The Cambridge Five
A Captivating Guide to the Russian Spies in Britain Who Passed Information to the Soviet Union During World War II
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The Cambridge Five
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Narrated by:
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Colin Fluxman
About this listen
If you want to discover the captivating history of the Cambridge Five, then pay attention....
During the poverty-stricken years of the Great Depression, when Britain’s financial markets plummeted and the poor and wealthy alike doubted the economic systems in which they participated, the potential of one political ideal shone like no other: Communism. Young intellectuals from the country’s very best schools discussed the premise of labor-value versus wealth-value, and a great many of them became card-carrying members of the Communist Party in Britain.
It was exactly the kind of hunting ground the Soviet Union needed to recruit high-level agents to their cause. Over the course of the early 1930s, five students of Cambridge University were handpicked by Soviet agents and instructed to use their status as educated members of the British elite to serve the U.S.S.R.
Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and John Cairncross accepted the offer and in doing so changed the course of WWII and the Cold War. Their actions were not discovered until the 1950s, long after the war was finished and the damage - or achievements, depending which side you were on - had already been done.
In this audiobook, you will discover topics such as:
- The undeniable attraction of Marxism
- Students of prestige
- Anthony blunt: teacher, lover, recruiter
- Burgess: a mole within the BBC
- Maclean and the Spanish Civil War
- World War II: espionage between Allies
- Enigma, Bombe, and Colossus
- Espionage and the battle of Kursk
- Project Venona
- Allied insurgents in Albania
- The downfall of the Cambridge Five
- And much, much more!
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 183
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 182
Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart, is an audiobook examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners, and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II. Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. The less-popular truth behind this warm nostalgia: Until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was deeply, dangerously divided.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Information
- By Laura on 05-09-19
By: Bradley W. Hart
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The Sword and the Shield
- By: Christopher Andrew, Vasilli Mitrokhin
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 537
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 451
This book reveals the most complete picture ever of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an extremely top secret archive which details the full extent of its worldwide network. Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the history department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other United States universities, and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book on the history of the KGB
- By Clydene on 05-28-12
By: Christopher Andrew, and others
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Wise Gals
- The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage
- By: Nathalia Holt
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 144
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 145
In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing untold history
- By Andrea Guzman on 12-15-22
By: Nathalia Holt
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Stalin
- New Biography of a Dictator
- By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Nora Seligman Favorov - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 331
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 296
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 295
This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin, the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it, but wouldn't want to live it
- By Neil on 01-12-20
By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, and others
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Iron Curtain
- The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 26 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 629
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 541
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 537
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important story, imperfectly executed
- By jackifus on 12-08-12
By: Anne Applebaum
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After Fidel
- The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader
- By: Brian Latell
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 117
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
In this compelling, behind-the-scenes account, former top CIA officer and Cuba expert Brian Latell examines the extraordinary Castro brothers and the impending dynastic succession of Fidel's younger brother, Raul. Exploring the brothers' remarkable relationship, he reveals how Fidel and Raul have collaborated, divided responsibilities, and resolved disagreements for more than 46 years, a challenge to the notion that the little-known Raul has been an insignificant player.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Informative Read
- By BH FL on 04-09-08
By: Brian Latell
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Stalin, Volume I
- Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 874
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 740
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 739
Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware
- By Nostromo on 03-23-15
By: Stephen Kotkin
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The Brothers
- John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,802
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,596
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,591
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
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4 out of 5 stars
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A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
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A Covert Action
- Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland
- By: Seth G. Jones
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
In this gripping narrative history, Seth G. Jones reveals the CIA's involvement in a landmark victory for democracy during the Cold War. In 1983, while Soviet- backed Polish prime minister Wojciech Jaruzelski worked to crush a budding opposition movement through martial law, the CIA launched a sophisticated intelligence campaign supporting dissident groups. With President Ronald Reagan's support, American funds bankrolled clandestine newspapers, broadcasting, and information warfare. This initiative, code-named QRHELPFUL, proved vital in establishing a free and democratic Poland.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A passionate true story
- By Chris Cembrzynski on 02-15-19
By: Seth G. Jones
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The Angel
- The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel
- By: Uri Bar-Joseph
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country's government. But he himself had a secret: he was a spy for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Under the codename "The Angel", Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Buena biografía
- By Rony M on 07-05-20
By: Uri Bar-Joseph
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The Secret War
- Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 30 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 386
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 342
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 337
Spies, codes, and guerrillas played unprecedentedly critical roles in the Second World War, exploited by every nation in the struggle to gain secret knowledge of its foes, and to sow havoc behind the fronts. In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and some extraordinary sagas of intelligence and resistance, to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Better read than listened to
- By B. In -t Veld on 03-25-17
By: Max Hastings
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The Secret World
- A History of Intelligence
- By: Christopher Andrew
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 37 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 88
The history of espionage is far older than any of today's intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. In this audiobook, distinguished historian Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia - and shows its relevance today.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting history but biased
- By Thor Olson on 10-09-18
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Radicalized
- New Jihadists and the Threat to the West
- By: Peter R. Neumann, Alexander Starritt - translator
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
The 2015 Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks heralded the beginning of a new wave of terrorism - one rooted in the ongoing conflict in Syria and Iraq that shows the possibility of foreign attackers working with citizens of the country. As ISIS seeks to expand its reach in the Middle East, its territory serves as a training and operations base for a new generation of jihadis.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Drink every time he says “milieu”
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-21
By: Peter R. Neumann, and others
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Hitler's Hangman
- The Life of Heydrich
- By: Robert Gerwarth
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 423
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 369
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 365
Reinhard Heydrich is widely recognized as one of the great iconic villains of the 20th century, an appalling figure even within the context of the Nazi leadership. Chief of the Nazi Criminal Police, the SS Security Service, and the Gestapo, ruthless overlord of Nazi-occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and leading planner of the "Final Solution," Heydrich played a central role in Hitler's Germany.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A different perspective on the Third Reich
- By Robyn on 11-18-16
By: Robert Gerwarth
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The New Nobility
- The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB
- By: Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogin
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4 out of 5 stars 59
While Vladimir Putin has been president and prime minister of Russia, the Kremlin has deployed the security services to intimidate the political opposition, reassert the power of the state, and carry out assassinations overseas. At the same time, its agents and spies were put beyond public accountability and blessed with the prestige, benefits, and legitimacy lost since the Soviet collapse.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A little difficult to follow
- By Jairus on 12-10-10
By: Andrei Soldatov, and others
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The Venona Secrets
- Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors
- By: Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel
- Narrated by: Jim McCance
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
The Venona Files are several intercepted communiques between the Soviet Union and American Communists following WWII. Some historians and journalists are starting to regard the Cold-War-era American Communist Party as nothing more than a quaint club of polite if misguided ideologues. In The Venona Secrets, Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel intend to create a new impression of treacherous Americans "who willfully gave their primary allegiance to a foreign power, the USSR."
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Stalin Burreau in America
- By Doug on 07-09-13
By: Herbert Romerstein, and others
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Army of Evil
- A History of the SS
- By: Adrian Weale
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
In Nazi Germany, they were called the Schutzstaffel. The world would know them as the dreaded SS - the most loyal and ruthless enforcers of the Third Reich...It began as a small squad of political thugs. Yet by the end of 1935, the SS had taken control of all police and internal security duties in Germany - ranging from local village "gendarmes" all they way up to the secret political police and the Gestapo.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Got lost in the details.
- By Alan on 11-28-12
By: Adrian Weale