British security service personal files : subseries on right wing-extremists, communists and suspected communists, and Soviet and other communist front organisations

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Summary

This title comes from the Political Extremism and Radicalism digital archive series which provides access to primary sources for academic research and teaching purposes. Please be aware that users ...

This title comes from the Political Extremism and Radicalism digital archive series which provides access to primary sources for academic research and teaching purposes. Please be aware that users may find some of the content within this resource to be offensive.

The Security Service: Personal (PF Series) Files series contains selected files from the First and Second World War periods and the inter-war years on suspected spies, renegades, communist sympathisers, right-wing extremists, and other groups in which the British Security Service took an interest, including pacifist and anti-conscription groups. The records of the Security Service, better known as MI5, are grouped topically and this collection provides access to the 'Right-Wing Extremists', 'Soviet and Other Communist Front Organisations', and 'Communists and Suspected Communists, including Russian and Communist Sympathises' subseries. These series cover a period of about 50 years (1910s to 1960s) and detaili the surveillance of several notable groups (British Union of Fascists, Imperial Fascist League, and the Communist Party of Great Britain) and individuals (Oswald Mosely, Arnold Leese, George Orwell, Alan Nunn May, Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin, Sylvia Pankhurst, Doris Lessing, and Unity Mitford) who were considered a threat by the British government. The records cover a range of subjects and span the Second World War and post-war era up to the mid-1960s. Due to these being personal files on private individuals they were initially closed for an obligatory time period, but have been made available to the public in recent years.

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