Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin's Plot for Global Revolution
Replete with cloak-and-dagger details, this account of British espionage against the Bolshevik government centers on agents sent to Russia by MI6 spymaster Mansfield Cummings. Including the most famous of them in spy history, Sidney Reilly, Milton traces their aliases and activities in revolutionary Russia in the years 1917–21. While their objectives—procuring political and military information about the radical regime—frame Milton’s narrative, its substance revels in the world of the undercover operative. Milton depicts them undergoing Cummings’ peculiar recruitment techniques, learning about ciphers and invisible inks, and devising cover names and disguises. Once in place, their adroit evasions of capture by the Bolshevik’s secret police propel Milton’s lively accounts. Much of the action occurs in Petrograd, Moscow, and Tashkent, in Central Asia, from where the Communists attempted to foment a revolution in India. Its detection underlies the subtitle’s claim that these spies stopped Lenin’s global revolution (in reality, he pulled back in 1921 for several reasons, including the Red Army’s defeat in Poland). Whatever the actual impact the espionage had on political events, Milton’s vivid presentation of them will entertain aficionados of intelligence. --Gilbert Taylor