A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma: Examining Sidney Reilly 公开

Lape, Cody Russell (2010)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/x059c746n?locale=zh
Published

Abstract

Abstract
A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma: Examining Sidney Reilly
By Cody Lape
Although Sidney Reilly (1874-1925?) was working for British Secret Intelligence Services within Imperial Russia and, after the Revolution, within the Russian Communist state, not much is known about his days in espionage before he went to the Soviet Union in 1918. In 1898 or shortly thereafter he joined the British Secret Intelligence Services, but he refused to work actively against Russia, since he was a native of the Russian Empire. The British still needed his services, and an arrangement was made between Reilly and the services. In the years leading up to the First World War he was sent to Revel, Germany, to gather intelligence on German naval developments so that the British Empire would not be surprised in the event of war breaking out. According to archival materials, his mission there was successful, but not flawless - he was able to get the blueprints for new German naval works, but due to tight time constraints he was unable to trace them. These facts are all the clear background, but to understand this figure one must understand his motives for what he did, and what he hoped to accomplish. Many personal revelations to this end came about during his account of the Lockhart Plot in the summer of 1918, but it is his association with the Trust which was to be Sidney Reilly's end, was an enigmatic organization which is to this day still not understood and likely never will be. Because of this, there are precious few resources to implement when seeking information about the Trust, and even fewer of those are reliable. However, it is still necessary to present the structure and development of the Trust still remains a great enigma. This thesis looks at the conflict of the accounts that surround his memory and offers a point of view which may unite the contradictory pieces of the puzzle.

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….1

Chapter One: The "Lockhart" Plot………………………………………………….. 7

The Lettish Rifleman Conspiracy…………………………………………….. 11

Chapter Two: The Trust Itself………………………………………………………. 32

Opperput's Confession…………………………………….………………….. 38

Chapter Three: Reilly, Savinkov, and the Trust…………………………………… 47

The Green Movement…………………………………………………………. 47

Sidney Reilly's Financial Problems…………….…………………………….. 53

Savinkov and Reilly Return to Russia…………………....……….…………… 58

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................74

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….. .79

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement
  • Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.
School
Department
Degree
Submission
Language
  • English
Research Field
关键词
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor
Committee Members
最新修改

Primary PDF

Supplemental Files