Originally published on May 5, 2025 (Episode 406)
Introduction
Robert Bruce Lockhart was at various times in his life a diplomat, a conspirator, a gatherer of intelligence, and a propagandist. He was always a maverick, a charmer, a bit of a cad with a touch of the bounder, and a devotee of the high life when he could afford it—and often when he could not.
In his busy life he ran a Malaya rubber plantation; served as a diplomat in Czarist Russia; and was first an interlocutor with and then a conspirator against the Bolshevik leaders of the early Soviet Union. After imprisonment and expulsion from Russia, he ricocheted about Europe as a journalist and memoirist, before ending up as head of the shadowy and creative Political Warfare Executive.
About the Guest
James Crossland is Professor of International History at Liverpool John Moores University, where he is co-director of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History. His interests include terrorism, propaganda, the International Red Cross, and the history of international humanitarian law. He was last on the podcast to discuss his book The Rise of the Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism. His newest book is Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, the Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart (Pegasus, 2025).
For Further Investigation
James Crossland, Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, the Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart (Pegasus, 2025)
Jonathan Schneer, The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia (OUP, 2020)
Giles Milton, Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin’s Plot for Global Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2014)
Related Episodes
The Plot to Stop the Russian Revolution—Jonathan Schneer on the Lockhart Plot
Nasty Little War—Anna Reid on western interventions into the Russian Civil War
Eisenhower’s Guerillas—Ben Jones on the Jedburghs
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