British intelligence in Russia, January–March 1919

ABSTRACT

This article assesses the effect of intelligence on the British government’s policy towards Russia from January to March 1919. The intelligence picture created primarily by agent reports will be traced in order to see their effect, if any, upon the key policy decision made in March 1919. The intelligence reports available at the National Archives within the Foreign Office and War Office files are examined in the raw form they were presented to decision makers, while Cabinet minutes and memoranda will highlight the general mindset of the British government. The article concludes intelligence reports from Russia were used selectively by the British government and usually when they conformed to the decision makers’ pre-existing perceptions.

KEYWORDS:

• British intelligence
• Russia
• British government
• agent reporting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Giles Milton, Russian Roulette: How British Spies Defeated Lenin (London: Spectre, 2013), vii.

² Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly: Ace of Spies (Penguin Books, 1967); Reilly: Ace of Spies (ITV Miniseries, 1983); Michael Kettle, Sidney Reilly: The True Story of the World’s Greatest Spy (St. Martins Press, 1984); and Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly (The History Press, 2004).

³ Intelligence in this context can be defined as the collection, collation and analysis of secret information to influence decisions, see Michael Warner, “Wanted: A Definition of ‘Intelligence’,” in Secret Intelligence: A Reader, ed. Christopher Andrew, Richard J. Aldrich, and Wesley K. Wark (New York: Routledge, 2009), 9.

⁴ Scholarship on the Russian Revolution and Civil War has produced various perspectives. For the neo-traditionalist position see Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution, 1899–1919 (London: Fontana Press, 1992); Christopher Read, War and Revolution in Russia, 1914–22: The Collapse of Tsarism and the Establishment of Soviet Power (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 2008); Robert Service, The Russian Revolution, 1900–1927 (London: Macmillan Education, 1986); For the Revisionist position see Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Sheila Fitzpatrick, “Revisionism in Soviet History,” History and Theory 46 (2007): 77–91; and Ronald G. Suny, “Russian Terror/ism and Revisionist Historiography,” Australian Journal of Politics and History 53, no. 1 (2007): 5–19. For the post-revisionist position see Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924 (London: Pimlico, 1997); Orlando Figes, Revolutionary Russia, 1891–1991 (London: Pelican, 2014); and Peter Holquist, “Violent Russia, Deadly Marxism? Russia in the Epoch of Violence, 1905–21,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4, no. 3 (2003): 627–52.

⁵ For good overviews on the past trends and key paradigms within the field see Christopher Moran, “The Pursuit of Intelligence History: Methods, Sources and Trajectories,” in Spooked: Britain, Empire and Intelligence Since 1945, ed. Patrick Major and Christopher Moran (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009): 2–11; Len Scott and Peter Jackson, “The Study of Intelligence in Theory and Practice,” Intelligence & National Security 19 (2004): 139–69; and Len Scott, “Sources and Methods in the Study of Intelligence: A British View,” Intelligence & National Security 22 (2007): 185–205.

⁶ Richard H. Ullman, Anglo-Soviet Relations, 1917–1921, Volume II: Britain and the Russian Civil War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968); C.J. Lowe and M.L. Dockerill, The Mirage of Power, vol. 2, British Foreign Policy, 1914–22 (London: Routledge, 1972); David Carlton, Churchill and the Soviet Union (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000); and Clifford Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade: The British Invasion of Russia 1918–1920 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006).

⁷ P. Gudgin, Military Intelligence: The British Story (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1989); Michael Handel, ed., Intelligence and Military Operations (Abingdon: Frank Cass, 1990); F.H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Abridged Edition (London: HMSO, 1993); John Ferris, Intelligence and Strategy: Selected Essays (New York: Routledge, 2005); and Jim Beach, Haig’s Intelligence: GHQ and the German Army, 1916–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

⁸ Christopher Andrew and Jeremy Noakes, Intelligence and International Relations, 1900–1945 (Exeter: Exeter University Publications, 1987); and Michael Herman, Intelligence Power in Peace and War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996). Herman’s work provides a theoretical analysis of how intelligence works in the modern age. His assertion that the main goal of intelligence is to make its own government’s decisions better is scrutinised against various common issues within the process.

⁹ Christopher Andrew, Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community (London: Heinemann, 1985), XV, 529–31.

¹⁰ Keith Jeffery, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 (London: Bloomsbury, 2010).

¹¹ Such studies can offer good insight into the British government’s fear of Bolshevik subversion, and the subsequent policies related to that fear, see Victor Madeira, “Moscow’s Interwar Infiltration of British Intelligence, 1919–29,” The Historical Journal 46, no. 4 (2003): 915–33; Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London: Penguin, 2010); Victor Madeira, Britannia and the Bear: The Anglo-Russian Intelligence Wars, 1917–1929 (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2014); and Kevin Quinlan, The Secret War between the Wars: MI5 in the 1920s and 1930s (Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2014).

¹² Geoffrey Swain, “‘An Interesting and Plausible Proposal’: Bruce Lockhart, Sidney Reilly and the Latvian Riflemen, Russia 1918,” Intelligence and National Security 14, no. 3 (1999): 81–102; and John Long, “Plot and Counter-Plot in Revolutionary Russia: Chronicling the Bruce Lockhart Conspiracy, 1918,” Intelligence and National Security 10, no. 1 (1995): 122–43.

¹³ Andrew, Secret Service, 203–23; and Milton, Russian Roulette. For some of the memoirs of agents in Russia see Frederick M. Bailey, Mission to Tashkent (London: Jonathan Cape, 1946); R.H. Bruce Lockhart, Memoirs of a British Agent (London: Putnam, 1932); Paul Dukes, Red Dusk and the Morrow: Adventures and Investigations in Soviet Russia (London: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1922); George Alexander Hill, Go Spy the Land: Being the Adventures of IK8 of the British Secret Service (London: Cassell and Company, 1932); and Sidney Reilly, Adventures of a British Master Spy (New York: Haper & Brothers, 1932).

¹⁴ Robert Service, Spies and Commissars: Bolshevik Russia and the West (London: Pan Macmillan, 2011).

¹⁵ Jennifer Siegel, “British Intelligence on the Russian Revolution and Civil War – A Breach at the Source,” Intelligence and National Security 10, no. 3 (July 1995): 468–85.

¹⁶ Gordon Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze: Western Intelligence and the Bolsheviks (London: Pan Macmillan, 1998). According to Brook-Shepherd, Alexander Orlov (1895–1973) was the highest ranking Soviet intelligence officer ever to defect to the West, which he did in 1938 due to fear of being purged by Stalin. The recent work of Volodarsky critically engages with Orlov’s account of his own exploits, and he argues Orlov as a source must be viewed with suspicion; Boris Volodarsky, Stalin’s Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

¹⁷ Until October 1919, the six-man War Cabinet was formally maintained, with ministers like Churchill attending Cabinet meetings when relevant.

¹⁸ Madeira, Britannia and the Bear, 48–53.

¹⁹ Goldstein, Winning the Peace, 57–89; and Michael Dockrill, “The Foreign Office Political Intelligence Department and Germany in 1918,” in Strategy and Intelligence: British Policy During the First World War, ed. Michael Dockrill and David French (London: Hambledon, 1996), 160–83.

²⁰ Letter to Prime Minister, 8 March, 1919, CHAR 16/5, Churchill Papers, Churchill Archives Centre (CAC), 32–4.

²¹ CAB 23/15/6, (4 March), The National Archives (TNA), 10–14; and CAB 23/9/18 (WC 542), (6 March), TNA, 3–4.

²² Hansard, 3 March 1919, Series 5 Vol. 113, cc69–183.

²³ During the First World War, SIS adopted the cover name of MI1(c) in order to be contacted within the War Office. As such, intelligence reports at this time use this designation instead of SIS; Jeffery, MI6, 50, 209.

²⁴ Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze, 134; and Service, Spies and Commissars, 227.

²⁵ Jeffery, MI6, 175.

²⁶ C.X. 066477, 18 February 1919, ADM 223/637, TNA, f. 96.

²⁷ C.X. 066470, 13 February 1919, ADM 223/637, TNA, f. 94; C.X. 066471, 13 February 1919, ADM 223/637, TNA, f. 95.

²⁸ Roland Chambers, The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome (London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 2009), 158–73; Report on the State of Russia by Mr Arthur Ransome, 2 April 1919, FO 371/4001, (2 April 1919), TNA, ff. 100–105; and Report on the strikes at the Putilov works from ST25, 26 April 1919, FO 371/4001, TNA, ff. 117–119.

²⁹ Service, Spies and Commissars, 88–9.

³⁰ Arthur Ransome, KV 2/1904, TNA.

³¹ Chambers, The Last Englishman, 349–50.

³² Goldstein, Winning the Peace, 142.

³³ Russia, Peace Conference minutes, 16 January 1919, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 163a–163b; and Allied attitude to Russia, Peace Conference minutes, 20 January, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 172–172a.

³⁴ Hansard, 13 February 1919, Series 5 Vol. 112, c242; and Hansard, 20 February, Series 5 Vol. 112, cc1105–6.

³⁵ North Russia Military Intelligence Summaries, 13 January–12 March, WO 157/1223–1225, TNA.

³⁶ Jeffery, MI6, 141–8.

³⁷ Military Intelligence Summary No. 13, 9–23 February 1919, WO 157/1224, TNA, Appendix II, 5; and Adam R. Seipp, The Ordeal of Peace: Demobilization and the Urban Experience in Britain and Germany, 1917–1921 (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing, 2009), 138–45.

³⁸ Memorandum on the Prinkipo proposal, 21 February 1919, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 14–14a; and Memorandum on the Bolshevik attitude towards peace with the Allies, 25 February 1919, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 17–19.

³⁹ Notes on interviews with Mr Brier and Mr Hume, 13 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, f. 284.

⁴⁰ Madeira, Britannia and the Bear, 49–53.

⁴¹ Memorandum on interview with Mr Keeling, 6 February, FO 371/4375, TNA.

⁴² Notes on interviews with Mr Brier and Mr Hume, 13 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, f. 284.

⁴³ Extracts from MI1(c) report, 3 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, ff. 198–205.

⁴⁴ A Collection of Reports on Bolshevism in Russia, April 1919, Cmd 8 (Russia, No. 1, 1919).

⁴⁵ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 159–66.

⁴⁶ Carlton, Churchill and the Soviet Union, 20.

⁴⁷ Extracts from MI1(c) report, 3 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, ff. 199–203.

⁴⁸ Memorandum on interview with Mr Keeling, 6 February, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 6–10.

⁴⁹ Military Intelligence Summary No. 13, 9–23 February 1919, WO 157/1224, TNA, Appendix II, 1.

⁵⁰ The situation in Russia, Cabinet minutes, 12 February, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 531), TNA, 4–5.

⁵¹ Rigby, Lenin’s Government, 11–24, 160–89; and Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 260–7.

⁵² Military Intelligence Summary No. 13, 9–23 February 1919, WO 157/1224, TNA, Appendix I, 1–3.

⁵³ Extracts from MI1(c) report, 3 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, f. 204.

⁵⁴ Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 246–57; and Figes, A People’s Tragedy, 589–603.

⁵⁵ Memorandum on interview with Mr Keeling, 6 February, FO 371/4375, TNA, ff. 9–10.

⁵⁶ Notes on interviews with Mr Brier and Mr Hume, 13 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, f. 283.

⁵⁷ Extracts from MI1(c) report, 3 February 1919, FO 608/195, TNA, f. 204.

⁵⁸ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade; Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 215–21; and Vladislav Goldin, “The Civil War in Northern Russia, 1918–1920,” Acta Borealia: A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies 17, no. 2 (2000): 65–82.

⁵⁹ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 89.

⁶⁰ Demonstrations by Soldiers, Cabinet minutes, 10 January, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 514), TNA, 9.

⁶¹ Seipp, The Ordeal of Peace, 139–45; and Peter K. Cline, “Reopening the Case of the Lloyd George Coalition and the Postwar Economic Transition, 1918–1919,” Journal of British Studies 10 (1970): 162–75.

⁶² Number of land forces, Hansard, Commons sitting, 3 March 1919, Series 5 Vol. 113, cc92–93, 104.

⁶³ John Arthur Cross, Sir Samuel Hoare: A Political Biography (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1977); and Andrew Holt, “‘No More Hoares to Paris’: British Foreign Policymaking and the Abyssinian Crisis, 1935,” Review of International Studies 37, no. 3 (2011): 1383–401.

⁶⁴ Jeffery, MI6, 102–9; Keith Neilson, “‘Joy Rides’?: British Intelligence and Propaganda in Russia, 1914–1917,” The Historical Journal 24, no. 4 (1981): 885–906. At this post, he infamously reported the death of Rasputin back to Whitehall, see Andrew Cook, To Kil Rasputin: The Life and Death of Grigori Rasputin (The History Press, 2006).

⁶⁵ David Heath, “British Foreign Intelligence in the First World War: The Case of Sir Samuel Hoare,” Intelligence and National Security 22, no. 2 (April 2007): 206–28 (219).

⁶⁶ Gill Bennett, ‘A Most Extraordinary and Mysterious Business’: The Zinoviev Letter of 1924 (Stroud, London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1999), 28.

⁶⁷ ‘The Communist Revolution in Hungary’, Directorate of Intelligence Special Report, 31 May 1919, Part II (Russia, 1915–24), file 3, Templewood Papers, Cambridge University Library (CUL).

⁶⁸ Andrew, The Defence of the Realm; Madeira, Britannia and the Bear, 23–8; and Quinlan, The Secret War between the Wars, 9–13.

⁶⁹ Letter to Vernon Kell, 18 July 1919; Letter from Rex Leeper, 24 April 1919; and Letter to Rex Leeper, 16 October, 1919, Part II (Russia, 1915–24), file 3, Templewood Papers, CUL.

⁷⁰ Coalition Group on Foreign Affairs, 5 March, 1919, Part II (Russia, 1915–24), file 3, Templewood Papers, CUL.

⁷¹ Letter to Churchill, 27 February, 1919; Letter to Churchill, 30 July, 1919; and Letter to Churchill, 16 October, 1919, Part II (Russia, 1915–24), file 3, Templewood Papers, CUL.

⁷² For a brief outline of Maxse and the Duke of Northumberland’s far right politics see Richard Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: From Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts to the National Front (London: I.B Tauris, 1987), 3, 5, 12, 30–8; and Letter from Leo Maxse, 3 March, 1919, Part II (Russia, 1915–24), file 3, Templewood Papers, CUL.

⁷³ Keith Jeffery, “British Military Intelligence Following World War I,” in British and American Approaches to Intelligence, ed. K.G. Robertson (London: Macmillan, 1987), 55–84.

⁷⁴ Directorate of Military Intelligence, War Office Lists, 1919, 98; Frederick Hermann Kisch, Army Lists, October 1919; and Who Was Who? Volume 4, 194 (London: Adam & Charles Black Limited, 1952).

⁷⁵ Medal Card of Eric Ommaney Skaife, WO 372/18/90067; Directorate of Military Intelligence, War Office Lists, 1919, 98; Eric Ommaney Skaife, Army Lists, October 1919; Who Was Who? Volume 4, 1941 (London: Adam & Charles Black Limited, 1952); Note from MIR to Foreign Office Russian section, 25 February 1919, FO 371/3962, f. 156; and Note from E.O. Skaife to the Foreign Office, 4 March 1919, FO 371/3962, f. 181.

⁷⁶ Directorate of Military Intelligence, War Office Lists, 1919, 98; Malcolm Louis Woollcombe, Army Lists, October 1919; Madeira, Britannia and the Bear, 261; and Jeffery, MI6, 167.

⁷⁷ This process features within military intelligence historiography, see Beach, Haig’s Intelligence, 85–9, 326–7; Michael Handel, “Intelligence in Historical Perspective,” in Go Spy the Land: Military Intelligence in History, ed. Keith Neilson and B.J.C. McKercher (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), 186–8; Michael Handel, “Intelligence and Military Operations,” in Intelligence and Military Operations, ed. M. Handel, 1–95; and Ferris, Intelligence and Strategy, 275–87.

⁷⁸ Cudbert Thornhill, Army Lists, October 1919; and Jeffery, MI6, 102–4.

⁷⁹ Michael Smith, Six: The Real James Bonds 1909–1939 (Biteback Publishing, 2011), 222–4.

⁸⁰ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 115–34.

⁸¹ Military Intelligence Summary No. 12, 11 February 1919, WO 157/1223, TNA, 5.

⁸² Ibid., 1; and Military Intelligence Summary No. 13: Organisation of the Bolshevik Army, 27 February 1919, WO 157/1224, TNA, 3.

⁸³ Carlton, Churchill and the Soviet Union, 12–13; Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 149–52; and Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (London: Heinemann, 1991), 409–11.

⁸⁴ Letter to Prime Minister, 27 January, 1919, CHAR 16/3, Churchill Papers, CAC, 101–3.

⁸⁵ Unsent letter to Prime Minister, 21 February, 1919, CHAR 16/4, Churchill Papers, CAC, 170–4.

⁸⁶ Letter to Henry Wilson, 23 February, 1919, CHAR 16/22, Churchill Papers, CAC, 6–9.

⁸⁷ Memorandum on our Present and Future Military Policy in Russia, 13 November 1918, CAB 24/70/11, TNA, 4.

⁸⁸ Keith Jeffery, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 229–55.

⁸⁹ Note for the Cabinet on Future Military Operations in Russia, 24 February 1919, CAB 24/75/85, TNA, 1.

⁹⁰ Policy in Russia, Cabinet minutes, 26 February, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 537), TNA, 2.

⁹¹ Military Intelligence Summary No. 13: Bolshevik Northern Fronts, 27 February 1919, WO 157/1224, TNA, 7–8.

⁹² Russian Policy, Cabinet minutes, 4 March, CAB 23/15/6, TNA, 10–14.

⁹³ Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 162–6, 222–38; and Peter Kenez, Civil War in South Russia, 2 vols. (University of California, 1971–1977).

⁹⁴ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 94–102; Hill, Go Spy the Land; and Reilly, Adventures of a British Master Spy.

⁹⁵ Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze, 148–50. Brook-Shepherd believes that Cumming’s faith in Reilly rested on a hunch, and a determination by the chief to trust his instincts on Reilly’s intelligence gathering ability (21).

⁹⁶ Cook, Ace of Spies, 145–54.

⁹⁷ Ibid, 182–5; and Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze, 149.

⁹⁸ Jeffery, MI6, 179.

⁹⁹ Ainsworth, “Sidney Reilly’s reports from south Russia, December 1918–March 1919”, 1466.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., 1467; and Note to Mr Campbell, 6 February 1919, WO 157/766, TNA, ff. 74.

¹⁰¹ The two reports circulated to the King and War Cabinet were Reilly’s Despatch no. 13, 18 February 1919, FO 371/3978, ff137–138 and Reilly’s Despatch no. 14, FO 371/3978, f. 132.

¹⁰² Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze, 156.

¹⁰³ Reilly’s Despatch no. 5, 17 January 1919, FO 371/3962, ff. 397–412.

¹⁰⁴ Reilly’s Despatch no. 8, 27 January 1919, FO 371/3962, ff. 417a–425.

¹⁰⁵ Reilly’s Despatch no. 3, 9 January 1919, FO 371/3962, ff. 391–392.

¹⁰⁶ Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, 386–95; and Figes, Revolutionary Russia, 60–4.

¹⁰⁷ The situation in the Ukraine, 27 January 1919, FO 608/195, ff. 77–79.

¹⁰⁸ Note from DMI to GHQ Constantinople, 25 February 1919, WO 157/766, TNA, f. 109.

¹⁰⁹ The situation in Russia, Cabinet minutes 12 February, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 531), TNA, 4–6.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., 4; and Feeling of Georgians towards Volunteer Army, 24 February 1919, WO 157/766, f. 119.

¹¹¹ Naval Forces in the Black Sea, Cabinet minutes 24 February, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 535), TNA, 2; and Policy of supporting Don Cossacks, 24 February 1919, WO 157/766, f. 103.

¹¹² Policy in Russia, Cabinet minutes 26 February, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 537), TNA, 2; Russian Policy, Cabinet minutes 4 March, CAB 23/15/6, TNA, 10–14; and Assistance to General Denikin, Cabinet minutes 6 March, CAB 23/9/18 (WC 542), TNA, 3–4.

¹¹³ Brook-Shepherd, The Iron Maze, 165–7; and Report from General Poole on the conditions in South Russia, 14 February, WO 106/1204.

¹¹⁴ Ibid., 189; and Note from Reginald Leeper to Walford Selby, Russia Department, 1 March, FO 371/3962, TNA, f. 476.

¹¹⁵ Following for Mr Campbell, 6 February 1919, WO 157/766, f. 94.

¹¹⁶ Reilly’s Despatch no. 13, 18 February 1919, FO 371/3978, ff. 137–138; and Reilly’s Despatch no. 14, FO 371/3978, f. 132.

¹¹⁷ Kinvig, Churchill’s Crusade, 94–102.

¹¹⁸ Foreign Office. Economic situation in South Russia and Finland: report by Lieut. Col. A.P. Blackwood on the British Military Mission’s visits to Finland and Gen. Deniken’s Volunteer Army in South Russia, 20 January 1919, T 1/12293/10603.

¹¹⁹ Report on visit of British Military Mission to the Volunteer Army under General Denikin in South Russia, FO 371/3978, ff. 4–51.

¹²⁰ Preface to Blackwood report, 22 January 1919, FO 371/3978, f. 5.

¹²¹ Herman, Intelligence Power in Peace and War, 140.

¹²² R. Gerald Hughes, “Truth Telling and the Defence of the Realm: History and the History of the British Secret Intelligence Service,” Intelligence and National Security 26, no. 5 (2011): 701–23; and Scott and Jackson, “The Study of Intelligence,” 152–3.

¹²³ Richard J. Aldrich, “Policing the Past: Official History, Secrecy and British Intelligence Since 1945,” English Historical Review 119 (2004): 922–53.

¹²⁴ Milton, Russian Roulette, 6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Carthy

Daniel Carthy studied History at the University of Northampton where an interest in intelligence history was sparked. This led him to begin his research into British intelligence on Bolshevik Russia. He is currently studying for an MA in Intelligence and Security Studies at the University of Salford.