Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova (born 1 September 1932) is a Russian memoir writer. She was the last wife of Kim Philby, a KGB double agent who rose in rank through British Intelligence along with the Cambridge Five. She met Philby through George Blake. Pukhova and Philby married in 1971. She is the author of The Private Life of Kim Philby: The Moscow Years (2000). Pukhova was born in Moscow to a Russian father and a Polish mother.
Defector: Philby, who died in 1988, pictured in Russia with his fourth wife Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova
Rufina, before meeting Kim Philby, worked as a copy editor in Russia after surviving cancer. She lived through World War II as well as the Cold War. It wasn't until the end of the Cold War and Philby had defected to the Soviet Union that the two met. The couple was married in 1971. She was the final and fourth wife of Kim Philby. He was a drunkard through their early marriage, but he slowly gave up drinking to save their marriage. The couple lived in an apartment located on the sixth floor in Moscow, hence the title "Island on the Sixth Floor", another memoir written by Rufina.
The apartment was intricately hidden as to deter the press after Philby's defection. They say that living with Philby was difficult; not only was he an alcoholic, but he suffered terribly from depression, sometimes even cutting himself. Rufina helped him through it, made his life better after his defection. After Philby's controversial death in 1988, Rufina fought against the rumors of suicide and held fast that he had died of a heart condition. She quoted to Helen Womack of The Independent, "The suicide story is rubbish, to put it mildly". However, all the rumors of Philby's attempts suicide were never confirmed.
Rufina Philby wrote two memoirs about her life with Philby. One, titled "Island on the Sixth Floor" was included in "I Did it My Way", a collection of works about Kim Philby. It also included some autobiographical chapters by Philby himself titled "My Hidden War". She also wrote the memoir titled "The Private Life of Kim Philby-- The Moscow Years". Also included in this book is some unpublished chapters from Philby's autobiography, a foreword from his friend Michael Bogdanov and essays from Mikhail Lyubumiov and Hayden Peake. The book focuses mostly on the relationship between Rufina and Kim and not his work as a double agent for the KGB. The memoir is "perfect" for spy aficionados who would like a closer look to Philby's inner thoughts. Others see Rufina's 187 page memoir as unnecessary and quite boring in contrast to the rest of Kim Philby's life.