AHC: British intelligence DOESN'T view 1933 Nazis as intelligence allies?

Stuck on the Flypaper: Frances Stonor Saunders on MI5 and the Hobsbawm File

London Review of Books, Frances Stonor Saunders, April 9, 2015.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n07/frances-stonorsaunders/stuck-on-the-flypaper


" . . . [Guy] Liddell left London on 30 March [1933], and stayed for ten days. He had been invited to meet officials of the German Political Police, Abteilung 1A, which had installed itself in the KPD headquarters, now conveniently vacant. Liddell was assisted by Frank Foley, MI6’s Berlin station chief, . . . "

" . . . Liddell and Foley were introduced to Rudolf Diels, head of Abteilung 1A, who explained urbanely that it was his intention to exterminate communism in its widest sense. . . "
From this and other sources it sounds like British intelligence had traditionally viewed communists and Bolsheviks as their main enemy. Nor was this likely to change with the Great Depression, even though a rightwing coup became equally or even more likely.

(during the darkest days of the Depression, I'd estimate about 1 out of 4 chance of some kind of military coup here in the U.S., with a rightwing coup being the more likely possibility)

So, quite a challenge given the mindset.

But please paint me a picture or two.

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Later edit:

Although the Brits welcomed the Nazis crushing the communists,

they didn’t trust the quality of information the Nazis provided them, even discounting warnings about atomic spy Klaus Fuchs.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...e-review-in-pursuit-of-the-spy-of-the-century
 
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Deleted member 94680

They end up with a far less developed picture of the MGB/MVD/KGB apparatus at the start of the Cold War. Then there’s probably a greater scramble for Abwehr/SD agents post-War (think something like Paperclip on steroids) and we end up giving succour to worse characters than we did OTL.
 
I like multiple possibilities dancing in one thread. So, I'm happy to embrace your idea as one such possibility.

1) One again, we go monomania, this time against Nazis and Nazis only
They end up with a far less developed picture of the MGB/MVD/KGB apparatus at the start of the Cold War. . .
And we end up doing even a less good job post-war at drawing distinctions between less bad Nazis and the really bad ones.

Or, . . .​

2) Cooler heads prevail. We collect solid information on potential threats from both communists and Nazis.

Or, . . .​
 

Deleted member 94680

Cooler heads prevail. We collect solid information on potential threats from both communists and Nazis.

Well I suppose that would have to be the PoD to get the desired outcome. Somehow the British intelligence apparatus sees Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany as equal threats from ‘day one’?

Ironically, the best PoD to achieve the above PoD may be a less active Soviet penetration of MI5/MI6 where the ideal cover to asset your bona fides was to persecute lesser Soviet assets or those nonconformists that Moscow wanted to be removed...
 
. . . as equal threats . . .
Now, it certainly doesn’t have to be any kind of mathematical equality. It’s just that we have serious, dedicated agents keeping track of the Soviets and serious, dedicated agents keeping track of the Nazis. Sometimes senior leadership will assign an agent to his or her primary interest, othertimes a manager might feel an agent is too intense and assign elsewhere. It’s a rather case by case basis.

And bonus points if one of the British agencies majorly and effectively also goes after organized crime!
 
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Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History
" . . . created an impression that any information about 'communists' that originated with the Gestapo was almost certainly worthless. . . . . when there was a message from the German Embassy in London with genuine information about a communist — [Klaus] Fuchs — his [Liddell's] chief, Sir Vernon Kell, ignored it. [Nov. 1934] . . . "
Simply ignored the information.

About arguably about the most important atomic spy of all.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...e-review-in-pursuit-of-the-spy-of-the-century
 
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