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Stalin’s Apostles by Antonia Senior is a radical, new look at how the spies in the Cambridge Five – Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross and Anthony Blunt - contributed to the building of Stalin’s ‘Red Empire’. It explores how they allowed their obsession with Communist ideology to overshadow any sense of morality and decency as they fed Stalin with secrets over a period of 17 years .

It’s now the Cold War years and NATO is pitted against a huge Soviet bloc. The Allies organise covert operations into Albania, Ukraine and the Baltic states to support exiles working for independence from the Soviet yoke. Their tactic is now regime change. But Kim Philby has a new job that allows him to watch operations from the inside.

Written by Antonia Senior
Read by Jamie Glover
Produced and abridged by Julian Wilkinson
A Â鶹Éç Scotland Audio Production for Radio 4

Antonia Senior is a journalist, critic and podcaster. She’s a book reviewer for The Times and has worked there as deputy business editor and leader writer. Antonia co-hosts the History Book Buffs. She studied the history of intelligence and the Russian Revolution at Cambridge University, which led to a lifelong fascination with the relationship between the West and Russia, the Cold War and espionage. The author of three novels, Stalin's Apostles is her first work of non-fiction.

Jamie Glover has worked extensively in theatre, television, film and radio. Most recently he appeared in Inter Alia in the West End opposite Rosamund Pike and also took the title role in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. He’s best known as Andrew Treneman in Â鶹Éç’s Waterloo Road with additional television credits including The Crown and Holby City.

Produced by Julian Wilkinson