Dubbed an 'agent of British imperialism' by Joseph Stalin, Reginald Teague-Jones (1889- 1988) was the quintessential English spy whose exceptional story is recounted in this new biography. He studied in St Petersburg, participated in the 1905 Revolution and spent the rest of his life working for various branches of British secret intelligence. Plunging into the Great Game, he participated in daring operations against the Bolsheviks and tracked down a turbulent German agent, Wilhelm Wassmuss, who was spreading anti-British propaganda in Persia. Teague-Jones was also held responsible for the execution of 'the 26 Commissars' after the fall of the Baku Commune in 1918. This became one of the Soviet Union's most powerful cults of martyrology, inspiring a poem by Yesenin, a Brodsky painting, a 1933 feature film and an immense monument. Shortly after, Teague-Jones changed his name to Ronald Sinclair and adopted a secret persona for the next five decades, part of which he worked undercover in the United States as an expert on Indian, Soviet and Middle-Eastern affairs, possibly in collaboration with the OSS, the new American secret service. In his swan song in espionage he kept a gimlet eye on the Soviet delegation to the UN in New York. For these reasons, and many others besides, Reginald Teague-Jones is the most important British spy you have never heard of.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'A meticulously researched book ... Dubbed an agent of British imperialism, by Joseph Stalin, English Spy Reginald Teague-Jones is the subject of this highly readable biography ... Ter Minassian tells a fascinating tale.' * Cahiers du Monde Russe * 'A wonderfully engaging tale of secret service. This is the gripping story of Reginald Teague-Jones, an intelligence officer with a ring-side seat on the clandestine struggle for influence in Central Asia between the Russian and British empires, and a full-blooded account of revolution and rebellion along the Silk Road and across all of central Asia.' * Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security, University of Warwick, and author of GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency * 'A well written and thoroughly documented biographical narrative of the life of Reginald Teague-Jones, an Englishman who saw service as a political officer in British India as well as in the Near East. It will appeal to a wide audience interested in intrigue, espionage and ripping yarns and to those with a developed enthusiasm for early Soviet history.' * David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Professor of History, Brock University and author of Russian Orientalism: Asia in the Russian Mind from Catherine the Great to the Emigration * 'Impressively researched and written in an extremely lively and engaging fashion, this tale of derring-do should find a wide audience. It will be of interest to anyone interested in the history of the Soviet Union, or indeed those of the British Army and intelligence services, the Great Game and the genesis of Kemalist Turkey. Ter Minassian's evocation of time, place and personality is vivid and highly enjoyable and makes for a very colourful and informative piece of popular history.' * Jonathan Smele, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Queen Mary, University of London, and author of The 'Russian' Civil Wars, 1916-1926 *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Maße
Höhe: 216 mm
Breite: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84904-418-9 (9781849044189)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Taline Ter Minassian is a historian at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, INALCO, Paris, specialising in Soviet and Middle Eastern studies. She is the author of Colporteurs du Komintern, L'Union Sovietique et les minorites au Moyen-Orient.
