Reilly - Ace of Spies by Robin Bruce Lockhart
London: Futura, 1983 (first published 1967) ISBN 0708820034
I remember as a teenager being enthralled by the television series which was based on this book. In my mind it was Sam Neill's first big break, and it was a gripping series. My edition of this book is a tie-in with the series, with a picture of Neill on the cover. There is also a preface in this edition which Lockhart uses to talk a little about how the series came about.
Much has been written about Sidney Reilly both before and after this book was written, but so much of his story is still mysterious. Lockhart (whose father was a colleague of Reilly's in Moscow) is sure that he was born in Odessa, but current research is not so clear cut. The Russians thought he was Irish, which was one of the stories that he put about to create confusion. As with his birth, his death is also shrouded in mystery. That he was captured by the Russians in 1925 cannot be doubted, but what happened to him after that is unknown, as Russian sources don't agree on how and when he was killed.
So what can be gleaned about his life from this book? Lockhart, thanks to his father and his father's friends and colleagues, has much first-hand information about Reilly from people who knew him. He was a man who liked the good life, who liked women, and who was not above using people for his own devices, including the women who loved him. He was also a first-class spy, for the British cause, and then as an anti-Bolshevik operative. He spent his life, and a considerable fortune, in pursuit of a counter-revolution in Russia. He came closest in 1918 during the so-called "Lockhart Plot", but was stymied by the Russian intelligence services who had infiltrated the conspiracy. What he gained from his part in this plot was a death sentence (he was tried in absentia by the Russians), and a notoriety both within the Soviet Government and throughout Europe.
Lockhart takes us in to the world of the anti-Bolsheviks, which is so little-remembered today. He reminds us that the Russian Revolution did not finish in 1918: there was a long-running civil war and throughout Europe both sides waged a clandestine war of information and money-raising. Reilly was intimately involved in money raising and plotting. He despaired of the conflicts between the anti-Bolshevik forces: while he supported Boris Savinkoff, he knew that he wasn't the answer.
While he plotted and schemed, Reilly was also engaged in making money. He made and lost a few fortunes during his life, through marriage (he was a bigamist), and through arms sales. Most of his money was funneled back to counter-revolutionary activities, and to his high living. His fortunes rose and fell in the business world, and at the time of his disappearance he was deeply in debt after losing a court case in the USA over a debt of $500,000.
Lockhart has written an informative and exciting life - including as much of the Russian version of Reilly's end as he could find from public sources. For many years after his disappearance he was feted as the greatest spy to have existed: Ian Fleming based James Bond on the stories he'd heard about Reilly. The mystery of Reilly, and of many things that happened to him and around him, are yet to be solved, but Reilly - Ace of Spies is a great place to start.
No comments:
Post a Comment