James Bond’s Real-Life Story: How Spy Sydney Reilly Inspired The Iconic 007

James Bond’s Real Life Story: How Sydney Reilly’s Deadly Spy Life Inspired The Iconic 007

The legendary James Bond character was inspired by the real-life exploits of a daring spy.

James Bond's Real Life Story: On the evening of November 5, 1925, prisoner number 73 was escorted from his cell at Moscow's infamous Lubyanka prison. He was taken by car along with three agents from the Soviet secret service, OGPU, to the nearby Sokolniki forest. The car stopped near a pond along Bagarosk Road, and the prisoner was asked to step out and take a walk in the woods. Carried out at intervals over previous days, such walks were routine for him.

He barely moved 30-40 steps when OGPU agent Abraham Abisalov pulled out a pistol and shot him in the back. The prisoner had no warning, and even if he had suspected danger, survival was impossible since Stalin himself had ordered the execution. Sydney Reilly, considered one of Britain's greatest spies by intelligence circles, was lying dead.

Born in 1873 into a Jewish family in Odessa, Ukraine, he had moved to London in the 1890s. He married an Irish woman and added her surname to his own, presenting himself as Irish. Over time, he alternated between roles as a businessman and a freelance spy.

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Reilly gathered sensitive information for both Britain and Japan. He provided the British intelligence with detailed reports on oil prospects in the Caucasus and sold Russian defense plans to the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War. He also engaged in arms and ammunition deals across New York, Japan and Russia.

By 1914, he had stolen blueprints of German naval expansion in St. Petersburg and shared them with the British.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Reilly expressed interest in joining the British Army. Before his mission to Russia in March 1918, British SIS chief Mansfield Cumming reviewed his background. Despite warnings that Reilly was clever but neither loyal nor principled, Cumming sent him on the espionage assignment.

Reilly had an uncanny ability to gather intelligence through relationships with women. He maintained liaisons with multiple women in Moscow, including actress Yelizaveta Outen, Dagmara Karozus, Olga Starzeveskaya and Maria Fride, often leveraging access to key documents.

In April 1918, he bypassed other British agents and approached the Kremlin directly, claiming to research Soviet achievements. He met Vladimir Bruvich, Lenin's chief of staff, and was given access to official functions, including the May Day celebrations at the Polytechnical Museum, just steps away from Trotsky's speech. He even joked about assassinating Trotsky but restrained himself.

Reilly and his associate George Hill planned a revolt against the Bolsheviks. They intended to capture Lenin and other leaders during a Soviet council meeting. However, a cadet's shooting of Cheka chief Mosel Yuritsky and Fanya Kaplan's assassination attempt on Lenin disrupted the operation. British agents in St. Petersburg were arrested, and Reilly narrowly escaped through Finland to London by November 9.

He spent the following years in Europe while a Russian court sentenced him to death in absentia for attempting to overthrow the Bolsheviks. His final mission in 1925 was aimed at collecting intelligence on the Soviet military and industrial capabilities. Former Soviet agent Boris Gudz revealed in 2002 that he was part of the team that interrogated and eventually executed Reilly near Moscow.

Reilly's extraordinary life inspired Ian Fleming in creating James Bond. Fleming drew on Reilly's charm, mastery of languages, flair for fine clothing, love of women, skill with cars and weapons and emotional detachment from enemies to craft the iconic spy.

Source: ZeeNews
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