On September 27, 1925, in Moscow, officers of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) detained one of the most famous British intelligence officers, the "king of espionage" - Sidney George Reilly. It is believed that it was he who became the prototype of James Bond's super spy from Ian Fleming's novels. On November 5, 1925, he was shot on the verdict of the Revolutionary Tribunal, passed in absentia in 1918. Before his death, he confessed about subversive activities against the USSR, gave out information he knew about the agent network of British and American intelligence services.
Significant books and articles have been written abroad and in Russia about the life of Sydney Reilly and the special operations associated with him and his colleagues, and several films have been made. However, this is still a man of mystery. Apparently, we will never learn much of his life. His activities and their motives are still of great geopolitical importance - Reilly was at the forefront of the struggle of the Western world against Russian civilization. Even the exact place and time of his birth is unknown, there are only assumptions. According to the generally accepted version, Reilly was born under the name Georgy Rosenblum in Odessa, March 24, 1874. According to another version, Reilly was born on March 24, 1873 under the name Shlomo (Solomon) Rosenblum in the Kherson province. According to Reilly, he took part in the youth revolutionary movement and was arrested. After his release, Reilly left for South America, lived in France and England. Having changed a number of specialties, he enlisted in British intelligence at the end of the 19th century. In 1897-1898. Reilly worked at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg, worked in the foreign organization of revolutionaries, the Society of Friends of Free Russia. Provided assistance to the Japanese - England was an ally of the Japanese Empire, supporting Tokyo against St. Petersburg. He worked against Russia in 1905-1914.
He had several masks - an antique dealer, a collector, a businessman, an assistant to the British naval attaché, etc. His passion was women, with the help of them he solved two problems at once - getting money and information. So, in London, at the very beginning of his espionage career, he had an affair with the writer Ethel Voynich (author of the novel The Gadfly). Life on a grand scale required funds, and he married Margaret Thomas, whose elderly husband had suddenly died before that (there is a version that the potential groom helped him leave the earthly world). At the wedding, the groom was recorded as Sigmund Georgievich Rosenblum, and then became Sydney George Reilly. At the beginning of the 20th century, the newlyweds lived in Persia, then left for China. They settled in Port Arthur - in 1903, Reilly, under the guise of a timber merchant, came into the trust of the Russian command, obtained a plan for fortifying the fortress and sold it to the Japanese. Soon, Margaret and Reilly parted ways - revelry, numerous betrayals and connections with other women, put an end to their union.
Reilly's other passion and cover was aviation. He became a member of the St. Petersburg Flight Club and was one of the organizers of the flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In Great Britain, Sydney Reilly joined the Royal Air Force as a lieutenant.
He became active in Russia after the October coup of 1917, during the Civil War. In early 1918, Reilly was sent to Murman and Arkhangelsk as part of an allied mission. In February, as part of the allied mission of the British Colonel Boyle, he appeared in Odessa. Reilly developed a vigorous activity of organizing an agent network. He settled down well in Soviet Russia, was a regular guest in government institutions, and had patrons in the highest echelons of power. He had several friends and mistresses, among them was the CEC secretary Olga Strizhevskaya. Easily recruited Soviet employees, receiving the necessary documents, had access to the Kremlin. In Russia, he appeared in several disguises at once: antiquary Georgy Bergman, an employee of the Cheka of Sydney Relinsky, Turkish merchant Konstantin Massino, British lieutenant Sydney Reilly, etc. Reilly organized the export of Alexander Kerensky from Russia. He worked closely with the Left Social Revolutionaries - he coordinated the rebellion on July 6, 1918 in Moscow.
It should be noted that Sidney Reilly was a real Russophobe and a hater of the Soviet regime. After leaving for England, he became a consultant to Winston Churchill (who also hated Russia and was one of the organizers of the intervention) on the Russian problem and headed the organization of the struggle against Soviet power. Reilly wrote that the Bolsheviks are a cancerous tumor that affects the foundations of civilization, "the archenemies of the human race," and even the "forces of the Antichrist." “At any cost, this abomination that originated in Russia must be eliminated … There is only one enemy. Humanity must unite against this midnight horror. " Thus, the idea that the Northern Empire is "Mordor" and the Russians are "Orcs" was born back then.
In 1918, Reilly was solving the problem of organizing a coup d'etat in Soviet Russia. The conspiracy was organized in 1918 by diplomatic representatives and special services of Great Britain, France and the United States - it was called the "conspiracy of three ambassadors" or "The Lockhart affair" (the head of the conspiracy in Russia is considered the head of the special British mission, Robert Lockhart). The elimination of Vladimir Lenin was considered permissible, and the main military agent of the British government in Soviet Russia, George Hill, and the head of the MI6 station in Moscow, E. Boyes, were to take part in the implementation of the assassination attempt.
The striking force of the coup in Soviet Russia was to be soldiers from the division of Latvian riflemen who guarded the Kremlin. They, of course, not free of charge, had to carry out a violent change of power in Russia. Reilly gave one of the commanders of the Latvian riflemen Eduard Petrovich Berzin 1, 2 million rubles (in total they promised 5-6 million rubles), for comparison - V. Lenin's salary was then 500 rubles a month. It was envisaged that during the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets (it was held on July 4-10, 1918 in Moscow), which was held in the hall of the Bolshoi Theater, British agents would eliminate the Bolshevik leaders. However, the idea failed. Berzin immediately handed over the money and all the information to the Latvian division commissar Peterson, and the latter to Sverdlov and Dzerzhinsky.
True, it was possible to organize the assassination of the German ambassador Wilhelm Mirbach by the Socialist-Revolutionary Yakov Blumkin, the uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries and the attempt on Lenin's life on August 30, 1918. These events were supposed to become links in one chain and lead to the fall of Soviet power (according to another version, the transfer of all power in Russia to Trotsky). But the key event did not happen - the Latvian riflemen remained loyal to the Kremlin, and Lenin survived. The British plan failed; it was not possible to arrange a new change of power in Russia with someone else's hands. On September 2, the Soviet authorities made an official statement about the disclosure of the "conspiracy of the three ambassadors." Lockhart (Lockhart) was arrested and expelled from Soviet Russia in October 1918. The British naval attaché in Russia, Francis Cromie, one of the active organizers of the coup in Russia, on August 31, 1918 put up armed resistance to the Chekists who broke into the building of the British embassy in Petrograd and was killed in a shootout. Reilly was able to hide and flee to England. At the trial in Moscow, chaired by N. V. Krylenko in late November - early December 1918 Sidney Reilly was sentenced in absentia to death "at the very first detection … within the territory of Russia."
In London, Reilly was awarded the "Military Cross" and continued to work on Russian issues. In December, he was again in Russia - in Yekaterinodar, as a member of the allied mission at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Denikin. He was sent to Russia by the British Minister of War, Winston Churchill, to help Denikin establish intelligence activities and become a link between the white general and his many Western allies in the fight against the Bolsheviks. Sydney Reilly visits Crimea, the Caucasus and Odessa. In the spring of 1919, Reilly was evacuated with the French from Odessa to Istanbul. Then he travels to London and takes part in the work of the international peace conference in Paris. The English spy worked actively in European capitals to create anti-Soviet armies and espionage and sabotage organizations. The scout established close ties with representatives of the Russian emigration, especially he "took care" of one of the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the head of the Fighting Organization of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, Freemason Boris Savinkov. With his help, during the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, an "army" was organized in Poland under the command of Stanislav Bulak-Balakhovich. In 1924, unofficial circles behind Reilly viewed Savinkov as the future dictator of Russia. After moving from Poland, Savinkov settled in Prague, where he formed a movement from the former White Guards known as the Green Guard. The Green Guards invaded the Soviet Union several times, robbed, smashed, burned down the village, destroyed workers and local officials. In this activity Boris Savinkov was actively assisted by secret police agencies of a number of European countries (including Poland).
Reilly worked as a semi-official agent for some Russian White émigré millionaires, in particular for his old acquaintance, Count Shubersky. One of the most famous projects that Sydney Reilly helped implement during this time was Torgprom - an association of White émigré entrepreneurs with their British, French and German counterparts. As a result of his financial machinations, the British agent amassed quite significant funds and was a member of the board of a number of companies associated with significant Russian enterprises. Reilly had important international contacts and had among his comrades such important persons as Winston Churchill, General Max Hoffmann and the chief of the Finnish headquarters Wallenius. German General Max Hoffmann (at one time he actually acted as commander-in-chief of the German forces on the Eastern Front) was interesting because at the Paris Peace Conference he proposed a ready-made plan for an offensive against Moscow. In the opinion of the German general, who witnessed two defeats of the Russian army (in the Russo-Japanese and the First World Wars), it turned into a “rabble”. From the point of view of Hoffmann, his idea could solve two problems. To free Europe from the "Bolshevik danger" and at the same time to save the imperial army of Germany and prevent its disbandment. The general believed that "Bolshevism is the most terrible danger that has threatened Europe for centuries …". All Hoffmann's activities were subordinated to one basic idea - order in the world can be established only after the unification of the Western powers and the destruction of Soviet Russia. For this it was necessary to create a military-political alliance of England, France and Germany. After the failure of the armed intervention in Soviet Russia, Hoffmann proposed a new plan for fighting Russia and began to spread it in Europe. His memorandum sparked a keen interest in the growing Nazi and pro-fascist circles. Among those who fervently supported or approved the new plan were such significant figures as Marshal Foch and his chief of staff Petain (both were close friends of Hoffmann), the British chief of naval intelligence, Admiral Sir Barry Domville, German politician Franz von Papen, General Baron Karl von Mannerheim, Admiral Horthy. Hoffmann's ideas later found support among a significant and influential part of the German high command. The German general planned an alliance of Germany with Poland, Italy, France and Great Britain with a view to a joint strike against Soviet Russia. The invasion coalition army was to be concentrated on the Vistula and Dvina, repeating the experience of Napoleon's "Great Army", and then with a lightning strike, under German command, crush the Bolsheviks, occupy Moscow and Leningrad. It was proposed to occupy Russia up to the Ural Mountains and thus "save the dying civilization by conquering half of the continent." True, the idea of mobilizing all of Europe under the leadership of Germany for the war with Russia was able to be realized a little later, with the help of Adolf Hitler.
The destruction of Bolshevism became the main meaning of Reilly's life, his fanatical hatred for Russia did not diminish in the least. Its main character was Napoleon, which made him an avid collector of items that were related to the Corsican. The British intelligence officer was seized by megalomania: “The Corsican artillery lieutenant put out the flames of the French revolution,” Sidney Reilly said. “Why shouldn't an agent of British intelligence, with so many favorable data, become the master of Moscow?”
The death of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in January 1924 revived Sidney Reilly's hopes. His agents reported from the USSR that the opposition inside the country had revived. Within the Communist Party itself, there were major disagreements that could lead to its split. Reilly returns to the idea of establishing a dictatorship in Russia headed by Savinkov, which will rely on various military and political elements, the kulaks. In his opinion, in Russia it was necessary to create such a regime that would be similar to the Italian one led by Mussolini. One of the main persons who joined the anti-Soviet campaign during this period was the Dutchman Henry Wilhelm August Deterding. He was the head of the Royal Dutch Shell, a British international oil company. The British "oil king" Deterding, as a representative of world capital, acted as an active fighter against Soviet Russia. With the help of Reilly, Deterding cleverly bought shares in the largest oil fields of Soviet Russia from members of the Torgprom in Europe. When, in early 1924, he failed to gain control over Soviet oil through diplomatic pressure, he proclaimed himself the "owner" of Russian oil and declared the Bolshevik regime outlawed outside of civilization. Reilly planned to start a counter-revolutionary uprising in Russia, started by the secret opposition together with Savinkov's militants. After the start of the uprising in Russia, Paris and London had to recognize the illegality of the Soviet government and recognize Savinkov as the legitimate ruler of Russia (modern "Libyan" and "Syrian" scenarios have analogies in the 20th century, Western special services are only improving the details). At the same time, external intervention was to begin: strikes by units of the White Guards from Yugoslavia and Romania, the offensive of the Polish army on Kiev, the Finnish army on Leningrad. In addition, the uprising in the Caucasus was supposed to be raised by the supporters of the Georgian Menshevik Noah Jordania. They planned to separate the Caucasus from Russia and create an "independent" Caucasian federation under the British-French protectorate. The oil fields of the Caucasus were transferred to the former owners and foreign companies. Sydney Reilly's plans were approved by the anti-Soviet leaders of the French, Polish, Finnish and Romanian General Staffs. Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini even invited the future "Russian dictator" Boris Savinkov to Rome for a special meeting. Mussolini proposed to supply Savinkov's men with Italian passports and thereby ensure the passage of agents across the Soviet border during preparations for the uprising. In addition, the Italian dictator promised to give instructions to his diplomats and the secret police to provide all-round assistance to Savinkov's organization. According to Reilly, "a grand counterrevolutionary conspiracy was nearing completion."However, the Soviet Chekists thwarted this ambitious plan. As a result of the operation "Syndicat-2" developed by the OGPU, Savinkov was lured into Soviet territory and arrested. Savinkov was sentenced to death, which was commuted to a prison term of 10 years. At the same time, the uprising in the Caucasus failed - the remnants of Noah Jordania's henchmen were surrounded and surrendered to Soviet troops.
The failure of the Caucasian uprising and the arrest of Savinkov were brutal blows in the Reilly case. However, the open trial over Savinkov turned out to be an even more severe blow for the British agent and his comrades. Boris Savinkov, to the surprise and horror of many prominent persons who were involved in this case, set out the details of the entire conspiracy. Savinkov began to play the misguided patriot of Russia, who gradually lost faith in his comrades and in their goals, understood all the evil and hopelessness of the anti-Soviet movement.
After the weakening of anti-Soviet emigration and the arrest of Savinkov, Sydney Reilly tried to organize a series of terrorist and sabotage acts on the territory of the Soviet Union, which, in his words, were supposed to "stir up the swamp, stop hibernation, destroy the legend about the invulnerability of the authorities, throw a spark …". To do this, he established contacts with the underground organization "Trust", which was created by the Chekists. A major terrorist act, in his opinion, "would have made a tremendous impression and would have stirred up all over the world hope for the imminent fall of the Bolshevik regime, and at the same time an active interest in Russian affairs." The Soviet special services, concerned about Reilly's activity, decided to lure him into Soviet territory under the pretext of discussing further actions with the leadership of the Trust. On the territory of Finland, Sydney Reilly met with the head of the "Trust" A. A. Yakushev, who was able to convince the British intelligence officer of the need to personally visit Soviet Russia. Subsequently, Yakushev recalled that in the guise of the English intelligence officer "there was some kind of arrogance and disdain for others." Reilly went to the USSR in full confidence that he would not be late and would soon return to England. Soviet chekists outplayed a hardened enemy, he did not return home.
On the night of September 25-26, 1925, the British intelligence officer was deployed through a "window" on the border near Sestroretsk and began his last journey. Together with the guide, he reached the station, took a train to Leningrad. Then he left for Moscow. On the way, Reilly expounded his views on the activities of the Trust and the future of Russia. The intelligence officer offered to finance anti-Soviet activities by stealing art and cultural values from museums and archives, and selling them abroad (Sydney Reilly also had an approximate list of what needed to be "confiscated" in the first place). He named another way to get money - to sell information about the activities of the Comintern to the British intelligence service. He named dictatorship as the form of future government. With regard to religion, Reilly believed that the Soviet government made a big mistake by not bringing the clergy closer to itself, who could have been an obedient tool in the hands of the Bolsheviks.
In Moscow, the scout talked to the "leaders" of the Trust and sent a postcard abroad, which was supposed to indicate the success of the operation. Then Sydney Reilly was arrested and placed in the OGPU Inner Prison at No. 2 on Bolshaya Lubyanka. For conspiracy purposes, he was dressed in the uniform of an employee of the OGPU. At the same time, a special operation was carried out on the Soviet-Finnish border - while crossing the border, Sydney Reilly's "double" was allegedly "mortally wounded" by Soviet border guards. By the end of November 1925, the OGPU leadership decided that Reilly had given out all the information he possessed. It was decided to implement the death sentence, which was signed back in 1918.
