Misdefending the Realm: How MI5's Incompetence Enabled Communist Subversion of Britain's Institutions During the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Percy, Antony

ISBN 10: 1908684968 / ISBN 13: 9781908684967

Published by The University of Buckingham Press, 2018

About this Item

Print on Demand pp. 380.

Seller Inventory # 371791269

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Misdefending the Realm: How MI5's Incompetence Enabled Communist Subversion of Britain's Institutions During the Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Publisher: The University of Buckingham Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908684968
• ISBN 13: 9781908684967
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This is the story of how the Soviet Union successfully infiltrated the UK government in the years leading up to WW2, and specifically when the USSR was an ally of Nazi Germany (August 1939 - June 1941). Historians have previously argued that this success was due to the existence of a Communist ‘super-mole’ within MI5, and that in the fight against Fascism, multiple indulgences towards communists were an unavoidable strategy. The reality was very different. When a key Soviet defector warned of the deep insertion of agents within the corridors of power, the Comintern were obliged by the Hitler-Stalin pact to launch an aggressive counteroffensive in 1940. Britain’s Security Service was persuaded that the threat from communist subversion was minimal. When this most damaging espionage was detected, MI5’s officers engaged in an extensive cover-up to conceal their deficiencies. Exploiting recently declassified material and a broad range of historical and biographical sources, Antony Percy here reveals how the Soviet Union caught up so swiftly with Western expertise and weaponry, and so removed a key Western advantage over its Communist adversary as the Cold War ensued.

About the Author

Antony Percy is an academic historian. This is his first book.