British master spy Sidney Reilly tries to prevent Lenin from taking power over Russia in 1918. He fails but soon discovers that he was betrayed. After investigating, Reilly goes back to Russia on one final high-stakes gamble-- and disappears forever. Both SIS and KGB are completely stymied and invent "legends" to protect their interests. Private War, based on original research independent of the SIS and KGB, is the first telling of what really happened. Both Robin Lockhart, author of "Reilly: Ace of Spies" and Lev Bezymensky, the Soviet go-to man for information on Reilly, endorsed the book.
A real-life James Bond, alleged to have spied for at least four nations and executed on the direct orders of Stalin himself, Sidney Reilly left a trail of false identities that made him precisely the type of person the secret intelligence service needed as an agent. Hero, conman, master spy, womaniser - who really was the 'Ace of Spies'? In September 1925, Sidney Reilly journeyed across the Russian frontier on a mission to overthrow the existing Bolshevik regime and restore the Czar. Yet, soon after, he vanished without a trace... Just like the life he led, the circumstances surrounding his death remain shrouded in mystery and speculation. This thrilling autobiography, including entries from Reilly's own secret notes, reveals the intriguing, and often perilous, adventures and exploits of the man widely credited as being the original twentieth-century super-spy - and an inspiration for Ian Fleming's 007 thrillers. The latter half of this dual narrative is provided by Reilly's wife, Pepita, who is on her own mission: to discover the truth behind her husband's disappearance. What did happen to the master of espionage? The Dialogue Espionage Classics series began in 2010 with the purpose of bringing back classic out-of-print spy stories that should never be forgotten. From the Great War to the Cold War, from the French Resistance to the Cambridge Five, from Special Operations to Bletchley Park, this fascinating spy history series includes some of the best military, espionage and adventure stories ever told.
A revealing biography of Sidney Reilly, the early twentieth-century virtuoso of espionage "Mr. Morris's dogged research . . . lends impressive rigor to this portrait of an often-cryptic figure."--Diane Cole, Wall Street Journal Sidney Reilly (c. 1873-1925) is one of the most colorful and best-known spies of the twentieth century. Emerging from humble beginnings in southern Russia, Reilly was an inventive multilingual businessman and conman who enjoyed espionage as a sideline. By the early twentieth century he was working as an agent for Scotland Yard, spying on émigré communities in Paris and London, with occasional sorties to Germany, Russia, and the Far East. He spent World War I in the United States, brokering major arms deals for tsarist Russia, and then decided to become a professional spy, joining the ranks of MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service. He came close to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime in Moscow before eventually being lured back to Russia and executed. Said to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming's iconic James Bond character, Reilly was simultaneously married to three or four women and had mistresses galore. Sifting through the reality and the myth of Reilly's life, historian Benny Morris offers a fascinating portrait of one of the most intriguing figures from the golden age of spies.
Reilly, who, despite his name, was Russian, was supposedly shot dead by Bolshevik border guards in October 1925 as he tried to cross the Finnish border into Russia. But an MI6 report released in 2002 describes how he was, in fact, shot in the back at Stalin's insistence after days of being interrogated in the Lubyanka, the Moscow headquarters of the GPU, Stalin's secret police. Reilly, who worked for MI6 as Agent ST-1, had been sentenced to death by the Bolsheviks in absentia in 1918 for his involvement in the Lockhart Plot aimed at overthrowing the Bolshevik leaders.
A master criminal spy, a man who never made a mistake' - the living prototype of James Bond - Sidney Reilly amassed a fortune through the ruthless bartering of influence and information while employed and feared by capitalists and commissars alike. A window into the pre and post-W.W.I era's secret underworld of political and economic intrigue, this extremely readable but academically reliable biography includes many illustrations and photos, plus information that has never before been seen by Russian and British intelligence.'
Though the name Mata Hari is one of the most famous in all of espionage, she has been called the worst spy of the century, the most misunderstood and tragic espionage figure in history, and the "Spy Who Never Was." Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was a poor Dutch girl who became a European celebrity and brilliantly marketed herself as a Malaysian exotic dancer only to be accused by the French as a German espionage agent.. The name Sidney Reilly is associated with the Great War, British intelligence, and the Bolshevik uprising in 1917. He has been called the "Ace of Spies"; the facts of his life are difficult to find and shrouded in mystery largely by his own design. Newspapers and biographical works have gushed superlatives concerning his efficiency as a British agent. The names of Sidney Reilly and Mata Hari are synonymous with twentieth century espionage. Who they really were and what they did during the Great War has intrigued and mystified the public for decades. This color-illustrated essay investigates these two legendary figures along with other Great War spies. 8x10 inch tradebook, color, 38 pages.
