Today's spy is a man nicknamed the "Ace of Spies".. like the ace in a deck of cards.. the one that trumps.. and one of the most important figures on whom the character of "James Bond" was built.. This man, "Fleming", the author of "Bond", never met.. but he read his files in British intelligence.. and was utterly fascinated by him.
This man spied on more than four great powers.. he spied against the Ottoman state and extracted from it enormous secrets, which played a role in the outcome of the First World War.. he spied for and against Germany, Russia, Italy and Japan.. before and during the First World War.
He spoke 7 languages, and his features could pass for many nationalities.. and that helped him greatly in his work.. his childhood, or his upbringing, is obscure and unknown.. and there are more than 7 accounts of it, each completely different from the other.. and he himself told about 6 other different stories.. besides the first 7.. to the point that this spy's upbringing has become the subject of research and doctoral dissertations.
"Sidney Reilly".. the man in the picture.. is most likely of Russian origin.. this photo is from his German passport.. because he carried 12 passports with 12 nationalities.
"Reilly" was capable of killing and trading in weapons and contraband, and had no problem with anything.. extremely skilled in the use of firearms and marksmanship.. he had been arrested in Russia before, in the year 1892.. he was 20 years old.. because he was working with a party seeking to overthrow the regime. But the police soon released him, on the orders of the secret police, because in fact he was working as an informant for the Russian secret police at the same time.
Fearing for his life from the revolutionaries' revenge.. he decides to flee.. so he digs up a grave and obtains a fresh corpse of the same height and build as his own, dresses it in his clothes and throws it into the sea at "Odessa harbor".. and while people were pulling his body out and praying over him.. he was aboard a steamship, off to try his luck in South America.
And in Brazil, he called himself "Pedro".. and went to work in ordinary trades, paving roads and then as a gardener.. and after that as a cleaner on a steamship.. a while later he moved to another steamship as a cook's assistant, and they put him in the kitchen to wash dishes.. and there he learned to cook.. and he kept moving from one job to another, until he worked as a cook for an English military man.. Major "Charles Fothergill".. who took him along on a reconnaissance expedition into the heart of Brazil, its thickets and forests, as his personal cook.
And one night, while he was serving dinner to the Major, the villagers attacked the camp, and succeeded in storming the Major's tent and began to kill him, but "Sidney" snatched a firearm, and opened fire on the villagers and brought them down without a miss.. and saved the Major's life.. who was fascinated by him.. and granted him 1,500 pounds as a reward and an English passport under a new name.. and turned "Sidney" from "Pedro" into "Sidney Rosenblum".
He heads with the passport to Paris.. and there he spends his money quickly.. so he decides to actually go to England to look for an opportunity, and he boards the train on a cold December night in the year 1895.. and on the train.. two men of suspicious behavior catch his attention.. so he watches them.. and eavesdrops on them.. and discovers that they are from an Italian revolutionary group, about to transport a case of money to London, so he enters their compartment and slaughters them with ease, seizes the case, and returns to his own compartment, like any respectable traveler.
When the English police discovered the crime, he was already in the heart of London.. courting the Irish writer and musician "Ethel Lilian Boole".. and spending an intimate night with her that quickly developed into a long relationship.. in general, "Sidney" had relationships with approximately 54 women, and married 16 times.
With the money he opened a company selling medicines, and then the company's violations grew, so "William Melville" paid him a visit.. and he was the head of the secret police, and the first head of British intelligence afterwards.
And "Melville" agreed with "Sidney" that he would work for him as a secret informant, in exchange for turning a blind eye to all his company's violations.
From here, he began a relationship with a beautiful young woman, married to a wealthy old man, and she brought him into the house and he befriended her husband, and he began giving the sick husband medicines from his company on the grounds that they would restore his health and youth.. until the husband died in April 1898, and a report was issued by an English coroner named "Dr. T. W. Andrew".. that the husband had died of influenza.. later, after many long years.. it would become clear that in the entire records of the United Kingdom, there was no coroner by that name.
The husband was buried, leaving his wife a large fortune approaching a million pounds sterling.. and "Sidney" married her only 4 months later.. in the same year.
The wedding witnesses were senior men of the secret intelligence.. "Melville's" colleagues.. and afterwards.. "Melville" grants him a new identity and a new passport under the name "Sidney George Reilly".. so that he can begin working with him in a new job. A spy against the Russians. And indeed, in the year 1899.. he is asked to travel with his wife to Tsarist Russia.
And there. While gathering the information "Melville" had requested.. he meets the Japanese general "Akashi Motojiro".. who believed that a spy must be a materialistic, utilitarian person.. far from ideology and emotions.. so when he meets "Sidney" he offers him work as a Japanese spy.
"Reilly" agrees without giving up his role as an English agent, and supplies the Japanese with extremely important information, in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War.
And "Reilly" works as a spy for the Japanese, against the Russians.. and at the same time a spy for the Japanese against the English.. and a spy for the English against both.. without any party knowing that he was working for the account of the other.
And then "Reilly" deals the Russians a deadly blow, when he steals, with the help of a Chinese engineer.. the defensive plans of the Russian fleet and the maps of the naval mines in Manchuria, and hands them to the Japanese.
And on the basis of these maps.. the Japanese ships slip through the fog and darkness, and evade the Russian defenses and the naval mines in calm and silence.. and attack the Russian fleet by surprise and destroy it completely, to lay the first brick of their victory in the war.
And instructions reach brother "Reilly" that he should travel to Frankfurt in Germany, to steal the designs of a special new component that the Germans use in their aircraft.. so he goes and steals the entire component.. in a fantastical manner closer to "James Bond" films indeed.. and puts it in his car.. and hands it over to an English intelligence officer.. who smuggles it through the port in his own way.
And "Reilly" settles in Germany.. and sends his reports regularly to the English.. and spends his time and earns more money by trading in arms at the same time.. so he supplies the Russian revolutionaries with weapons to fight against the regime.. and the Russian government with ammunition to kill the revolutionaries rising against the regime. And after he has amassed a respectable sum.. he heads to the United States, and settles there for two full years.. during which he continues the arms trade.
And the First World War begins, and the Ottoman state becomes embroiled in it, joining the side of the Axis powers with Germany.. where "Reilly" was living during this period, sending regular reports to the English.. so the English ask him to begin his work, and gather the necessary information from the heart of the Ottoman state.
And it was inevitable that "Reilly" would travel to the Ottoman state.. and move back and forth between it and Germany.. amid suspicion and war and the intelligence men and secret police who were everywhere.. so he resorts to an extremely innovative method.
And that method we will discuss, along with the rest of the story of "Sidney Reilly", later.
And the talk remains to be continued, God willing.
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