The Lockhart Plot

NOTE EDITORE

During the spring and summer of 1918, with World War I still undecided, British, French and American agents in Russia developed a breathtakingly audacious plan. Led by Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart, a dashing, cynical, urbane 30-year-old Scot, they conspired to overthrow Lenin's newly established Bolshevik regime, and to install one that would continue the war against Germany on the Eastern Front. Lockhart's confidante and chief support, with whom he engaged in a passionate love affair, was the mysterious, alluring Moura von Benkendorff, wife of a former aide-de-camp to the Tsar. The plotters' chief opponent was 'Iron Felix' Dzerzhinsky. He led the Cheka, 'Sword and Shield' of the Russian Revolution and forerunner of the KGB. Dzerzhinsky loved humanity - in the abstract. He believed socialism represented humanity's best hope. To preserve and protect it he would unleash unbounded terror. Revolutionary Russia provided the setting for the ensuing contest. In the back streets of Petrograd and Moscow, in rough gypsy cabarets, in glittering nightclubs, in cells beneath the Cheka's Lubianka prison, the protagonists engaged in a deadly game of wits for the highest possible stakes - not merely life and death, but the outcome of a world war and the nature of Russia's post-war regime. Confident of success, the conspirators set the date for an uprising, September 8, 1918, but the Cheka had penetrated their organization and pounced just beforehand. The Lockhart Plot could have been a turning point in world history. Instead, its failure has left us with one of the great 'what ifs?' of twentieth century history, which is why it has until now remained shrouded in mystery. But it was a plot on whose outcome rested both the fate of the Revolution and the future shape of world history - and the story behind it is a thrilling one that continues to resonate in the early 21st century.

SOMMARIO

1 - The Making of Bruce Lockhart2 - The Education of Bruce Lockhart3 - The Temptations of Bruce Lockhart4 - Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky5 - Tender Jacov Peters6 - The Cheka7 - The 'Ace of Spies'8 - First Steps Towards the Counter-Revolution9 - The Question of Moura10 - Why Lockhart turned to the Latvians 1011 - Dzerzhinsky Counters12 - Intrigue and Romance in Revolutionary Russia13 - The Lockhart Plot Takes Shape14 - The Lockhart Plot15 - The Defeat of the Lockhart Plot16 - Dénouement17 - Epilogue18 - Conclusion

AUTORE

Jonathan Schneer was born in New York City. He earned his doctorate from Columbia University and has taught at Yale University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The recipient of numerous academic fellowships and awards, he has written seven previous books, one of which, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of Arab-Israeli Conflict, (2010), won a National Jewish Book Award. His books and articles have been translated into German, French, Turkish and Chinese. Now an emeritus professor, he divides his time between Atlanta, Georgia and Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9780198852995
• Dimensioni: 216 x 26.0 x 135 mm Ø 378 gr
• Formato: Brossura
• Illustration Notes: 26 Black and white illustrations and maps
• Pagine Arabe: 368