We see spy movies or read spy novels all the time, and the continuing success of the James
Bond films indicates that’s not going to change any time soon, but spying, much like
every other aspect of war, evolved over time, and today I’m going to talk about perhaps
the first modern spy, and definitely one of the greatest, Sidney Reilly.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about Sidney Reilly, the ace
of spies.
As you may imagine for a man of mystery, Reilly’s origins take a bit of work to puzzle out.
But, even the descriptions of his phisical features vary greatly between sources
So, we dont are even sure what he actually looked like
There’s the claim that he was born to a Russian mother of Polish descent and a Colonel
in the Russian army with ties to the Tsar’s court.
Thing, is he changed his story.
Well, he often changed his name, his history, his lifestyle, heck, for years he claimed
to be born in Ireland to an aristocratic family.
But here’s what we know about him for sure:
He was born in 1874 to a Russian mother of Polish descent.
As a young man he was arrested for espionage while he was a courier for “The Friends
of Enlightenment”, a group with Marxist ties.
He went to jail and when he was released, he learned not only of his mother’s death,
but also that he was the product of an affair between his mother and her Russian Jewish
doctor, Rosenblum.
Now, at this time in Russia there was a great deal of anti-Semitism, and Reilly, or let’s
call him by his real name Sigmund Georgievich Rosenblum, was anti-Semitic.
Discovering that his father was Jewish, a chagrined Sigmund left Russia for South America
as a stowaway on a British ship bound for Brazil.
There he worked a series of odd jobs; on plantations, road construction, as a dockworker, but he
got his big break while working as a cook for a British expedition into the wild.
He was masquerading as a Brazilian named Pedro, and saved many of the group’s lives during
an attack by a native tribe.
One of the members of the mission was a British Secret Agent, Major Charles Fothergill, who
gave Pedro 1,500 pounds in gratitude as a reward.
When Fothergill learned Sigmund’s true identity, he arranged for a passport and passage for
Sigmund to Britain, where Sigmund changed his first name to Sidney.
He would lose the Rosenblum for Reilly soon, taking his first wife’s family name.
Reilly was charming and good looking, and mingled freely with people from all backgrounds
and walks of life.
He fluently spoke Russian, English, Portuguese, German, Polish, French, a bit of Japanese,
and possibly even more languages.
From 1896 on, Reilly worked as a freelance agent for the British Secret Service.
He returned to the Russian Empire around 1904, traveling to the far east of the country where
storm clouds of war were building between Russia and Japan.
At this point, Reilly became a double agent, working for both Britain and Japan while stationed
in Russia.
Just before war broke out, Reilly was stationed in Port Arthur, where the Japanese fleet would
destroy the Russian Far East Navy.
It was Reilly who provided the Japanese intelligence that enabled them to navigate the mined harbor,
allowing Japanese torpedo boats to enter the harbor and attack the Russians at close range.
Reilly then briefly changed directions, heading to China and allegedly becoming a Buddhist
lama, but this didn’t last and he was soon back in the game, returning to Russia and
spying for the Tsar.
By any measures, Reilly was a great spy, and in St. Petersburg he totally lived the James
Bond lifestyle.
Expensive apartments, a fine art collection, and a member of the city’s most exclusive
clubs, Reilly had been drawing money from both the British and Russian governments,
and let’s not forget the Japanese.
What made Reilly so good and unique was his ability to go straight to the source and to
create his own missions and his own opportunities to exploit, knowing that in these years leading
up to the Great War, major governments having intelligence about each other would be crucial
for future military actions.
For example, Reilly got a job as a welder in one of the Krupp munitions factories in
Germany.
While there, he stole the plans of the factory- killing two guards in his getaway.
Soon after that, he got a job for a German ship building entity as its sole agent in
Russia, and using that position he got access to the blueprints and specifications for the
latest ships Germany was building prior to World War One.
Whenever recalled and questioned by the British government about accepting money from foreign
governments while working for his majesty’s secret service, he pointed out that taking
money from, for example, the Germans, was “patriotically saving the British the cost
of paying him a proper salary.”
When World War One broke out, he was working for the Russian government and even served
in the United States.
His job was to obtain American munitions and supplies for the Russian army.
By 1917, though, he was back in Europe, serving in the Royal Flying Corps, and parachuting
behind German lines.
Parachutes were a new thing then.
During this time investigating possible German counter attacks Reilly received the Military
Cross for his bravery and diligence.
He also infiltrated the German High Command, even attending meetings of the High Command
as a German Leutnant and getting first hand intelligence from on high about German military
actions being planned and undertaken.
Spying, to Reilly, was no longer the gentleman’s game it had been before, and he was hard,
cold, and practical.
And he certainly got results.
There was, for example, the D’arcy Affair, when Reilly secured Persian oil concessions
for the British by disguising himself as a priest, going about the Rothschild family’s
yacht, and convincing William D’arcy to sign over the rights to the british right under
the Rothschild’s noses.
There is some skepticism, though, whether it was actually Reilly or his chief who actually
did this, but Reilly was in the south of France at the time where this happened, so I think
it’s more than likely that it was he.
But that’s the thing; Reilly’s exploits were not just legendary, they bordered on
the extreme, and yes, reality was occasionally blurred by invention.
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, often read Reilly’s intelligence files while serving
in MI5, and they were a source of inspiration.
Reilly’s impact on the world stage was significant, and in one respect was almost incalculable.
He nearly eliminated the entire Bolshevik movement.
Yep, in April 1918, the now rabidly anti-Marxist Reilly had prepared for the mass arrest of
the entire Bolshevik leadership all at once at one of their meetings.
His plan was foiled when an unrelated assassination attempt on Lenin resulted in a crackdown on
anti-Soviet suspects, and Reilly’s plot was exposed.
Can you even imagine how different the future would have been had Reilly been able to make
his move?
No Bolshevik revolution?
Maybe no Soviet Union at all?
This was the beginning of the end for Reilly, for shortly after he became involved with
a group called “The Trust”.
Reilly believed this mystery organization was real and returned to Russia, attempted
to befriend Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the KGB, and offer his services as a double
agent.
However, Reilly was arrested and imprisoned, and it turned out “the Trust” was a trap
by Soviet agents to capture counter-revolutionaries.
In prison, Reilly kept working, making notes on cigarette papers about things like interrogation
techniques for when he escaped or was released.
But that eventuality never happened, and Reilly’s death or disappearance remained a mystery
for decades until documents released after the fall of the Soviet Union detail that he
was shot and killed attempting to escape to Finland in 1925, though his body was supposedly
never found.
We’ve talked about other larger than life figures from the war, like Lawrence of Arabia
or the Mata Hari, and Sidney Reilly certainly fits in their company.
A vastly gifted man whose exploits, both those actual and embellished, changed the world
he lived in and changed the spy game forever.
He truly was the Ace of Spies.
We'd like to thank William E. Lutz for his research for this episode.
If you'd like to see another episode about a spy, you can click right here to see
our bio special episode about the Mata Hari.
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