Few people know that Sidney Reilly is the prototype for the 007 agent character in the famous series of the same name.
One of the first feats of the All-Russian Special Committee against Counter-Revolutionaries (CHECA) was to smash the plot to link foreign intelligence with a reactionary organization inside the country to overthrow the Soviet government. – young writing. Sidney Reilly was a spy for the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), the predecessor of the Mi-6, was captured by CHECA and later sentenced to death.
Sidney Reilly. (Image: Wikipedia)
Reilly’s real name is Slomo Rosenblum, born in Ukraine. He is described by contemporary researchers as a skillful person who knows how to gain the trust of others, likes beautiful women and is a murderer, not a hero like in the movie. Reilly’s involvement with Russia is mainly reflected in the Savinkov case – a famous spy mission carried out under the direct direction of CHECA FE President Dzherzhinsky.
In the summer of 1918, Britain sent its army to coordinate with the military forces of 13 other countries to conduct an armed intervention to destroy the world’s first agrarian state. They sent agent Bruce Loccart to Moscow under the cover of diplomacy, ostensibly for “unofficial contact” with the Bolsheviks, but in reality to seek riots from within Russia to coordinate with the Bolsheviks. intervention forces from outside.
Sidney Reilly is Loccart’s undercover agent. Reilly made contact with B. Savinkov, a leader of the left-wing Social-Democratic party. The two men plotted an uprising that killed the Bolshevik leaders on the night the Allies landed in Russia.
FE Dzherzhinsky sent two CHECA officers posing as disgruntled Red Army officers to infiltrate Savinkov’s ranks and claim responsibility for the assassination of Lenin and Trotsky (at this time Trotsky was the People’s Commissar (Minister) of Defense and Chairman of the Military Council. the).
The plot of Loccart – Savinkov thus went bankrupt in the egg. Loccart was arrested and deported; Savinkov was arrested, taken to court and sentenced to death. Reilly escaped to the UK only half an hour before CHECA security officers arrived. However, in 1925, he was lured to the Soviet Union by CHECA, where he was arrested and executed.
Details of Reilly’s death were not made public until recently. During his lifetime, Soviet Intelligence Colonel Boris Godz, who participated in the Reilly “bait” operation, said: The leadership of CHECA (which at the time changed its name to the General Political Department – OGPU) was for the creation of the pseudo-TEST organization to attract elements opposed to the Soviet government.
Despite being warned in advance about the danger lurking in Russia, Reilly still turned around, burrowed himself into the trap set up in Moscow, was captured and destroyed.
In the recently published book “Sidney Reilly in the British Secret Service” by Andrew Cook, Colonel B.Godz is described as the man who carried out the operation to trap Reilly and witnessed the death of the spy prototype for 007. . According to Colonel Godz, it was Stalin who directly ordered Reilly’s death. Colonel Godz’s three teammates, Ibrahim Abisalov, Grigory Feduleev and Grigory Suroezkin were the ones who directly executed the death sentence with Reilly in a forest.
Reilly’s body was then transferred to the OGPU for medical examination and photography. Until 1937, Godz still kept the pistol that had shot Reilly, given to him by his friend Abisalov. Unfortunately, due to the ups and downs of the times, the Colonel was unable to keep that gun.
The author Andrew Cook gave his conclusion about the character who was later chosen as the prototype for the famous 007 agent: “The humorous paradox is that the one who knows how to win the trust of others has become a victim. of that ability itself” .