I received a message from an old, old friend who suggested that I may wish to take an engagement in Helsinki at the Hanken School of Economics. Given the source of the warning I received, I decided to leave my affairs in Scotland on hold, and took up the post with immediate effect. SIS began by attempting to interview me in Helsinki, with an invitation to the consulate, which I politely declined. From there, there was a rather clumsy attempt to blacken my name at the school, followed by an extradition request, and a very poor attempt to blackmail me into cooperating. I must say, the School, and the Finnish Ministry of Justice were wonderful about the whole thing and even issued me a temporary Finnish diplomatic passport for my return to Scotland. By then my British passport would have expired had it not been cancelled, and our own Interior Office had not at that point been established to issue passports. I think it's their attempt to let me know they haven't forgotten me, but I receive a Christmas card each year from Vauxhall House, and i of course, send one in return".
John Cairncross interviewed for "Cold War Stories - Episode 5: Intelligence Operations" RTE & History Channel 1994
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Feb 22, 2018 17:40:53 GMT
Interesting Eastern Europe developments there: Yugoslavia taking Marshall Plan aid directly.
The spies have serious influence now we see and are doing damage.
I like the running to Finland for Cairncross. Its different from going to Moscow and being in Helsinki will give him access to the West too.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 22, 2018 18:15:18 GMT
The Yugoslavians missed out on the Marshall plan by a couple of years, so the aid they received, (OTL and ITTL), was a separate plan.
That it is referred to directly as "The Marshall Plan" ITTL is simply because Stalin cannot tell the difference, idiologically, between the two.
Stalin being where the request originally came from, obviously via the KGB who are still repeating the errors of the NKVD and MGB before them of tryin to tell Stalin what they think he wants to hear and not what he needs to hear.
I'll try and touch on those changes next.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Feb 22, 2018 19:28:27 GMT
Ah, I see. Don't tell the boss the truth for fear of the consequence of saying the wrong thing. That I can understand: I work for a tyrant. Okay, I don't get shot but there is a shoot-the-messenger policy!
Is the Marshall Plan the same though? Is there still the side assistance to countries such as Spain too?
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 22, 2018 21:20:58 GMT
The Marshall Plan was put into place before the POD so this is unchanged.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 23, 2018 10:47:46 GMT
We are saddened to annouce that Comrade Beria, who worked tirelessly to secure and protect the workers of the Soviets, and the scourge of the facists and their capitalist running dogs has died of natural causes while working in his office late last night. Comrade Beria had been awared the Hero Of The Soviet Union and order of Lenin for his heroic work during the Great Patriotic War. Comrade Stalin has ordered a period of mourning for his freind and revolutionary comrade.
- Pravda: February 16th 1947.
"Piss on the dog. He was a little shit"
- Iosef Stalin to Nikita Khrushchev, 14th February 1947.
"you know, this is almost poetic Lavrenty".
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev looked around the room. The bare metal bench, the sets of hooks hanging fron the wall and ceiling, the room itself was quiet, nothing of what happened in this room would be heard outside, and nothing outside could be heard inside. The irony of this was as crushing as the atmosphere in the room itself. Beria had no idea of the men outside coming for him. Already Khrushchev knew how Beria had been found, in the words that he would use to the boss later on "balls deep in the still warm corpse of his last victim, strangled while raping her", still now, his pants were round his ankles as he hung by the handcuffs he was a wearing from a hook in the middle of the room. Anyone walking in now probably wouldn't recognise Beria as he hung there. his face was swollen, his body by now a mess of cuts and bruises, legs and one of his arms broken. The MGB guards sent to arrest him had been... enthusiastic to get his "confession". An MGB Doctor treated any of the life thretening injuries, but did nothing to relieve the pain. They never did.
Beria's head raised slightly at the statement. Blood now fell free when he breathed, his breathing was shallow, and getting shallower. It wouldn't be long now, they both knew this.
"Just so you know, no one, and I mean, literally no one, even lifted a finger to save you. Unhook him". The last comment was directed to two of the guards with him. He was dropped to the floor with an involuntary scream escaping the remains of his mouth. It was not a human sound, it was the sound of a wounded, dying animal. The doctor went over to the crumpled mess on the floor, took a vial from his pocket and filled the syringe with the contents and injected it with little care into his former boss.
"20 years ago, a disease riddled facist gangster in America decided to kill all of his rivals on this night. He walked into a resturant and machine gunned them down on one night. Their propaganda called it 'The St Valentines Day Massacre'. That was only seven dead. Tonight will be more than seven. Not that it matters, Scientific efficiency and progress, taking the individual approach, like we are doing here, is a rarity, but it will not matter to you soon. But then you already know this". Khrushchev new that thsi grandstanding would achieve little, but it was important.
"I have a message from Comrade Stalin for you. I think he meant it figuratively, but you know the Boss..."
Khrushchev stood over Beria, undid his fly, and relieved his bladder over the bloodied mess on the floor.
He straightened himself out and stepped back.
"And this is from me". Khrushchev took out a small pistol from his coat. It had a silencer attached already. He fired six shots, the first four slowly and deliberately, left leg, right leg, left arm, right arm. He brought the pistol up. He could see Beria looking up at him, or the pistol, he couldn't tell which, and fired two shots in quick succession into the front of Beria's face.
"Get this place cleaned up and incinerate all of the waste" he ordered as he left. It was time for a drink before the new Commissar for State Security reported to Stalin that all loose ends had been tied up.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Feb 23, 2018 11:49:57 GMT
Wow. Nikita got mean. That was an unpleasant ending for Beria though a richly deserved one too.
As I was reading this, I was thinking of The Death of Stalin, picturing the characters but here.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 23, 2018 19:59:47 GMT
I've not seen it yet, but have it on pre-order. Roll on Monday.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Feb 23, 2018 20:11:23 GMT
I saw it twice at the cinema. It's brilliant.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Feb 24, 2018 10:31:50 GMT
Dan should i move tis timeline to the Alternate Timeline Writer’s Hub. For the rest, good timeline and keep it up.
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Dan
Warrant Officer
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Post by Dan on Feb 24, 2018 11:33:45 GMT
I think so. This is turning into more of a written narrative now.
Hopefully get the next part up this evening.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Feb 24, 2018 11:34:52 GMT
I think so. This is turning into more of a written narrative now. Hopefully get the next part up this evening. Has been done, keep up the updates. |
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