Originally published on January 6, 2021 (Episode 193)
Introduction
In the spring of 1918, a young Scottish diplomat began to put together a plot that he believed could change the entire course of the Great War and save the Allies from defeat.
At that moment, Germany’s Operation Michael was threatening to break open the western front before American troops could arrive in strength. Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart thought he could reverse the Allies’ fortunes by bringing Russia back into the war it had abandoned the previous year.
His plan was bold: kill Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, overthrow the Bolshevik government, and install a new regime that would reestablish the eastern front against Germany.
The plot, and the extraordinary personalities and high stakes surrounding it, are recounted in Jonathan Schneer’s The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin’s Russia—a story that demonstrates once again the old cliché that truth is stranger than fiction.
About the Guest
Jonathan Schneer is Professor Emeritus of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of History and Sociology. A specialist in modern British history, his books include London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis; The Thames: England’s River; Ministers at War: Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet, 1940–45; and The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of Arab-Israeli Conflict, which won a 2010 National Jewish Book Award. He is currently working on a book about the British General Strike of 1926.
For Further Investigation
Jonathan Schneer, The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin’s Russia (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of Arab-Israeli Conflict
Robert Service, Lenin: A Biography
Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the Train
Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924
Listen & Discuss
What does the Lockhart Plot reveal about the fragility of revolutions—or the desperation of great powers at war? Share your reflections in the comments below, and send this episode to a friend interested in Russia, espionage, or the First World War.
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