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The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia
During the spring and summer of 1918, with World War I still undecided, British, French and American agents in Russia developed a breathtakingly audacious plan. Led by Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, a dashing, cynical, urbane 30-year-old Scot, they conspired to overthrow Lenin's newly established Bolshevik regime, and to install one that would continue the war against Germany on the Eastern Front. Lockhart's confidante and chief support, with whom he engaged in a passionate love affair, was the mysterious, alluring Moura von Benkendorff, wife of a former aide-de-camp to the Tsar.
The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity - in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror.
Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest. In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war regime.
Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot was a turning point in world history, except it failed to turn. At a time when Russian meddling in British and American politics now sounds warning bells, however, may sense its reverberations and realize that it is still relevant.
The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity - in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror.
Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest. In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war regime.
Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot was a turning point in world history, except it failed to turn. At a time when Russian meddling in British and American politics now sounds warning bells, however, may sense its reverberations and realize that it is still relevant.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2020
4 people are currently reading
1207 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Schneer
13 books30 followersDr. Jonathan Schneer, who received his BA from McGill University in 1971 and his PhD from Columbia University in 1978, is the modern British historian at Georgia Tech in the School of History, Technology, and Society.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 4, 2024
Fascinating and excellent book on the 'Lockhart' plot - the attempt by a mixture of foreign and local anti-Bolsheviks to overthrow Lenin and the nascent revolutionary government - which failed spectacularly due, not least, because it was so thoroughly infiltrated by Dzerzhinsky's Cheka agents. Like all failures it was an orphan which no one, except the Soviets ever wanted to even admit existed.
The strength of the book, its meticulous mastery of archives and sources as well as an understanding that secret service documents and/or reports are as likely to be full of unverified gossip, rumour, speculation and downright lies as real secrets never mind truths, also means that it has no real startling revelations - only truths picked with difficulty from a mountain of disinformation.
This is fascinating story, rich in what-might-have-beens, but kept firmly within what actually did happen and the real story of how Lenin was nearly overthrown by such disparate characters is all the more fascinating once the legends have stripped away.
The strength of the book, its meticulous mastery of archives and sources as well as an understanding that secret service documents and/or reports are as likely to be full of unverified gossip, rumour, speculation and downright lies as real secrets never mind truths, also means that it has no real startling revelations - only truths picked with difficulty from a mountain of disinformation.
This is fascinating story, rich in what-might-have-beens, but kept firmly within what actually did happen and the real story of how Lenin was nearly overthrown by such disparate characters is all the more fascinating once the legends have stripped away.
September 13, 2021
I've been interested in the Lockhart plot ever since the happy day I picked up "Memoirs of a British Agent" at a charity book sale. Though I learnt much more from Prof Schneer, I'm sorry to say that this was a disappointment. I think I would have liked it better if it hadn't been published by Oxford University Press. I was expecting something more profound than to be told four times that Jacob Peters had "tender blue eyes," like, for example, his role in the siege of Sydney Street and his conversion from anarchism to Bolshevism. And, as for the fascinating Moura, her effusive letters fail to persuade me that she was genuinely in love with the pathetic Lockhart rather than acting out the classic "honey trap" role. Can Prof Schneer really believe that the Cheka released her to follow Lockhart back to Britain on nothing more than the say-so of Jacob Peters' tender heart?
October 10, 2023
A gripping and well-researched history of the Lockhart plot, which Schneer calls “a story of debasement on all sides.”
Schneer describes Lockhart’s initial friendship with Lenin and Trotsky and his initial support of the Bolsheviks. He covers the British government’s divisions over whether to overthrow Lenin’s regime or support it in order to bring it back into the war against Germany, and how the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk changed these calculations and led to the amateurish plot.
Schneer also describes Lockhart’s motives; in his memoirs Lockhart admits to looking out for his career, having a certain moral cowardice, and being convinced to stay in Russia by his lover. Schneer considers the Lockhart plot to have been a serious threat to Bolshevik power, given how the regime was dealing with famines, pandemics, unpopularity, unreliable military forces, Allied intervention, and the advance of the White armies. Schneer’s portrait of Lockhart, his lover (Lockhart had one despite him being newly married at the time), Dzerzhinsky, and others is pretty vivid. Lockhart comes off as reckless, comfortable with taking risks, and, of course, obsessed with women. The other British spies involved in the plot, such as Sydney Reilly, come off as similarly amateurish. They often seem more like the Hollywood version of a spy. Schneer notes that Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka were able to infiltrate the British plot in no time, and that, at each critical juncture, the Cheka outsmarted them.
There aren't too many problems. Schneer states at one point that the plot “might have succeeded,” but that seems highly unlikely. From reading the book, it doesn’t seem like it had the slightest chance of succeeding. At one point Schneer cites Allied intervention in Russia as a cause of the Red Terror, even though the Bolsheviks used mass terror early on. He also writes that it hurt Russia’s relations with western powers. However, the Bolsheviks didn’t exactly view the West as potential allies; they hoped to destroy these societies and rebuild them through revolution, perhaps not immediately, but eventually. Also, the narrative is a little disjointed as Schneer tries to balance several different narratives, such as the plot, the Bolsheviks’ rule, the chaos in Russia, the activities of British agents like Reilly, and the activities of the Cheka. Also, he sometimes imagines what people were thinking, and occasionally writes in first person. The style can be conversational at times, and he sometimes uses exclamation points.
A lively and fast-paced work.
Schneer describes Lockhart’s initial friendship with Lenin and Trotsky and his initial support of the Bolsheviks. He covers the British government’s divisions over whether to overthrow Lenin’s regime or support it in order to bring it back into the war against Germany, and how the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk changed these calculations and led to the amateurish plot.
Schneer also describes Lockhart’s motives; in his memoirs Lockhart admits to looking out for his career, having a certain moral cowardice, and being convinced to stay in Russia by his lover. Schneer considers the Lockhart plot to have been a serious threat to Bolshevik power, given how the regime was dealing with famines, pandemics, unpopularity, unreliable military forces, Allied intervention, and the advance of the White armies. Schneer’s portrait of Lockhart, his lover (Lockhart had one despite him being newly married at the time), Dzerzhinsky, and others is pretty vivid. Lockhart comes off as reckless, comfortable with taking risks, and, of course, obsessed with women. The other British spies involved in the plot, such as Sydney Reilly, come off as similarly amateurish. They often seem more like the Hollywood version of a spy. Schneer notes that Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka were able to infiltrate the British plot in no time, and that, at each critical juncture, the Cheka outsmarted them.
There aren't too many problems. Schneer states at one point that the plot “might have succeeded,” but that seems highly unlikely. From reading the book, it doesn’t seem like it had the slightest chance of succeeding. At one point Schneer cites Allied intervention in Russia as a cause of the Red Terror, even though the Bolsheviks used mass terror early on. He also writes that it hurt Russia’s relations with western powers. However, the Bolsheviks didn’t exactly view the West as potential allies; they hoped to destroy these societies and rebuild them through revolution, perhaps not immediately, but eventually. Also, the narrative is a little disjointed as Schneer tries to balance several different narratives, such as the plot, the Bolsheviks’ rule, the chaos in Russia, the activities of British agents like Reilly, and the activities of the Cheka. Also, he sometimes imagines what people were thinking, and occasionally writes in first person. The style can be conversational at times, and he sometimes uses exclamation points.
A lively and fast-paced work.
July 29, 2020
I first heard of the Lockhart Plot, as many others will have done, in the British television series from the 1980s, Reilly: Ace of Spies. That was a largely fictionalised version of the story, but to be fair the story itself reads like fiction.
Bruce Lockhart, a young and very talented British diplomat travelled to Russia in 1918 to make a deal with the Bolsheviks: stay in the world war on Britain’s side and we will help you. When that didn’t pan out, he switched sides and decided, together with a handful of his associates (including the notorious Sidney Reilly) and suitcases full of cash, to overthrow the Soviet regime.
Looking back at how it all turned out, it seems an inevitable failure and Lockhart was crazy to try it. But at the time, the idea of bribing the Latvian soldiers who were tasked with guarding the Bolshevik leaders in the Kremlin — combined with the landing of British troops in northern Russia, the attempted coup by the legendary terrorist Boris Savinkov, the anti-German uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries, and the assassination attempt on Lenin — may have seemed more plausible.
The Lockhart plot is one of the great “what ifs” of the history of the twentieth century and Jonathan Schneer has done an outstanding job telling the story (as much as it can be hold — and there is much that we do not know) well. Highly recommended.
Bruce Lockhart, a young and very talented British diplomat travelled to Russia in 1918 to make a deal with the Bolsheviks: stay in the world war on Britain’s side and we will help you. When that didn’t pan out, he switched sides and decided, together with a handful of his associates (including the notorious Sidney Reilly) and suitcases full of cash, to overthrow the Soviet regime.
Looking back at how it all turned out, it seems an inevitable failure and Lockhart was crazy to try it. But at the time, the idea of bribing the Latvian soldiers who were tasked with guarding the Bolshevik leaders in the Kremlin — combined with the landing of British troops in northern Russia, the attempted coup by the legendary terrorist Boris Savinkov, the anti-German uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries, and the assassination attempt on Lenin — may have seemed more plausible.
The Lockhart plot is one of the great “what ifs” of the history of the twentieth century and Jonathan Schneer has done an outstanding job telling the story (as much as it can be hold — and there is much that we do not know) well. Highly recommended.
January 16, 2025
While I wasn't too surprised at the revelations that were told, it was fascinating to know in detail some of MI6's plans to thwart the Bolsheviks amidst the fighting in WW1, where all of Europe's forces were preoccupied fighting each other to "stop communism". The book highlights the real first "Cold War" that began between the Soviet Union and the UK, then the top imperialist nation in the world, controlling 25% of the world's population in its territory.
The Lockhart plan is an interesting look at how MI6 operated at the time and anyone who wants to have a greater understanding of the Cheka, the Russian Revolution and British intelligence would be well served by reading this book.
I docked it a star since it is written from a pro-British author, and therefore likely biased, and thus cannot be fully trusted when it comes to the omission of the probable collaboration with MI6 and Leon Trotsky, especially when they met during Brest-Litovsk and likely made deals then.
The Lockhart plan is an interesting look at how MI6 operated at the time and anyone who wants to have a greater understanding of the Cheka, the Russian Revolution and British intelligence would be well served by reading this book.
I docked it a star since it is written from a pro-British author, and therefore likely biased, and thus cannot be fully trusted when it comes to the omission of the probable collaboration with MI6 and Leon Trotsky, especially when they met during Brest-Litovsk and likely made deals then.
November 9, 2020
The complex, incomplete story of a plot to overthrow the Bolshevik government after the revolution. I was lost at times but ended the book in tears, which I always think a good sign.
My blog on the book:
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...
My blog on the book:
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...
September 16, 2020
Sometimes confusing but so was the reality.
December 20, 2021
A well-done work sans revelations.
September 22, 2024
This is quite an interesting one. It is an espionage book, but rather than telling a narrative story, it details the history of a period of time filled with chaos, spies, uncertainty, and death. Moreover, the author confidently makes clear that many of the details of 'The Lockhart Plot' are unknown, classified or up to speculation. Therefore, this book is more a deconstruction of the historic espionage that surrounded the Russian Revolution, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews