Why did the 'magnificent five' (as the KGB called them) spy for the Soviet Union and betray their own country? Professor Christopher Andrew, the secret services historian, said last night that he used to think this was a very difficult question. Why should these people - generally of greatly superior intelligence, especially 'the fifth man', Cairncross - want to work for such an evil person as Stalin?

But he has changed his view and now thinks this is quite an easy question. He thinks they were idealists and that their intelligence did little or nothing to stop them being attracted to what he called the "myth image" of the Soviet Union. He told how Malcolm Muggeridge reported in the 1930s that visitors came from the capitalist West to the Soviet Union wanting to believe that it was wonderful. They were, of course, told by the Soviet officials that it was wonderful and they were doubtless shown the best of what was there. They wanted to fall for the "myth image" and they did.

I think Peregrine Worsthorne reported something similar when he was with other journalists on a guided visit to communist China. The lack of scepticism was remarkable.

I was struck by this phrase: "the myth image". It is precisely what the welfare state has. People want to believe in the myth that the welfare state is marvellous. So they do. High intelligence is no bar to self-deception.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in General

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