Sidney Reilly - Ace of Spies

Sidney Reilly 1874-1925(?)
"James Bond is just a piece of nonsense I dreamed up. He's not a Sidney Reilly, you know" - Ian Fleming

Mundo Nulla Fides - "Put No Faith in the World" was the crest on the letterhead on one of Sidney's many corporations. Of course, for Sidney, a corporation was nothing more than a tool in a scam. All life was a scam and a scheme for him for he saw the world for what it was: a soul-less place that served only itself. A self described "practical man", he never fell for the false god of any "ism". Pretense was pointless. The rule of the world was always the same: Money rules.

One story alleges he got his stake money by taking part in the killing of a courier carrying $50,000. Not a crime in Reilly's eyes, simply a means to an end dictated by the world. Life as a slave is pointless. Sidney saw no reason to lead a pointless life.

Freedom was his secret goal. He sought to manipulate the strings of the world to a point where he could be free of them. Before emigrating from Russia to England, he faked his own death. Aliases were second nature to him. A different role for each situation, for if you did not know who he truly was, the harder he was to control. That's how Sidney got by: knowing you better than you knew him.

"Who here is corrupt?" were the first words in Reilly's head as he entered any situation. That was the key to extracting information - and information was gold. An honest man he had no use for (unless Sidney had an honest deal). Profit lay in the corrupt: those who were bribable, self-deceived ideologues (Ahmad Chalabi used this method in Iraq), the obvious self-seekers or the just plain weak - those were Sidney's hunting grounds.

The flow of information through Sidney was enormous. His alliances with the corrupt allowed him the means to gather inside dirt. He used this knowledge to both benefit himself and his agendas, the biggest of which was freeing Russia from the Red takeover. The information and efforts on these parts he gave to the West brought him into contact with everyone from Winston Churchill to Trotsky to Henry Ford. Sidney played for all the marbles.

It was in his forties he realized he was his own captor. Exhausted from a lifetime of lies and manipulation, Sidney - as always - saw the handwriting on the wall. Although sentenced to death in absentia for his attempts to overthrow the Soviet regime, he returned to Russia. Reasons for this are unclear. His smokescreen was he was on a mission to expose the Soviet TRUST agency for what it was: a fake anti-Soviet organization designed to lure in rebels and eventually imprison them. Yet there were many signs he had no plans to return.


In 1925, The Russian state gleefully displayed Sidney's body to the world as an example of what happens to enemies of the regime. Yet had Reilly just simply brokered another deal? Faking another death to gain freedom from his past? Would the man who spoke six languages, held millions in secret funds and had no delusions on the human heart simply walk into a trap? As usual, no answer was clear.

The most famous scene in "Five Easy Pieces" is when the Nicholson character uses his superior intellect to manipulate and humiliate the contrary waitress who refuses him toast. She never saw it coming. Afterwards in the car, his companions are laughing and congratulating him on his "victory". "Yeah," he protests, "but I didn't get what I wanted." Neither did Sidney. And neither, I suspect, shall I.

(For more on Reilly check here and here)