The Lockhart Plot (Lockhart Conspiracy), 1918

**The Lockhart Plot (Lockhart Conspiracy), 1918**

This was one of the most dramatic early clashes between the Bolshevik secret police (the Cheka) and Western efforts to overthrow the new Soviet government during the Russian Civil War.

**Background**

After the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 and signed the separate peace with Germany (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918), the Allied powers (Britain, France, USA) were alarmed — Russia had left the war against Germany, and they feared Bolshevism spreading. Allied diplomats and agents in Russia began looking for ways to weaken or topple Lenin's government.

**Bruce Lockhart**

Robert Bruce Lockhart was a British diplomat sent to Moscow as an unofficial agent to liaise with the Bolshevik government. Over time he became involved (along with French and possibly American agents) in efforts to fund and organize opposition to the Bolsheviks — including anti-Bolshevik officers and Latvian riflemen who guarded the Kremlin.

**The Plot**

The scheme, sometimes called the "Ambassadors' Plot," allegedly aimed to bribe Latvian troops guarding Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders to turn against them, potentially arresting or assassinating top Bolsheviks, and to fund counter-revolutionary networks. Sidney Reilly, a British agent (often called "Ace of Spies"), was a key operative.

**The Cheka's Response**

The Cheka, led by Felix Dzerzhinsky, had infiltrated the plot — the "Latvian officers" being recruited were actually Cheka agents or double agents. In late August 1918, the plot was rolled up:

- This coincided with the attempted assassination of Lenin by Fanny Kaplan (August 30, 1918) and the assassination of Cheka Petrograd chief Moisei Uritsky, though these are generally treated as separate but overlapping events.

- Lockhart was arrested, along with other British and French nationals.

- The Cheka raided the British and French missions.

**Aftermath**

- Lockhart was eventually exchanged for a Soviet diplomat and expelled from Russia.

- Sidney Reilly escaped but was later lured back to the USSR in 1925 and executed.

- The affair helped trigger the "Red Terror," a period of intensified Cheka repression, executions, and mass arrests against perceived class enemies and counter-revolutionaries, formally launched in September 1918.

Want me to go deeper into the Red Terror itself, Dzerzhinsky and the Cheka's structure, or Sidney Reilly's story specifically?