The Soviets recognized that his passionate pride, intellect and charm were assets, and in 1932, he assumed the identity of Paul Hardt, a Central European intellectual, and travelled to England to control two British Foreign Office spies: John Herbert King and Ernest Holloway Oldham.
Another identity that he used in England was Mr Peters, an Austrian who had spent time in a monastery before becoming a captain in the Russian cavalry.
He was one of the controllers of the British Soviet NKVD spy ring known as the Cambridge Five: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross and Anthony Blunt.
[3][4] Maly also controlled Arthur Wynn, founder of the Oxford spy ring, who had been recruited by Edith Tudor-Hart.
While in England he was involved with fellow spy the Irishman Brian Goold-Verschoyle who delivered documents to Maly from the Foreign Office given to him by John Herbert King.
[citation needed] Any hope of returning to Europe was dashed with the defections of Ignace Reiss in July 1937 and Walter Krivitsky in October 1937.
[citation needed] Although the exact date of Maly's arrest is unknown, it was probably after May 1938 and before Orlov's own defection to North America in July 1938.
[citation needed] On September 20, 1938, a tribunal sentenced Maly to death under Article 58 (6) of the Criminal Code, and he was executed at the Kommunarka shooting ground soon afterwards.