Russian Roulette

by Giles Milton

  The story of Trotsky’s arrest is to be found in ‘Englishmen in New York: The SIS American Station, 1915–21’ by Richard B. Spence, Intelligence and National Security, vol. 19, no. 3 (2004). Another interesting article is ‘Interrupted Journey: British Intelligence and the Arrest of Leon Trotsky, April 1917’, by the same author, published in Revolutionary Russia, vol. 13, no. 1 (June 2000). I also consulted Leon Trotsky in New York City by I. D. Thatcher, Historical Research, vol. 69, no. 169 (June 1996).

  Trotsky’s interview with the New York Times was published 16 March 1917. See also Guy Gaunt’s Yield.

  George Hill, Go Spy and Dreaded Land; Hector Bywater, Strange Intelligence; Smith, Six (contains the story of Frank Stagg); Judd, Quest; Andrew, Secret Service. I also drew much information from a National Archives file of recipes for secret inks: KV3/2 Invisible Ink and Secret Writing.

  Meriel Buchanan, Ambassador’s Daughter; Pitcher, Witnesses; Pipes, The Russian Revolution; Price, Reminiscences.

  There are several good accounts of Maugham’s mission to Russia. Maugham wrote a series of articles about it and my own account is largely derived from these articles: Sunday Express, 30 September & 7 October 1962; Maugham’s trip is dealt with in some detail by Selina Hastings in Secret Lives. Also consulted were Maugham, Writer’s Notebook and Voska, Spy.

  See also Keith Neilson’s ‘ “Joy Rides”? British Intelligence and Propaganda in Russia, 1914-1917,’ published in Historical Journal, XXIV (1981) for an analysis of the early years of Cumming’s Russian bureau and Maugham’s mission.

  4: Know Thy Enemy

  Buchanan, My Mission; Pitcher, Reminiscences; Pipes, Russian Revolution; Hill, Go Spy.

  The internal organisation of Cumming’s office is covered in detail by Jeffrey, MI6. Freddie Browning’s obituary was published in The Times, 15 October 1929. Inter-departmental rivalries are dealt with in considerable detail both in Jeffrey’s MI6 and Judd’s Quest. There is also much on Macdonogh in Andrew, Secret Service.

  Lockhart; Memoirs. Lockhart’s time in Russia is dealt with in some detail by Gordon Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze. See also Hill, Go Spy; Chambers, Ransome; Brogan, Signalling. Wardrop’s account of Lockhart’s employment is in FO/371/3331.

  Extracts from Cumming’s Notes on Instruction and Recruiting of Agents are published in Jeffrey, MI6.

  The most accessible general book on the Cheka remains George Leggett’s Cheka. See also Lockhart, Memoirs.

  PART TWO: MASTERS OF DISGUISE

  5: The Man with Three Names

  Much has been written about Reilly: see Reilly, Master Spy; Cook, Ace of Spies; Bruce Lockhart, Ace of Spies; Thwaites, Velvet; Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze; Smith, Six; Service, Spies.

  Reilly was also the subject of a popular 1983 television mini-series called Reilly: Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill.

  Lockhart, Memoirs; Hill, Go Spy. Smith’s Six has information about Boyce and operations inside Russia. The account of the Congress of Soviets is derived from the eyewitnesses who were there, as well as Chambers, Double Life.

  6: A Double Life

  George Hill’s lengthy report into his undercover work in Russia, with details of safe houses and the courier system, can be found in the National Archives: FO/371/3350. See also Hill, Go Spy; Reilly, Master Spy; Cook, Ace of Spies; Bruce Lockhart, Ace of Spies; Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze; Smith, Six.

  The question of how best to deal with Russia is dealt with in considerable detail in Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze. Lockhart sets out his own position in FO/371/3337 and Memoirs. Moura’s life has been the subject of a 2005 biography by Nina Berberova entitled: Moura: The Dangerous Life of the Baroness Budberg (New York, 2005). I am grateful to one who knew Moura for background information about her life.

  The story of Ransome’s trip to Vologda occupies an entire chapter of his autobiography. It is also dealt with in some detail by Chambers’ Last Englishman, as well as by Lockhart’s Memoirs. Lockhart’s request for help for Evgenia is to be found in NA: KV2/1903. This file contains much fascinating and hitherto unknown information about Ransome. The MI5 file on Ransome has also been released into the public domain: it can be found at KV2/1904.

  There is a great deal of information on the internment of British nationals in the NA. See FO/371/3336 for a list of prisoners and more.

  7: Mission to Tashkent

  This chapter is derived from a number of sources: Bailey, Mission; Hopkirk, Setting the East Ablaze; Swinson, Bailey, and records in the India Office Collections. I found the following particularly useful: IOR/L/PS/10/722, Bailey’s report on his missions to Tashkent (2 vols.) and IOR/L/PS/10/741, a massive collection of material pertaining to Bailey’s mission.

  There is also a wealth of information in Daniel C. Waugh’s excellent monograph Etherton at Kashgar: Rhetoric and Reality in the History of the Great Game, Bactrian Press (Seattle, 2007). This is on-line at: http://faculty.washington.edu/dwaugh/ethertonatkashgar2007.pdf

  There is a fascinating account of life in Tashkent at this time in Brun, Troublous Times. Also of interest is George Macartney, ‘Bolshevism as I saw it at Tashkent’ published in the Journal of the Royal Asia Society, vol. 7, nos. 2–3 (1920).

  8: Going Underground

  George Hill’s account is in Go Spy and also in his fascinating long report to London, National Archives: FO/371/3350. See also Smith, Six.

  The so-called Lockhart plot has received extensive coverage, not just by the players themselves but also in secondary accounts. First-hand published accounts include: Lockhart, Memoirs; Hill, Go Spy; Reilly, Master Spy.

  There are several key documents in the NA. FO/371/3348 includes Lockhart’s own report; FO/371/3337 has much additional information, including many documents from the Russian point of view. See also FO/371/3336, in which Zinoviev calls the British ‘a disgusting stinking lump of filth.’

  The fullest secondary account is in Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze, although not everyone will agree with the author’s conclusions. The plot has also been the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary: Document: The Lockhart Plot (March 2011), on-line at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zlfkt

  9: Vanishing Trick

  This chapter is derived from a number of sources: Bailey, Mission; Hopkirk, Setting the East Ablaze; Swinson, Bailey, and records in the India Office Collections, notably as above, IOR/L/PS/10/722, Bailey’s own report (2 vols.) and IOR/L/PS/10/741.

  10: The Plot Thickens

  Reilly’s account of events is in Master Spy; Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze, also has details of the embassy raid. Nathalie Bucknall’s dramatic account of Captain Cromie’s death, dated 1 September 1918, is in NA: FO/371/3336. There are relevant documents in FO/371/3337, including Wardrop’s report into the incident and reports by Lockhart and Mr Kimens of the Dutch Legation. This file also contains many Russian newspaper reports, notably those from Pravda.

  The story of the aftermath of the raid – notably what happened to George Hill’s female couriers – is detailed in Cook, Ace of Spies. This includes previously unknown material from the Russian archives. Hill, Go Spy; Reilly, Master Spy, and Brook-Shepherd, Iron Maze, also have accounts of the aftermath. Important new information is to be found in Orlov, March. Lockhart, Memoirs, gives a full account of his own predicament. There is much additional information in NA: FO/371/3334 and FO/371/3337.

  11: A Deadly Game

  Paul Dukes, Red Dusk, provides details about Merrett (whom he refers to as Marsh). There is much information of interest in the NA. Mr Woodhouse’s report is in FO/71/3975. Paul Dukes’s reports are in ADM/223/637. This includes such notable intelligence successes as intercepts between Trotsky and Admiral Altavater (CX062092). See also T/161/30 for letters and memoranda.

  The internal battles fought by Cumming are detailed by Jeffrey, MI6; Judd, Quest; and Andrew, Secret Service.

  Hill, Go Spy; Smith, Six; Judd, Quest. Dukes’s story of his induction into the secret service is recounted in his two books, ST 25 and Red Dusk.

  Ransome, On
Behalf and Autobiography; Chambers, Last Englishman; Smith, Six. In particular, see the recently released intelligence files on Ransome in the NA: KV2/1903 and KV2/1904. This latter contains the MI5 files on Ransome.

  12: Toxic Threat

  Bailey’s own account is in Mission; see also Swinson, Beyond, and Hopkirk’s excellent Setting the East. Much of the information about Bailey’s mission has been gathered from original reports, letters and memos. These are scattered through the India Office collections, but the most important files are: IOR/L/PS/10/722, Bailey’s report on his missions to Tashkent (2 vols.) and IOR/L/PS/10/741. This latter is a massive collection of material about Bailey’s mission and also about Malleson’s work.

  I consulted dozens of files on British espionage activities in Central Asia. The most pertinent were the following files: IOR/L/PS/825 (Kashgar Diaries 1912–20) and IOR/L/PS/976 (Kashgar Diaries 1921–30); IOR/L/MIL/17/14/91/2 (Bolshevik activities in Central Asia 1919), IOR/L/PS/10/836 (Bolshevik Activities in Central Asia, Dec 1919–Feb 1920); IOR/L/PS/11/159 (Bolshevik Propaganda in Central Asia) IOR/L/PS/10/741 (Bolshevik Activities in Central Asia).

  There are many documents relating to Afghanistan in the above files. The most detailed published account of the Afghan offensive and the British Indian defence is written by Molesworth, Afghanistan. A copy of the treaty (and negotiations) can be found on-line: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anglo-afghan-treaty-of-1921-the-outcome-of-peace-negotiations-following-the-third-anglo-afghan-war

  PART THREE: THE PROFESSIONAL SPY

  13: Master of Disguise

  Dukes writes about his mission in ST25 and Red Morrow. A number of his intelligence reports are to be found in the NA. See ADM 223/637 and ADM 1/8563/208. See also FO/371/4375; it contains many documents from the Political Intelligence Department on the situation inside Russia. FO/608/195/7 has many reports on conditions inside Soviet Russia. FO/236/59 contains Mr Woodhouse’s report on conditions in Petrograd.

  Ransome, Autobiography; Six Weeks; Signalling; Chambers, Last Englishman. Ransome’s principal intelligence report, ‘Report on the State of Russia’, can be found in NA: FO/371/4002A. This file also contains several reports by ST 25 (Paul Dukes) on conditions inside the country. Dukes later wrote numerous reports for The Times, all of which are now indexed on The Times database. The most informative are ‘Bolshevism at Close Quarters’ (15 October 1919 – part of an eight-part series) and ‘Designs for Asia: Bolshevist Interest in the East’ (15 January 1920). This latter article quotes an important memo written by Karakhan.

  14: The Lethal M Device

  There is an excellent account of Churchill’s policy towards Soviet Russia in Gilbert, Churchill (vol. 4). This also explains internal divisions within the government. More detailed – and equally fascinating – is Antoine Capet’s ‘ “The Creeds of the Devil”: Churchill between the Two Totalitarianisms, 1917–1945.’ This sets out Churchill’s rabid anti-communist views. It is available on-line at: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-onlineon-line/725-the-creeds-of-the-devil-churchill-between-the-two-totalitarianisms-1917-1945#sdfootnote34sym

  See also Ullman’s Anglo-Soviet Relations for detailed coverage of the war in Russia.

  Hill, Go Spy and Dreaded Hour cover his mission to General Denikin. But there is also much of interest in the NA, notably FO/371/3962 and FO/371/3978 which contain Sidney Reilly’s despatches and reports about General Denikin and his advisors, sent from Sebastopol, Ekaterinodar and elsewhere.

  The story of Churchill’s deployment of chemical weapons is little known. The best scholarly article was published by the Imperial War Museum Review, 12 (1999): ‘ “The Right Medicine for the Bolshevist”: British Air-Dropped Chemical Weapons in North Russia, 1919’ by Simon Jones. But the full story of the research and development of chemical weapons in the immediate aftermath of the First World War remains to be told.

  Many of the original documents, including reports by the War Office and medical reports into the effects of the chemical gas, are to be found in NA. There are also a number of photographs contained in the NA files. I found the following most useful: WO/32/5749, ‘The Use of Gas in North Russia’; WO/33/966 European War Secret Telegrams, Series H, vol. 2, Feb–May 1919; WO/32/5184 and WO/32/5185 (Churchill and the use of chemical gas); WO/158/735; WO/142/116; WO/95/5424 and AIR/462/15/312/125 (these all contain reports about the dropping of gas); WO/106/1170 (the case of Private Leeposhkin); T/173/830 (Grantham’s evidence). See also J.B.S. Haldane, Callinicus: A Defence of Chemical Warfare (London, 1925).

  15: Agent in Danger

  The best general account of Agar’s rescue mission is in Ferguson, Operation Kronstadt.

  The material about Dukes is gathered from his published accounts, ST25 and Red Dusk, and from his intelligence reports to London, some of which are in the NA: ADM/223/637.

  Agar wrote three books about his adventurous life. The most relevant to the Paul Dukes rescue mission is Baltic Episode. There is also an account of Admiral Cowan’s service: Sound of the Guns: Being an Account of the Wars and Service of Admiral Sir Walter Cowan by Lionel Dawson (Oxford, 1949).

  The NA has several files on Agar’s mission: ADM/1/8563/208 and ADM/137/16879 (an account by Agar of his raid). The files also contain maps of the Baltic.

  16: Dirty Tricks

  Published accounts include Bailey, Mission; Hopkirk, Setting the East; Swinson, Beyond. There is also a wealth of material in the India Office Archives. See IOR/L/PS/10/722 and IOR/L/PS/10/741. Bailey’s papers are also in the IOR: see Mss EurD 658 and Mss EurD 157/178, 157/180, 157/182, 157/183, 157/232 and 157/275.

  The principal published account of Malleson’s mission is Wilfrid Malleson, ‘The British Military Mission in Turkestan, 1918–1920’ published in the Journal of the Central Asian Society, vo. 9, no. 2 (1922). There is also useful background material: ‘British Secret Missions in Turkestan’ by L.P. Morris in the Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 12, no. 2 (1977); Alexander Park’s Bolshevism in Turkestan (New York, 1957); G.L. Dmitriev, Indian Revolutionaries in Central Asia (India, 2002); The Transcaspian Episode by C.H. Ellis (London, 1963) and British Military Involvement in Transcaspia by Michael Sergeant (Camberley, 2004).

  But most of the material is unpublished and kept in the India Office Records at the British Library. I found the following the most useful: IOR/L/MIL/17/14/91/2 ‘Bolshevik Activities in Central Asia’; IOR/L/PS/10/836 ‘Bolshevik Activities in Central Asia’; IOR/L/PS/10/886, this file includes the important ‘Report of Interdepartmental Committee on Bolshevism as a menace to the British Empire’; IOR/L/PS/11/159, containing Bolshevik propaganda; IOR/L/PS/11/201 ‘Bolshevik Activities in Central Asia’; IOR/L/PS/10/741 contains lots of reports from Malleson and Etherton. The Kashgar consular diaries (IOR/L/PS/825 and IOR/L/PS/976) give Etherton’s perspective.

  See also the aforementioned on-line monograph by Waugh, Etherton at Kashgar.

  17: Army of God

  M.N. Roy’s time in Moscow and his designs on India are detailed in his autobiography, Memoirs. There is a great deal of additional information about the threat to be found in the India Office (see notes pertaining to Malleson, above) and in two books published for internal distribution by the Intelligence Bureau in Simla: Communism in India by Sir Cecil Kaye and its sequel Communism in India by Sir David Petrie. The latter is particularly useful and gives a real insight into the scale and reach of the Intelligence Bureau in Simla.

  Of interest, too, is IOR/L/PS/10/886, the aforementioned report into the threat of Bolshevism to India. This incorporates a great deal of material obtained from the Secret Intelligence Service.

  L/PJ/12/99 is one of the many files on Roy and his various aliases.

  The Baku conference is well documented. For general background, see Hopkirk, Setting the East. For documents, transcripts of speeches and background material, see Eudin and Fisher, Soviet Russia, and Degras, Communist International. H.G. Wells also wrote about the congre
ss in his Russia in the Shadows (London, 1920).

  The speeches of the congress are on-line at http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/baku/ch01.htm

  18: Winner Takes All

  Roy, Memoirs; Judd, Quest; Jeffrey, MI6; Andrew, Secret Service; Smith, Six. I also found Paul Dukes’s reports in The Times a useful source: his report published on 15 January 1920, ‘Bolshevik Interests in the East’, contains a copy of one of Karakhan’s memoranda.

  The best general discussion of the Anglo-Soviet trade talks is in Andrew, Secret Service. Andrew has written extensively (and informatively) on the subject. See ‘The British Secret Service and Anglo-Soviet Relations in the 1920s: Part 1: From the Trade Negotiations to the Zinoviev Letter’ published in The Historical Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 (1977).

  Also of great interest is ‘The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement, March 1921,’ by M.V. Glenny, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 5, no. 2 (1970); ‘Engaging the World: Soviet Diplomacy and Foreign Propaganda in the 1920s’ by Alistair Kocho-Williams, on-line at http://www.academia.edu/720588/Engaging_the_World_Soviet_Diplomacy_and_Foreign_Propaganda_in_the_1920s1 Kocho-Williams also wrote the interesting ‘Comintern Though a British Lens’, also on-line at http://www.academia.edu/720580/The_Comintern_through_a_British_lens

  Beyond the scope of this book, but worthy of further reading, is the work of the cryptologists. Andrew, Secret Service, provides an outline of their work. See also Action this Day, edited by Ralph Erskine and Michael Smith (London, 2001) and an article on the work of Brigadier John Tiltman in ‘Brigadier John Tiltman: One of Britain’s Finest Cryptologists’, published in Cryptologia, vol. 27, no. 4 (October 2003).