The Enigma Spy: An Autobiography

by John Cairncross

This is the autobiography of John Cairncross, the man who gave the Russians the decrypt of the ENIGMA code, thus enabling them to win the battle of Kursk and turning the war against the Germans. It reveals why he turned to espionage, what data he passed on and how MI5 finally tracked him down.

203 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

John Cairncross (1913 – 1995) was a Scottish-born British civil servant who became an intelligence officer and spy during the Second World War. As a Soviet double agent, he passed to the Soviet Union the raw Tunny decryptions that influenced the Battle of Kursk. He was alleged to be the fifth member of the Cambridge Five. He is also notable as a translator and writer of non-fiction.

Reviews

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read where John Cairncross tries to present himself as a hero that has been besmirched by the press. Given all that is given in the book, and without much further contrary evidence, I am convinced that he is not the 5th of a 5 man ring of Cambridge spies. However, his attempt to explain himself as guiltless is rather poor. He claims that he only betrayed his country and his office and responsibilities out of want to fight the Nazis. However, at the time of his early recruitment, he didn't have much reason to believe that he would actually be in a position where he could actually have positive influence on the political situation. Furthermore, when going into such an intelligence deal, he had to be aware that things could go out of his control at any point and that he could be forced to divulge more than he might want. No doubt this is why he moved out of office eventually, but this should have been obvious from the start. He shows himself also to be extremely arrogant in thinking that he alone has the right to make the decision as to what information could be passed onto another international superpower. There was an intelligence department exactly for the reason to make such decisions collectively to not make serious mistakes. That his information was not used improperly may have been partly due to his care, but also there is no doubt an element of luck involved.

No doubt some things may not be true in this book and details may be missing from the account. However, no amount of explaining will change the fact that Cairncross was a traitor. Whether his information helped the war effort or not that fact remains unchanged.

The book was otherwise fascinating and enjoyable. A must-read for spy story lovers

[Barry Avis · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Cairncross was a member of GCHQ (then called GC&CS) dealing with secret deciphered messages from the Enigma code breakers who leaked information to Soviet Russia that helped them win the Battle of Kursk. This Cairncross openly admits in his autobiography. What other secrets he leaked will probably never be known and he seems adamant that anything else he leaked was of no importance and that the Russians probably already had it from their other spies at the time such as Burgess and Maclean. He was given immunity from prosecution for at least a few years before he was outed by others as part of the same deal that occurred with another spy, Anthony Blunt, who apparently outed Cairncross to MI5.
Caircross seems to be pretty open describing his activities, although having a very big incentive to downplay his espionage role I am not sure we can take everything he says as the full truth. He is also quite clear on his motives which were to secure victory over German expansionism and the Nazis winning the war. There are no many right minded people who would disagree with that feeling but since he led what many others would think is a fairly affluent life living and working in privileged circumstances I again cannot be sure he is telling the whole story.
The thing that annoys me the most is that he, blunt and possibly others such as the head of MI5 Hollis (who was also suspected of being the famous fifth spy) seemed to have been able to commit treason with little or no punishment simply because they knew the right people and/or moved in the right circles and the establishment did not want the embarrassment of us plebians knowing what an incompetent and untrustworthy lot the public school set were and still are. Each and every one of them should have been prosecuted immediately and to be clear I am what most would think is a far left socialist.
This is a good book to read if interested in British history if you also read other sources to get a balanced view. According to Cairncross he was a patriot doing what the government should have done and he may be right or he might be under playing his role to save face.

[Sara]

One of The Imitation Games's Cambridge Five gotta be interesting!