bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

If Kim Philby or Guy Burgess were able to stroll today around the famous Great Court of their old Cambridge college, Trinity, they might raise an eyebrow at the scruffiness of some students, but otherwise little has changed.
It's not just the surroundings that are remarkably consistent, so is one of the job opportunities: spying.
Making a speech last week, Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, said Russia's "aggressive behaviour" posed a significant threat to the UK, adding: "It is no coincidence that all the agencies are recruiting Russian-speakers again."
This wasn't news to Russian-language students at Cambridge. About a week before Hammond delivered his speech, they received an email bearing a tasteful picture of Russian nested dolls and the cryptic heading "Ideas and intentions live in the layers of a language".
It was from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, advertising £30,000 (HK$344,000) graduate posts for speakers of Russian, people who could "enable us to make the right choices to help safeguard national security".

"My parents called me after they saw the news about the security services needing more Russian speakers to ask if I'd heard about it," said one of the recipients, a fourth-year student at Trinity - also alma mater to another member of the Cambridge Five spy ring, Anthony Blunt.
She said: "I think they're starting to get a bit worried about what I'll do when I'm finished here."
The idea that Britain's spies were once recruited via a friendly tap on the shoulder in an Oxbridge courtyard and an invitation for a quiet glass of sherry was, of course, never entirely true. Even the Cambridge spies - the fourth unmasked member, Donald Maclean, attended Trinity Hall (the fifth member has never been identified) - joined Britain's security services some time after leaving university, by which point they were already in the pay of Russia.

Top universities remain a useful place to find new entrants, not just linguists but also those with increasingly vital technology skills, or with the more varied and nebulous talents needed to be an agent in the field.
However, these days the net is cast far wider.
For a couple of days last week if you entered "Russian language" and "university" into Google's UK search engine, above the results popped a jaunty, paid-for advertisement. "Understand Russian?" it asked. "Help protect the UK."A link took you to MI5's careers website.
The Cambridge student said she knew of a handful of the 20 or so final-year Russian linguists who were contemplating the security services.
She thought it an unlikely path for her, but still asked to not be named in case she changed her mind.
Another student, in her second year, who received the same email and also asked to speak anonymously, said it was a tempting route for students facing an uncertain economic landscape and laden with significant debts for their educations.
"It's probably an attractive career for a lot of people. Everyone is so concerned about not getting a job at all, so if you're being offered something so secure, why wouldn't you think about it?"

As a modern job it is not just secure, but also a very different working environment from the often lonely, drink and cigarette-fuelled world of the 1950s traitors.
Characters such as Burgess - who spent much of his time during a posting in Washington drunk and was described in an FBI file as "louche, foul-mouthed … with a penchant for seducing hitchhikers" - would not be tolerated for long.
MI6 and MI5 declined to comment on their recruitment policies, but GCHQ , the Cheltenham-based communications and interceptions centre, said it was "always looking to recruit those with language skills relevant to the world today".
"When I started my course Russia wasn't the big enemy. It's strange how it's all changed so quickly. I didn't expect my degree to be so in demand like this," said one Cambridge student.


Russian-language speakers again in demand by British spy agencies

Students at Trinity College Cambridge are being targeted by British spy agencies. Photo: SCMP

British spy agencies such as GCHQ. Photo: EPA

Moscow's behaviour becomes a cause for concern again. Photo: AP

Donald Maclean, of Cambridge 5.

Guy Burgess spied for Russia.

Double agent Kim Philby.

From left: Donald Maclean of Cambridge 5; Guy Burgess spied for Russia; Double agent Kim Philby.

News

World

Moscow's aggressive behaviour prompts British agencies to return to recruiting Cambridge students with tempting offers - now by internet


If Kim Philby or Guy Burgess were able to stroll today around the famous Great Court of their old Cambridge college, Trinity, they might raise an eyebrow at the scruffiness of some students, but otherwise little has changed.


Russian-language speakers again in demand by British spy agencies

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Moscow's aggressive behaviour prompts British agencies to return to recruiting Cambridge students with tempting offers - now by internet

Moscow's aggressive behaviour prompts British agencies to return to recruiting Cambridge students with tempting offers - now by internet