In the fall of 1917, power in Russia lay in the streets. Not only the Bolsheviks and the whites took part in the dramatic game for the future of the country and Europe. A ruthless intelligence war broke out in the shadow of the Kremlin. And people were around it ... peculiar indeed.
Take, for example, Paul Dukes. He was the church organist's son who rebelled against his parents as a teenager and ran away from home with four pounds in his pocket. He wandered around the continent until he reached the lands of former Poland, where he found employment as an English teacher. He quickly got bored with the work, so he moved on - to St. Petersburg.
There he found a job at the Tsarist Mariinsky Theater as assistant to a famous conductor Albert Coates. He turned around in perfect company, because he even lived with a private tutor of the tsarist family and he happened to visit the Romanov residence. Before he became famous himself, World War I broke out.
From music - spy
Paul Dukes just looked like a flawless English gentleman ... but at the bottom he was a troubled soul (Source:Public Domain).
Then Dukes decided ... to become a communist . He took part in street demonstrations, gave passionate speeches, wanted to change the world to a new, workers' fashion.
However, he must have gotten bored with it, because he established cooperation with the British embassy in St.Petersburg. He made daily press reports for diplomats, and when he returned to London after the revolution, he decided to become a spy in the service of His Majesty.
His superiors had doubts as to whether he was suitable for this:he was nervous, gave the impression of an effeminate musician, not a real agent. He was saved by the knowledge of the old weapon.
During his discussion with Mansfield Cuming of the Secret Service Office, he quickly went down about the guns hanging on the walls, and thus went through the interview. Soon he was sent to Russia again, where he became ... the commander of a Red Army unit!
Who needs procedures?
No less surprising figure was Sidney Reilly. Robert Service, author of the book "Spies and Commissioners", wrote about him:
Reilly has told conflicting stories all his life. It is likely - but not absolutely certain - that he came from Ukraine and had Jewish roots. He was short, sallow skin and was beginning to go bald (...).
The Japanese night attack on Russia's Port Arthur, pictured here, would hardly have been possible without Sidney's information (author:Shinohara Kiyooki, public domain).
Women found him attractive, and he was keen on chasing them. His passions were also fashionable clothes, elegant hotels, good cigars and collecting Napoleonic memorabilia.
Reilly was a born manipulator, and in business - a greedy trickster . Trading partners came and went. They rarely stayed with him for a long time. Many complained about his cunning and in fact treated everyone as prey. No acquaintance of his had ever suggested that he had an excess of moral righteousness. Sidney Reilly was a compulsive cheater.
Surprisingly, just such a man found employment in the British secret service. In the spring of 1918, he was sent to Moscow. As might be expected, immediately forgot about procedures and guidelines. He acted as he felt, disregarding the risks and avoiding any contact with other British agents.
As soon as he got to the Bolshevik capital, he went straight to the Kremlin, where he stated that he was a journalist and was collecting materials for a book on the successes of the Soviet system. Not only was he treated very seriously and gained a lot of valuable information, he was also assigned his own limousine and an invitation to the celebration of May 1 at the Polytechnic Museum! Of course he went to the site:
When Reilly and his friend arrived, the room was already full. Their privileged places were separated from Trotsky only by the piano. Reilly whispered: "Now is a good time to kill Trotsky and end Bolshevism!" . But self-preservation prevailed and Reilly withdrew his hand.
Loving Spy
A similar (though not as crazy) herb was also the head of the British intelligence network in Moscow, Robert Lockhart. However, he focused his attention primarily on women. He fell in love without interruption and without memory.
Sidney Reilly. The extraordinary spy deserves even a screening of his adventures ...
In his youth, he tried to make a career as a rubber grower in Malaya however, he had to leave as a result of an affair with a local princess. He became a spy then. And in this profession, however, he couldn't help but flirt with completely unsuitable women.
He was sent back to London once, after he had entered into a scandalous affair with a married woman of the Russian aristocracy. Now he has barely returned to Moscow, and a new lover has already appeared at his side. It was graceful Maria Benckendorff. A great lady still enjoying influence in pre-revolutionary circles. And possibly a Chekist agent as well.
British spies wanted to nip the revolution in the bud ... And these soldiers fought for its survival (photo:Edward Alsworth Ross, public domain).
Lockhart and other members of the British intelligence network in Moscow led an unfettered lifestyle - admits Robert Service in "Spies and Commissioners". However, the real master of erotic games was Sidney Reilly. He got involved with several women at once, employing them simultaneously as spies and spies. He stayed with them as long as they were useful, and abandoned them when they lost their value to him.
It was these people who in 1918 plotted to overthrow Soviet power and nip the revolution in the bud. They almost made it, but that's a topic for another article…
Source:
- Robert Service, Spies and commissioners. Bolshevik Russia versus the West , Wydawnictwo Znak 2013.