Ignace Reiss

Ignace Reiss
Ignace Reiss
Born
Nathan Markovic Poreckij

1899
Podwołoczyska (Pidvolochysk), then in Galicia, Austria-Hungary
Died4 September 1937
(aged 37 or 38)
Lausanne, Switzerland
Cause of deathAssassination by gunshot
Alma materFaculty of Law, University of Vienna
OccupationSpy
SpouseElsa Bernaut (a.k.a. "Else Bernaut" a.k.a. "Elisabeth K. Poretsky" a.k.a. "Elsa Reiss")
Children1 son
AwardsOrder of the Red Banner
Espionage activity
AllegianceSoviet Union
Service years1919–1937
Codename
  • Ignace Reiss
  • Ignatz Reiss
  • Ignace Poretsky
  • Ludwik
  • Ludwig
  • Hans Eberhardt
  • Steff Brandt
  • Walter Scott

Ignace Reiss (1899 – 4 September 1937) – also known as "Ignace Poretsky,"[1] "Ignatz Reiss,"[2] "Ludwig,"[3] "Ludwik",[1] "Hans Eberhardt,"[4] "Steff Brandt,"[5] Nathan Poreckij,[6] and "Walter Scott (an officer of the U.S. military intelligence)"[7] – was one of the "Great Illegals" or Soviet spies who worked in third party countries where they were not nationals in the late 1920s and 1930s.[8] He was known as a nevozvrashchenec ("unreturnable").

An NKVD team assassinated him on 4 September 1937 near Lausanne, Switzerland, a few weeks after he declared his defection in a letter addressed to Joseph Stalin.[9][10] He was a lifelong friend of Walter Krivitsky; his assassination influenced the timing and method of Whittaker Chambers's defection a few months later.

  1. ^ a b Poretsky, Elisabeth K. (1969). Our Own People: A Memoir of "Ignace Reiss" and His Friends. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–2 (Letter), 7–26 (Childhood), 27–36 (Polish Party), 37–52 (Lwow), 53–71 (Berlin/Vienna), 72-85 (Prague/Amsterdam), 86-129 (Moscow), 103-107 (Richard Sorge), 130-155 (Europe), 156-207 (Moscow), 208-226 (Switzerland), 243-270 (Afterward), 271-274 (Epilogue). LCCN 70449412.
  2. ^ Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. pp. 36 ("like rabbits from a burrow"), 47, 461. LCCN 52005149.
  3. ^ Massing, Hede (1951). This Deception. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. pp. 98 et al. LCCN 51002483.
  4. ^ Krivitsky, Walter; Isaac Don Levine (1939). In Stalin's Secret Service. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 252. LCCN 40027004.
  5. ^ Kern, Gary (2004). A Death in Washington: Walter G. Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror. Enigma Books. pp. Natan 80, Steff Brandt 122 and 438. ISBN 978-1-929631-25-4.
  6. ^ "Reiss, Ignatius". Project Chronos. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  7. ^ Volodarsky, Boris (20 January 2015). Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov. London, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 44 (Walter Scott), 297 (French Ministry). ISBN 978-0-19-965658-5. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  8. ^ Duff, William E. (1999). A time for spies: Theodore Stephanovich Mally and the era of the great illegals. Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 58, 169, 170. ISBN 0-8265-1352-2.
  9. ^ Pg 457 - Trotsky, Leon; Naomi Allen (September 1976). Writings of Leon Trotsky: 1937-38 (when ed.). Pathfinder Press. ISBN 978-0-87348-468-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)- Total pages: 511
  10. ^ "ICL Decrees: No More "Reiss Factions"". internationalist.org. March 2001. Retrieved September 5, 2010.