Queen Elizabeth II was not officially informed for almost a decade that one of her collaborators had admitted that he was a Soviet spy, files from the British secret services revealed on Tuesday.
However, the late queen did not receive such information about Blunt until nine years later, according to documents from the British secret services, MI5, which will be brought together in an exhibition in the coming months, at a date to be determined, at the National Archives in London.
When the monarch finally learned of Blunt’s decades of deceit, she took it “everything very calmly and without surprises,” according to historical records.
The decision to inform him officially came amid growing government concern that the truth would become public through the media when Blunt, who had been seriously ill with cancer, died.
The Queen had been told about the issue “in more general terms a decade earlier”, according to the official MI5 history, by Christopher Andrew.
Blunt, who had been recruited by the Soviets as a young teacher from Cambridge University, was a high-ranking MI5 officer during World War II, and passed much information to the KGB.
Records reveal that the monarch, who died in 2022 after a record seven-decade reign, “was not at all interested in Blunt and rarely saw him.”
Uncovered by Thatcher in 1979
Blunt was eventually publicly unmasked by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a parliamentary statement in 1979.
The spy died in 1983 at the age of 75. after being stripped of his knighthood.
The MI5 documents are being analyzed by the National Archives, which will host an exhibition on them in the spring, west of London, at a date to be determined. The exhibition will also include a report of the interview with Blunt when he finally confessed.
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