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Ignace Reiss (1899 – 4 September 1937) – also known as "Ignace Poretsky," "Ignatz Reiss," "Ludwig," "Ludwik", "Hans Eberhardt," "Steff Brandt," Nathan Poreckij, and "Walter Scott (an officer of the U.S. military intelligence)" – was one of the "Great Illegals" or
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
spies who worked in third party countries where they were not nationals in the late 1920s and 1930s. He was known as a nevozvrashchenec ("unreturnable"). An
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
team assassinated him on 4 September 1937 near
Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, a few weeks after he declared his defection in a letter addressed to
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
.Pg 457 - - Total pages: 511 He was a lifelong friend of
Walter Krivitsky Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
; his assassination influenced the timing and method of
Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...
' defection a few months later.


Background

Reiss was born Nathan Markovich Poreckij in 1899 in Podwołoczyska (today Pidvolochysk), then in
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
,
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(now
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
). His mother was a
Lithuanian Jew Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas o ...
but his father was not Jewish. Their father had Nathan and Nathan's elder brother educated in
Lwow Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
(now
Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...
), the provincial capital. There, he formed lifelong friendships with several other boys, all of whom would become committed
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
spies. These included Kalyniak, Willy Stahl, Berchtold Umansky ("Brun"), his brother Mikhail Umansky ("Misha," later "Ilk"), Fedia (later "Fedin"), and the young Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg). During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the friends traveled when they could to Vienna, where they gathered around Fedia and his girlfriend Krusia. The name Krusia (also "Kruzia") became a codename between these friends in later years. Reiss also visited
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, to meet, fatefully, German Socialist Gertrude Schildbach, who would later conspire in his assassination. He earned a degree from the Faculty of Law,
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...
.


Career

In 1918, Reiss returned to his hometown, where he worked for the railway. His older brother was killed during the Polish-Soviet War in 1920.


Fourth Department: "Ludwig"

In early 1919, Reiss joined the newly formed Polish Communist Party (the Communist Workers' Party of Poland or KPRP), since his hometown had become part of the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...
. The KPRP adhered closely to the policies of
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist, Marxism, Marxist philosopher and anti-war movement, anti-war activist. Succ ...
. Julian Marchlewski (a.k.a. "Karski") represented the KPRP at the 1st Congress of the Comintern in March 1919. By the summer of 1919, he had received a summons to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
,
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, where he moved quickly from work with agencies of the newly formed
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
to "Fourth Department of the General Staff" — which became the Soviet
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
. He then conducted party work in Poland. There he met Joseph Krasny-Rotstadt, a friend of both
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist, Marxism, Marxist philosopher and anti-war movement, anti-war activist. Succ ...
(already dead) and (more importantly) of fellow Pole
Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( pl, Feliks Dzierżyński ; russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Polish nobility ...
. Having fought in the
Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...
, Krasny was already directing propaganda for Eastern Europe. During this time, Reiss published a few articles as "Ludwig" in one of Krasny's publications, called ''The Civil War''. In early 1920, Reiss was in Moscow, where he met and married his wife, Elisabeth (also "Elsa"). During the Russian-Polish War in 1920, Willy Stahl and he received their first assignment, Lwow, where they distributed illegal Bolshevik literature. By 1921, as he took on the alias "Ludwig" (or "Ludwik" in his wife's memoirs), Reiss had become a Soviet spy, originally for the
GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
/
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...
, and later the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
. In 1922, he was again working in Lwow, this time with another friend of Fedia and Krusia's from Vienna, Jacob Locker. Elisabeth was in Lwow, too. Reiss was arrested and charged with espionage, which carried a maximum five-year sentence. En route to prison, Reiss escaped his train in Cracow, never to return to Poland. From 1921 to 1929, Reiss served in Western Europe, particularly
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
and Vienna. In Berlin, their house guests included
Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (russian: Карл Бернгардович Радек; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a ...
and Larissa Reisner, ex- wife of Fedor Raskolnikov (a Naval officer who chronicled the
Kronstadt rebellion The Kronstadt rebellion ( rus, Кронштадтское восстание, Kronshtadtskoye vosstaniye) was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR port city of Kronstadt. Loc ...
). In Vienna, friends included
Yuriy Kotsiubynsky Yuriy Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky ( uk, Юрій Михайлович Коцюбинський) (December 7, 1896 – March 8, 1937) was a Bolshevik politician, activist, member of the Soviet government in Ukraine, one of the co-founders of Re ...
,
Alexander Schlichter Alexander Grigorievich Schlichter (Ukrainian: Александр Григорьевич Шлихтер; 1 September, 1868 – 2 December, 1940) was a Ukrainian Bolshevik politician, Soviet statesman, political scientist and economist. Schlichter ...
, and
Angelica Balabanov , image = Brodskiy II Balabanova.jpg , birth_name = Anzhelika Isaakovna Balabanova , birth_date = August 4, 1878 , birth_place = Chernihiv, Ukraine , death_date = , death_place = Rome, Ital ...
. In Amsterdam, Reiss and his wife knew Henriette Roland-Holst,
Hildo Krop Hildebrand Lucien (Hildo) Krop (February 26, 1884, Steenwijk, Overijssel – August 20, 1970) was a prolific Dutch sculptor and furniture designer, widely known as the city sculptor of Amsterdam, where his work is well represented. Life Krop wa ...
, Princess
Juliana of the Netherlands Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. ...
, "H. C. Pieck" ( Henri Pieck), and most importantly "Henricus" or "Henryk Sneevliet" (
Henk Sneevliet Hendricus Josephus Franciscus Marie (Henk) Sneevliet, known as Henk Sneevliet or by the ''pseudonym'' "Maring" (1883 - 1942), was a Dutch Communism, Communist, who was active in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. As a functionary of t ...
). During this same period,
Richard Sorge Richard Sorge (russian: Рихард Густавович Зорге, Rikhard Gustavovich Zorge; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Azerbaijani journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during Wo ...
brought
Hede Massing Hede Tune Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" (also "Hede Eisler," "Hede Gumperz," and "Redhead") (6 January 1900 – 8 March 1981), was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United Sta ...
to Reiss for training. In 1927, he returned briefly to
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, where he received the
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...
. From 1929 to 1932, Reiss served in Moscow, where he worked in a nominal post of the Polish section of the
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
— already sidelined as "foreign" (non-Russian). Among the people whom Reiss and wife knew at that time were Richard Sorge (a.k.a. "Ika"), Sorge's superior, Alexander Borovich, Felix Gorski,
Otto Braun Otto Braun (28 January 1872 – 15 December 1955) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. From 1920 to 1932, with only two brief interruptions, Braun was Minister President of the Free State ...
, Max Maximov-Friedman, Franz Fischer, Pavlo Ladan, and
Theodore Maly Theodore Maly (1894 – 20 September 1938) was a former Roman Catholic priest and Soviet intelligence officer during the 1920s and 1930s. He lived illegally in the countries where he worked for the NKVD and was one of the Soviet Union’s most effec ...
.
Valentin Markin Valentin Markin (aka "Arthur Walter") (1903 – 1934) was the chief illegal ''rezident'' and director of the espionage operations of the Soviet Union in the United States from 1933 to 1934. Markin headed the activities of both Soviet military ...
reported to Reiss in Moscow, who in turn reported to
Abram Slutsky Abram Aronovich Slutsky (russian: Абра́м Аро́нович Слу́цкий) (July 1898 – 17 February 1938, Moscow) was a Soviet intelligence officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service ( INO), then part of the NKVD, fr ...
.


Break with Stalin and assassination (1937)

From 1932 to 1937, Reiss was stationed in Paris. There, Reiss and his wife met
Egon Erwin Kisch Egon Erwin Kisch (29 April 1885 – 31 March 1948) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. He styled himself ''Der Rasende Reporter'' (The Raging Reporter) for his countless travels to the far corners of the ...
, Alexander Rado, Noel Field,
Vasily Zarubin Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin (russian: Васи́лий Михáйлович Зарýбин) (4 February 1894 – 18 September 1972) was a Soviet intelligence officer. In the United States, he used the cover name Vasily Zubilin and served as th ...
,
Yakov Blumkin Yakov Grigoryevich Blumkin (russian: Я́ков Григо́рьевич Блю́мкин; 12 March 1900 – 3 November 1929) was a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, a Bolshevik, and an agent of the Cheka and the Joint State Political Directorat ...
,
Boris Bazarov Boris Yakovlevich Bazarov (russian: Борис Яковлевич Базаров; 1893 - 1939) was a Soviet secret police officer who served as the chief illegal '' rezident'' in New York City from 1935 until 1937. Early life Bazarov was born Bo ...
, and
Yan Karlovich Berzin Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (russian: Ян Карлович Берзин; lv, Jānis Bērziņš; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; , Kreis Riga (now in Zaube parish), the Russian Empire – 29 July 1938, Moscow, the USSR), was a Latvian Soviet commun ...
. By 1936, their friends were returning to Moscow one after the other, most of whom were shot or disappeared during the
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
. Reiss himself received a summons back to Moscow but allowed his wife to travel there in his stead in late 1936, staying into early 1937. In early 1937, Krivitsky was recalled but managed to finagle his way out again on a foreign assignment. Upon Krivitsky's return, Reiss composed a letter to the
Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...
of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...
, addressed to Stalin and dated 17 July 1937. He returned the Order of the Red Banner with his letter, stating that to wear the medal "simultaneously with the hangmen of the best representatives of the Russian worker" was beneath his dignity. He went on to condemn the excesses of Stalin's purges and the actions of Soviet state security services. He also declared "I am joining Trotsky and the Fourth International". While criticizing Stalin and Yezhov, Reiss promised not to reveal any state security secrets. Reiss then fled with his wife and child to the remote village of
Finhaut Finhaut is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Finhaut is first mentioned in 1293 as ''Finyaux''. Geography Finhaut has an area, , of . Of this area, 3.2% is used for agricultural ...
,
Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...
canton, Switzerland, to hide. After they had been hiding for a month, Gertrude Schildbach contacted them. Schildbach acted on the instruction of Roland Lyudvigovich Abbiate, alias Francois Rossi, alias Vladimir Pravdin, codename LETCHIK ("Pilot"), a Russian expatriate, citizen of
Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
, and a Soviet
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
agent. She refused a request by Abbiate to give Reiss a box of chocolates filled with
strychnine Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the e ...
but agreed to set up a meeting with him. On 4 September, Reiss agreed to meet Schildbach in
Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
. His wife and son Roman boarded a train for
Territet Territet ( Montreux) is a locality which is part of the Montreux commune, in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. Geography Territet is located between the city center of Montreux and the village of Veytaux, within the municipality of Montreux, on ...
,
Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...
canton, Switzerland. Reiss stayed with Schildbach and was then to board a train for
Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded b ...
, France, to meet Sneevliet (who was to publish Reiss's letter and news of his defection). Then he was to rejoin his family in Territet. He never made it to his train to Rheims. As Reiss's wife relates in her memoirs, she went to
Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the district of ...
to meet Schildbach again on September 5, but the woman never showed up. On September 6, she saw a small article in a Lausanne newspaper about a dead man with a Czech passport in the name of "Hans Eberhardt" found dead on the night of 4 September on the road from Lausanne to Chamblandes. She later identified the body carrying Eberhardt's passport as that of her husband. Reiss, then using the alias "Eberhardt," was lured by Schildbach onto a side road near Lausanne, where Roland Abbiate was waiting for him with a Soviet
PPD-34 The PPD (''Pistolet-Pulemyot Degtyaryova'', Russian: Пистоле́т-пулемёт ''Дегтярёва'', Degtyaryov's machine pistol) is a submachine gun originally designed in 1934 by Vasily Degtyaryov. The PPD had a conventional wooden sto ...
submachine gun. Realizing what was about to happen, Reiss lunged for Schildbach, grabbing a lock of her hair before Abbiate shot him. Reiss was hit by fifteen bullets from Abbiate's submachine gun, killing him instantly: he was found with five bullets in the head and seven in the body. The two then dumped Reiss's body on the side of the road. Police investigations revealed that a long strand of grey hair was found clutched in the hand of the dead man. In his pockets were a passport in the name of Hans Eberhardt and a railway ticket for France. An American-brand automobile, abandoned on 6 September at Geneva, was found to contain abandoned clothing, which led to the identification of two men and a woman. One of the men was Roland Abbiate, who had registered on 4 September at the Hotel de la Paix in Lausanne with Schildbach, the two had fled without their baggage and without paying their bill. The woman was none other than Schildbach, of German nationality, a resident of Rome, and in reality a Soviet
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...
agent in Italy. The other man was Etienne-Charles Martignat, born in 1900 at Culhat in the Puy-de-Dôme, living since 1931 at No 18 Avenue de Anatole France, Clichy, Paris. Among the effects left by Schildbach at the hotel was a box of chocolates containing strychnine. Soon thereafter, a deposit in a Swiss bank was made in Gertrude Schildbach's name in the amount of 100,000 Swiss francs (but it is unknown whether Schildbach ever withdrew this money, as she was never seen again). However, as France's left-wing
Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
Government of the period did not wish to upset diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and Stalin, no arrests or announcement of the results of the police investigation were made at the time. In a 1951 French Ministry of Interior study titled ''A Soviet Counter-espionage Network Abroad: the Reiss Case'' the French government analyzed the actions of Soviet state security forces involved in Reiss's abduction and liquidation. Published on 20 September, the study concluded that "the assassination of Ignace Reiss on 4 September 1937 at Chamblandes near Lausanne, Switzerland, is an excellent example of the observation, surveillance and liquidation of a `deserter' from the Soviet secret service". While Ignace Reiss could qualify as a victim of
Soviet political repressions Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the Stalin era, then declined, but it continued to exist ...
, he was never officially
exonerated Exoneration occurs when the conviction for a crime is reversed, either through demonstration of innocence, a flaw in the conviction, or otherwise. Attempts to exonerate convicts are particularly controversial in death penalty cases, especially w ...
by the Soviet government because he was simply "liquidated" and never tried in a court.


Aftermath

On the first anniversary of Reiss's assassination, his wife (as "Elsa Reiss") described their situation:
He would wait no longer, he had made up his mind. And now I tried to dissuade him from being over-impulsive, to talk things over with other comrades. I was justifiably afraid for his life. I pleaded with him not to walk out alone, to make the break along with other comrades but he only said: "One can count on nobody. One must act alone and openly. One cannot trick history, there is no point in delay." He was correct – one is alone.
It was a release for him but also a break with everything that had hitherto counted with him, with his youth, his past, his comrades. Now we were completely alone. In those few weeks Reiss aged very rapidly, his hair became snow-white. He who loved nature and cherished life looked about him with empty eyes. He was surrounded by corpses. His soul was in the cellars of the Lubianka. In his sleep-torn nights he saw an execution or a suicide.


Personal life

Between 1920 and 1922, Reiss married Elsa Bernaut (a.k.a. "Else Bernaut", a.k.a. "Elisabeth K. Poretsky", a.k.a. "Elsa Reiss"; 1898-1976) in Moscow; at times, Reiss used her maiden name as another alias. (In French, her book received the title ''Les nôtres'' by "Elisabeth K. Poretski" in the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris and by "Elizaveta Poretskaya" in ''
The Black Book of Communism ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' is a 1997 book by Stéphane Courtois, Andrzej Paczkowski, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Margolin, and several other European academics documenting a history of political repression by co ...
''.) They had one child, a boy named Roman, born around 1926.


Legacy


1952: ''Witness'', by Whittaker Chambers

Reiss appears in the 1952 memoirs of
Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...
, ''Witness'': his assassination in July 1937 was perhaps the last straw that caused Chambers not only to defect but to make careful preparations when doing so:
Suddenly, revolutionists with a lifetime of devoted activity would pop out, like rabbits from a burrow, with the G.P.U. close on their heels— Barmine from the Soviet legation in Athens, Raskolnikoff from the Soviet legation in Sofia, Krivitsky from Amsterdam, Reiss from Switzerland. Not that Reiss fled. Instead, a brave and a lonely man, he sent his single-handed defiance to Stalin: Murderer of the
Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (Ru ...
cellars, I herewith return my decorations and resume my freedom of action. But defiance is not enough; cunning is needed to fight cunning. It was foredoomed that sooner or later the door of a G.P.U limousine would swing open and Reiss's body with the bullets in the defiant brain would tumble out—as happened shortly after he deserted. Of the four I have named, only Barmine outran the hunters. Reiss's death moved me deeply.
Compared to Reiss, Chambers considered far more carefully how to elude the Soviets when he defected in April 1938, as described in ''Witness''.


1995: ''Ignace Reiss'', by Daniel Kunzi

Swiss filmmaker
Daniel Kunzi Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
made a 53-minute
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
called ''Ignace Reiss: Vie et mort d'un révolutionnaire'' about Reiss's life and death, following several years of research. The film includes testimonials, historical footage, a reconstruction of his assassination, all narrated by readings from his wife's memoirs. (Participating in the film are
Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...
, who reads from adaptations of Elisabeth Poretsky's memoirs, and Gerard Rosenthal, who recounts his services as lawyer to both
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and Elisabeth Poretsky.)


1998: ''Fear of Mirrors'', by Tariq Ali

"Ludwik" forms the background history of
Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
's 1998 novel '' Fear of Mirrors'', set during German reunification in 1990. Ali was fascinated by the story of Ignace Reiss: "Ludwik became an obsession with me."


See also

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Soviet defectors After World War II, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. Legal emigration was in most cases only possible in order to ...
*
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
*
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
*
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...
*
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
*
Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Purges of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union (russian: "Чистка партийных рядов", ', "cleansing of the party ranks") were Soviet political events, especially during the 1920s, in which periodic reviews of members of the Co ...
*
Liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...
*
Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services The poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera (which means "The Cell" in Russian), was a covert research-and-development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies. Th ...
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Terrorism in Russia Terrorism in Russia has a long history starting from the time of the Russian Empire. Terrorism, in the modern sense, means violence against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating extreme fear. Terrorism was an i ...


Reiss's inner circle

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Walter Krivitsky Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
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Theodore Maly Theodore Maly (1894 – 20 September 1938) was a former Roman Catholic priest and Soviet intelligence officer during the 1920s and 1930s. He lived illegally in the countries where he worked for the NKVD and was one of the Soviet Union’s most effec ...
* Elisabeth Poretsky * Mikkhail Umansky ("Misha") * Bertold Umansky ("Brun," "Ilk") * Fedia ("Fedin," "Alfred Kraus") * Willy Stahl


Reiss's assassins

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Nikolai Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Ежо́в, p=nʲɪkɐˈɫaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940) was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the N ...
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Sergey Spigelglas Sergey Mikhailovich Spigelglas or Spiegelglass or Shpigelglas (russian: Серге́й Миха́йлович Шпи́гельглас) (29 April 1897 – 29 January 1941) was acting head of the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of th ...
* Vladimir Pravdin * Gertrude Schildbach * Renata Steiner *
Mark Zborowski Mark Zborowski (27 January 1908 – 30 April 1990) (AKA "Marc" Zborowski or Etienne) was an anthropologist and an NKVD agent ( Venona codenames TULIP and KANT
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Abram Slutsky Abram Aronovich Slutsky (russian: Абра́м Аро́нович Слу́цкий) (July 1898 – 17 February 1938, Moscow) was a Soviet intelligence officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service ( INO), then part of the NKVD, fr ...


Reiss's outer circle

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Richard Sorge Richard Sorge (russian: Рихард Густавович Зорге, Rikhard Gustavovich Zorge; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Azerbaijani journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during Wo ...
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Alexander Ulanovsky Alexander Ulanovsky (1891–1970) was the chief illegal "rezident" for Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU), who was rezident in the United States 1931–1932 with his wife and was imprisoned in the 1950s with his family in the Soviet gulag. Earl ...
*
Victor Serge Victor Serge (; 1890–1947), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич), was a Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks fi ...
* Henri Pieck *
Henk Sneevliet Hendricus Josephus Franciscus Marie (Henk) Sneevliet, known as Henk Sneevliet or by the ''pseudonym'' "Maring" (1883 - 1942), was a Dutch Communism, Communist, who was active in both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. As a functionary of t ...
* Franz Fischer *
Valentin Markin Valentin Markin (aka "Arthur Walter") (1903 – 1934) was the chief illegal ''rezident'' and director of the espionage operations of the Soviet Union in the United States from 1933 to 1934. Markin headed the activities of both Soviet military ...
*
Hede Massing Hede Tune Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" (also "Hede Eisler," "Hede Gumperz," and "Redhead") (6 January 1900 – 8 March 1981), was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United Sta ...
* Noel Field * Isaiah Oggins *
Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...
* Alexander Gregory Barmine


References


External links


Writings of Reiss's wife


Elsa Reiss

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Elsa Bernaut

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Elisabeth K. Poretsky

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Images

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Other references


The New International
Victor Serge, "Portraying the men and events of our times," ''The Diary of Victor Serge – II'' (1937), January–February 1950, pp. 51–57 * * * * *
New York Review of Books
Neil Ascherson, "Communist Dropouts" (August 17, 1970): review of Elisabeth Poretsky's ''Our Own People''
Persee
Paris dans les années 30 : Sur Serge Efron et quelques agents du NKVD (1991)
ArtFilm. ch documentary
''Ignace Reiss: Vie et mort d'un révolutionnaire'' (1995) * *

ICL Decrees: No More "Reiss Factions" (March 2001) * * * * *
DanielKunzi.ch
video clip of he 1995 film titled''Ignace Reiss'' ot a clip of the man himself!* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Ignace 1899 births 1937 deaths People from Pidvolochysk People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian Jews Bolsheviks Polish communists Austrian communists Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) GRU officers Assassinated Soviet people Assassinated spies Soviet spies Germany–Soviet Union relations Soviet intelligence personnel who defected to the West Soviet Jews in the military Jewish socialists People killed in NKVD operations Soviet people murdered abroad Soviet Trotskyists People murdered in Switzerland