Ignace Reiss: Life and Death of a Revolutionary, by Daniel Künzi
Ignacy Poretski was assassinated by Stalin's agents near Lausanne Switzerland on 4 September 1937. A Ukrainian Jew, and a member of the Polish Communist Party, he was better known as "Ludwig" or "Reiss:" the names he used as director of the Soviet spy network in Western Europe.
Six weeks before his death, Reiss wrote to the central committee of the Soviet Communist Party, resigning his position, and returning the Order of the Red Flag he had been awarded in 1928 for services to the proletarian revolution. "It would be against my dignity to wear this medal, alongside the murderers of the best representatives of the working class," he wrote.
The collapse of the Tsarist and Austro-Hungarian empires during WWI, and the growing white terror had thrown Poretski's homeland into chaos. His brother joined the army of Poland's Marshal Pilsudski. Ignacy joined the Russian revolution.
By the time he understood the danger the Stalinist bureaucracy represented to the revolution, "Reiss" was already established at the head of the spy network in Western Europe. The Stalinist betrayal of the Spanish revolution finally convinced him that Soviet power had degenerated. He resigned, knowing that killers would be despatched to hunt him down. "I should have written this letter a long time ago," he wrote. "Until now, I marched with you. Not one step more! Those who remain silent now become Stalin's accomplices, and betray the cause of the working class, the cause of socialism...
"I still have enough force in me to start all over again. And this is what we must do if we are to save socialism...
Reiss never considered going over to the imperialist enemies of Soviet Russia, who would have welcomed a uvior of his rank with open arms. Instead, he tried to convince his colleagues in the network that they too should break with Stalin. His superior Krivitsky, refused to listen (but deserted ten years later, to work for the American secret service in the cold war).
Daniel Künzi's film documentary places this fascinating fragment of history in its context: the young militant who reacts to the disastrous capitulation of social democracy at the outbreak of WWI; the Communist who accepts a secret mission to defend and extend the revolution, and the seasoned revolutionary who breaks with Stalinism and seeks to build a new, Fourth International.
Vanessa Redgrave narrates the English version, which includes a number of interviews with Reiss" contemporaries.
Reviewed by Jan Malewski Order from Daniel Künzi, 5 rue Dancet, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland