Guy Burgess was a British diplomat and a member of the Cambridge Five, a group of spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Born in 1911, he studied at Cambridge University and later worked for the British government, where he used his position to share classified information with Soviet agents. In 1951, Burgess defected to the Soviet Union, along with fellow spy Donald Maclean. His actions were part of a larger espionage network that significantly impacted British intelligence and international relations. Burgess lived in Moscow until his death in 1963, remaining a controversial figure in espionage history.