Ignace Reiss
| Ignace Reiss | |
|---|---|
Ignace Reiss
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| Allegiance | Soviet Union |
| Active | 1919–1937 |
| Award(s) | Order of the Red Banner |
| Codename(s) | Ignace Reiss |
| Ignatz Reiss | |
| Ignatius S. Reiss | |
| Ignace Poretsky | |
| Ludwik | |
| Ludwig | |
| Hans Eberhardt | |
| Steff Brandt | |
| Walter Scott | |
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| Birth name | Nathan Markovic Poreckij |
| Born | 1899 Podwołoczyska (Pidvolochysk), then in Galicia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 4 September 1937 (aged 37 or 38) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Cause of death |
strangulation and/or machine gun |
| Spouse | Elsa Bernaut (a.k.a. "Else Bernaut" a.k.a. "Elisabeth K. Poretsky," a.k.a. "Elsa Reiss") |
| Children | Roman |
| Occupation | spy |
| Alma mater | Faculty of Law, University of Vienna |
Ignace Reiss (1899 – 4 September 1937)–a.k.a. "Ignace Poretsky," "Ignatz Reiss," "Ludwig," "Ludwik", "Hans Eberhardt," "Steff Brandt," Nathan Poreckij, and "Walter Scott (an officer of the U.S. military intelligence)"–was one of the "Great Illegals" or Soviet spies who worked in third party countries where they were not nationals in the late 1920s and 1930s. An NKVD team assassinated him on 4 September 1937 near Lausanne, Switzerland, a few weeks after he declared his defection in a letter addressed to Joseph Stalin. He was a lifelong friend of Walter Krivitsky; his assassination influenced the timing and method of Whittaker Chambers' defection a few months later.
Reiss was born Nathan Markovic Poreckij in 1899 in Podwołoczyska (Pidvolochysk), then in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, just across the river from Volochysk, then in Podolia, Tsarist Russia (now both in Ukraine). His mother was a "Russian" Jew from "across the river" and his father non-Jewish. His father had his elder brother and him educated in Lwow (modern Lviv), the provincial capital. There, he formed lifelong friendships with several other boys, all of whom would become committed Communist spies. These boys included Kalyniak, Willy Stahl, Berchtold Umansky ("Brun"), his brother Mikhail Umansky ("Misha," later "Ilk"), Fedia (later "Fedin"), and the young Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg). During World War I, the friends traveled when they could to Vienna, where they gathered around Fedia and his girlfriend Krusia. The name Krusia (also "Kruzia") became a codename between these friends in later years. Reiss also visited Leipzig, Germany, to meet German Socialists: there, he met Gertrude Schildbach, who later aided his assassination. He earned a degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Vienna. In 1918, he returned to his hometown, where he worked for the railway. His older brother was killed during the Polish-Soviet War in 1920.
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