Andrew Cook

He's got an extremely valuable art collection and the Bolsheviks have just literally slammed the door in terms of Russia.

How's he going to get back and rescue his fortune or part of his fortune in Russia?

The only way he can think to get in there is to go and volunteer himself to the British armed forces and suggest that, you know, he's fluent in Russian.

Of course, he's Russian, but he's masquerading as an Irishman.

Now that was music to the ears of people in London.

They could count on one hand the number of reliable intelligence people they had who could speak Russian and could masquerade as being Russians themselves if it came down to it.

Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't have touched this guy with a barge pole.

But they didn't really have a choice.

They were desperate for people.

They brought him over to London.

He had a brief interview with Sea at Whitehall Court in London.

And the next thing he knew, he was on the boat to Russia.

Yes, he did a good job.

First and foremost, he worked for Mr. Sidney Riley, and secondly, he worked for MI1C.

He did basically do what they asked him to do when he had a bit of spare time on his hands.

And of course, he sends back reports about people that he'd met that were working for Chequard, working civil servants.

party members, people in Bolshevik circles about what was really in their minds.

Were they really going to pull out of the First World War?

If they did, would they actually still pick up a rifle if the Germans nudged into Ukraine, for example?

Books call it the Lockhart plot.