Editing Kim Philby (section)

==Early life==
Kim Philby was born in [[Ambala]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], [[British Raj|British India]], to author and explorer [[St John Philby]] and his wife, Dora Johnston.<ref name=NYTParanoia>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803EEDC133CF933A25754C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=6|title=Kim Philby and the Age of Paranoia|access-date=17 February 2008|author=Ron Rosenbaum|date=10 July 1994|work=The New York Times}}</ref> A member of the [[Indian Civil Service]] (ICS) at the time of Philby's birth, St John later became a civil servant in [[Mesopotamia]] and advisor to [[Ibn Saud|King Ibn Sa'ud]] of [[Saudi Arabia]].{{sfn|Page|Leitch|1968|pp=30–39}}<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB|title=Philby, Harold Adrian Russell [Kim] (1912–1988), spy|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-40699|access-date=2021-02-12|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40699|last1=Clive|first1=Nigel|isbn=978-0198614128}}</ref>

Nicknamed "Kim" after the boy-spy in [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s novel ''[[Kim (novel)|Kim]]'',<ref name=NYTParanoia/> Philby attended Aldro [[preparatory school (UK)|preparatory school]], an all-boys school located in [[Shackleford]], [[Surrey]]. In his early teens, he spent some time with the [[Bedouin]] in the [[Arabian Desert|Arabian desert]].{{sfn|Le Carré|2004|p=155}} Following in the footsteps of his father, Philby continued to [[Westminster School]], which he left in 1928 at age 16.<ref name="odnb" /> He won a scholarship to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he studied history and economics. He graduated in 1933 with a [[British undergraduate degree classification#Degree classification|2:1 degree]] in Economics.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Philby |first1=Charlotte |title=My grandfather, the Russian spy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/my-grandfather-the-russian-spy-1764026.html |access-date=21 June 2023 |agency=The Independent |publisher=Independent Digital News & Media Ltd |date=29 July 2009}}</ref>

At Cambridge, Philby exhibited a "leaning towards [[communism]]", in the words of his father, who went on to write: "The only serious question is whether Kim definitely intended to be disloyal to the government while in its service".{{sfn|Yergin|1991|p=292}} One of the first things Philby did in Cambridge was join the [[Cambridge University Socialist Society]], attending their meetings but taking little part in their proceedings. However, following the [[Labour Party (United Kingdom)|Labour Party]]'s defeat in the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]], he took a more active role in the society and served as its treasurer in 1932 and 1933.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Philby |first1=Kim |title=My Silent War |date=1968 |publisher=Grove Press |pages=xvii-iii}}</ref>

Upon Philby's graduation, [[Maurice Dobb]], a tutor in economics at Trinity, introduced him to the World Federation for the Relief of the Victims of German Fascism, an organization based in [[Paris]], which attempted to aid victims of [[Nazi Germany]] and provide education on oppositions to [[fascism]]. The organization was one of several [[front organization|fronts]] operated by German communist [[Willi Münzenberg]], a member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] who had fled to [[French Third Republic|France]] in 1933.{{sfn|Koch|2004}}{{page needed|date=June 2020}}