Focus on
Olga Gray and the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring
In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.
Series
Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Records relating to Guy Burgess...
Catalogue reference: FCO 158
What's it about?
FCO 158
This series consists of a collection of papers which focus on Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, KGB spies who evaded capture and escaped to USSR. The papers include investigations into their disappearance, including assessments of their...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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FCO 158
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Title (The name of the record)
- Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Records relating to Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (known KGB spies), and subsequent investigations and security arrangements
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Date (When the record was created)
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1935-1984
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Description (What the record is about)
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This series consists of a collection of papers which focus on Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, KGB spies who evaded capture and escaped to USSR. The papers include investigations into their disappearance, including assessments of their personalities; Melissa Maclean's subsequent flight to Moscow, gives some detail of their activities in Moscow; and the measures the Foreign Office put in place as part of a wider government process of tightening personnel security.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1968-1968
- Foreign Office, 1782-1968
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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254 files and papers
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Open unless otherwise stated
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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in 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- International
- Europe and Russia
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Accumulation dates (The dates the record was accumulated)
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1935 to 1984
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Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
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No accruals are expected after receipt of this transfer.
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
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Records selected by the FCO under TNA supervision - Para 129 Annex A of OSP13 describes records requiring permanent preservation as: Records on internal security matters will only be preserved where they demonstrate a considerable effect on UK diplomatic relations. Where FCO represented the UK position on security at international conferences or to international organisations.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C14918854/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
331,892 records
Within the department: FCO
Records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors
You are currently looking at the series: FCO 158
Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Records relating to Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (known KGB spies), and subsequent investigations and security arrangements
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