Adventures of a British Master Spy
Page 25
When the Bolsheviks arrested any person all addresses found on him were followed up by arresting the addressees. However, later I met Com. Devertement in Finland, and he assured me nothing of his had been found, and produced his note-book with the address fully obliterated.
The Commandant’s theory was that it had been given away by the treachery of a Frenchman who had attended the meeting on August 22nd. This Frenchman a M. Marchand who had left a most incriminating letter addressed to President Poincare on his table (found after his arrest) giving a full description of the meeting of the 22nd August at the American Consulate, and probably giving the commandant’s address away, as prior to this absolutely no suspicion of any kind had been attached to him. I discussed the matter with the Commandant in the presence of Col. Corbeille, who, though admitting that Marchand had written a very indiscreet letter, held that it was more a foolish than a criminal one, and did not think that M. Marchand would give us away to that extent. However, M. Marchand’s letter written twelve days after his presence at the allied meeting, and three days after the Lettish plot had been printed in the papers, cannot produce a good impression on being read, and one feels that it was likely that he was responsible for E.E.’s arrest, and the raid upon Devertement’s rooms.
2) As to whether Colonel Bersin was a traitor or not, this will be dealt with by Lt Reilly, though I gather he considered him guiltless.
3) The Church. When the Lettish affair burst, the Press alleged that we had been attempting to buy the Church, and that we had made statements to that effect. Lt Reilly denied ever mentioning the Church, and considers it a pure ‘try on’ on their part, and that treachery within the ecclesiastical circle may have given the Bolsheviks the required clue.
DIFFICULTIES AND GENERAL WORK IN RUSSIA
I. COMMUNICATIONS
All ordinary and modern means of communication no longer existed in the interior of Russia. Telegraph and postal services only operated in a few instances. Trains took days instead of hours to travel, and the telephone systems of Moscow and Petrograd were not open for the general public to use. All messages had therefore to be sent by trusted messengers. Owing to the suspension of the telephone system, it was quite impossible to give warnings, or to ring up to find if the coast was clear when making visits.
II. LODGINGS AND COVER
The new system of House Committees made it almost impossible to get into any lodgings, and certainly not without reference from your old house with Soviet papers, passes, registration and employment documents (infringement of any House Rules being visited upon the offender and the Committee itself). This overcome, however, another great difficulty arose from the constant spying of the Dvornik and Servants’ League. The union of this latter, at all their meetings, were exhorting the members to spy upon their employers, and the extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution offered Rs.10,000.- to any servant who would give evidence that would impeach their employers as enemies of the ‘people’.
At one time in Russia I found it necessary to employ an English girl as a servant in order to safeguard the house.
Even if one could have found neutral cover to work under, the security would have been slight as ex-territoriality was no longer to be expected. Anyone’s house might be searched without writ or order, and all houses were constantly being pryed into on all sorts of pretexts.
In August decrees were issued that everyone had to have an approved occupation if they wished to remain within the City boundaries.
Agents who had taken fictitious jobs, or opened a shop, found themselves in the position of outlaws as the result of some new by-law, which put their industry or trade in the Black List.
For instance a druggist and antique store (combination only possible in Russia) taken by myself, received two fatal blows in one month.
1) It was declared illegal to sell any druggist’s goods without a special (prohibitive) licence, and all goods with fats in them were confiscated by the food controllers. (Soaps, etc.)
2) It was forbidden to serve antiques, and all such articles in shops were sealed and declared to be ‘National Treasure’, although no mention of recompense appeared at the end of the order.
AGENTS
The accounts will show the cost of agents to have been very high. This is explained by the very high cost of living, of transport, and high expense incurred by any man who uses sub-agents or has local bribings and expenses in connection with his work. Today it is more necessary that agents in Russia should be overpaid, than it is in any other country. To employ men who are reliable, one must pay them well, and allow them to live as they had been in the habit of living. If one resorts to employing a cheap form of agent, it is so very much more expedient for him to sell you than to work for you, that in eight cases out of ten he does so, and in the ninth case blackmails you. It is necessary in towns like Moscow and Petrograd to free agents from standing in provision queues, etc., as this occupation takes the members of the entire family out every day for some hours. The cost of flour is six hundred Rbs. per pood (36 English lbs.) in Petrograd, if bought without a ration card; and one cannot get work out of a man on one eighth of a lb of bread per day.
It should be noticed that today in Russia not a single agent will put his name to any piece of paper or receipt, so that if in future agents are to be employed by us in Russia, any hope of establishing control by the old system of voucher must be abandoned.
Russians on the whole have been so disgracefully treated, and have paid with their lives as the result of their employers’ carelessness with receipts and notes that one cannot blame them for refusing to sign papers.
I cannot point out too clearly that our agents should have sufficient funds to be always able to employ the best men, men of standing or army men with a clean record. It is fatal to deal with the smaller bourgeoisie or the junior commercial men.
MONEY
This is one of the greatest difficulties of the Russian SS and the procuring of money is extremely difficult and dangerous work. To start with trading in Valuta is illegal and punishable by death. To obtain money against drafts is almost impossible. So few wealthy people now have any money at their disposal, for despite their large credit at the bank, they are only allowed to draw a few hundred roubles a month.
Once the money has been obtained, the storing of it is the next great problem. There are no banks, even the Peoples’ Savings Bank cannot be used. No place that is practical is safe, and to us it was a constant worry and trouble.
(signed) George A. Hill. Capt.
4th Manch. Regt. & RAF.
This document is held at the National Archives, Public Record Office, file reference FO 371/3350
APPENDIX TWO
THE MURDER OF SIDNEY REILLY
LET US MENTION another sanguinary affair which recently took place in Moscow within the walls of the OGPU.
V. B. Savinkov was closely associated abroad with a certain Englishman by the name of S. Reilly who had formerly worked with them. This Reilly was acquainted with the Trust company, had faith in them and considered them to be sincere anti-Bolsheviks. With their assistance he decided to take a secret trip to Russia, not so much for the purpose of revolutionary struggle against the Bolsheviks as for the purpose of reconnaissance for his personal affairs.
The members of the Trust took him across the Finnish frontier. For several days he remained unmolested in Moscow, when he was suddenly arrested there. The Trust at once took steps for his release, knowing that the arrest of Reilly would throw suspicion on them and they may be accused of his arrest. But Stalin energetically protested, and the OGPU wished either to compel Reilly to serve them as Yakushev and Opperput had done or once and for all get rid of a person dangerous to the OGPU. Reilly would not consent to their proposals, the consequence of which was that he was several times brought out ostensibly to be shot and subsequently examination was resumed.
The Bolsheviks at first wished to conceal his arrest but the English somehow or other found i
t out, and the Bolsheviks, in order to escape the possible demands by the English of his release, murdered him when he was taken out for exercise, after first putting into practice their methods of torture. The murderer of Reilly, a member of the Tch-K, one Ibrahim, put several bullets into Reilly out of a Nagan revolver on the Vorobievo hills where Reilly was ostensibly taken out for exercise.
After that the Bolsheviks inserted a statement in the press that Reilly was trying to cross the Finnish border, when he was discovered by the frontier guard, and in the shooting which ensued he was severely wounded and ultimately died.
The history of Reilly is one of many episodes which abound in the history and actions of the Moscow OGPU.
We have pointed out of course only a few of the facts which have recently come under our notice concerning the actions of the OGPU.
The danger of provocative dealings of secret departments, which was at one time universally recognised, has paled before the danger with which Russia and the whole world is threatened by the provocative actions of the Bolshevik OGPU.
We wish to draw special attention of the emigrants to that part of provocative dealings abroad which are, at the present time, being carried out by the Bolshevik OGPU. One must not forget the fact that the Bolsheviks are first and foremost provocateurs, and in their provocative work they are capable of such deeds, as the affairs of Savinkov, Shulgin, Dolgorouki and Reilly have shown, which the former political departments were never capable of.
The OGPU is doing everything in its power to get the émigrés into their clutches and the émigrés must make their struggle with the OGPU their first duty.
From the White Russian journal Sevodnia, 11 October 1926
Copyright
First published in the USA in 1932 by Harper & Brothers
This edition published in 2014 by
Biteback Publishing Ltd
Westminster Tower
3 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7SP
Copyright © Sidney Reilly 2014
The right of Sidney and Pepita Reilly to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the publisher’s prior permission in writing.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.
ISBN 978–1–84954–833–5
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in Bulmer
Paul Dukes was sent into Russia in 1918, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, by ‘C’ (the mysterious head of the British secret service). His mission: to pull together the British spy networks operating against the new regime.
With its spies and diplomats thrown out at the start of the Red Terror, Britain’s espionage efforts were left to a British businessman with no previous experience as a spy. Dukes operated under a variety of covers, the most daring of which was as a member of the Cheka secret police. On his return, the government publicised his account of Bolshevik terror to justify a joint US–UK military attack on northern Russia. Dukes became the only British secret agent to be knighted for spying and was awarded the Victoria Cross. This thrilling account of his mission, first published in 1922, remains a true classic of espionage.
— AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS —
WWW.BITEBACKPUBLISHING.COM
Before espionage entered the era of modern technology, there was the age of George Alexander Hill: a time of swashbuckling secret agents, swordsticks and secret assignations with deadly female spies.
The daring escapades of some of the first members of Britain’s secret service are revealed in this account of perilous adventure and audacious missions in imperial and revolutionary Russia.
First published in 1932, Hill’s rip-roaring narrative recounts tales of his fellow operatives Arthur Ransome – author of Swallows and Amazons and one of the most effective British spies in Russia – and Sidney Reilly – so-called ‘Ace of Spies’ and architect of a thwar ted plot to assassinate the Bolshevik leadership. Unavailable for decades, this lost classic offers fascinating portraits of a world unfathomable to those growing up against a backdrop of WikiLeaks and cyber espionage, and of true-life characters whose exploits were so extraordinary that they have entered the realm of legend.
— AVAILABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS —
WWW.BITEBACKPUBLISHING.COM
The first part of bestselling author Michael Smith’s epic, unauthorised history of Britain’s secret intelligence service.
Six tells the complete story of the service’s birth and early years including spying on Germany, the murder of Rasputin and astonishingly daring secret missions inside Bolshevik Russia.
“Engrossing … As a rollicking chronicle of demented derring-do, Smith’s book is hard to beat. His research is prodigious and his eye for a good story impeccable, and his book, while perfectly scholarly, often reads like a real-life James Bond thriller.”
DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES
— AVAI LABLE FROM ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS —
WWW.BITEBACKPUBLISHING.COM