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CARINCROSS, JOHN (1914–1999).A British diplomat of Scots
heritage who served in the British Foreign Office, Carincross was
recruited by Guy Burgessin 1937. An ideological recruit to Stalin-
ism, Carincross despised the British establishment and embraced
Marxism–Leninism as a creed. His Soviet code names were
“Moliere” and later “Liszt,” reflecting his Soviet handlers’ respect
for his intellect. He passed thousands of pages of classified docu-
ments to his Soviet case officers over more than a decade—more
than 3,400 in 1941, according to Soviet records. Carincross pro-
vided the Kremlin with thousands of pages of decrypted German
military telegrams, classified Ultratop secret by London. He also
provided Moscow with information about British nuclear research.
According to the Soviet archives, it was Carincross’s reporting on
the British nuclear weapons program codenamed “Tube Alloy” that
initiated research into building a Soviet bomb.
Carincross was exposed in the early 1960s but avoided prosecution
by living outside the United Kingdom. In his later years he wrote his
memoirs, portraying himself as a victim of Cold Waranticommu-
nism and claiming that he was only a wartime ally of an embattled
Russia. The book—like his life—was a half-truth.CHAMBERS, JAY VIVIAN [WHITTAKER] (1901–1961).One of
the most controversial “witnesses” of the Cold War, “Whittaker”
Chambers, author, journalist, and self-confessed Soviet spy, set off
one of the most important trials in 20th-century American history.
Chambers, an ardent communist, was recruited by the OGPUin the
early 1930s and made part of an illegalcell responsible for espi-
onage. In this communist underground in Washington and New York,
Chambers met Alger Hiss, a rising public servant in Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal administration. In the late 1930s, Chambers,
after much soul searching, left the OGPU and the party and began a
new life as a journalist.
In 1939 Chambers gave a senior State Department official an
affidavit naming 13 American communists in high government po-
sitions. Chambers also confessed his treachery to a number of
American friends in the early 1940s. But no use was made of this40 •CARINCROSS, JOHN (1914–1999)06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 40