Lockhart Conspiracy

(conspiracy of the “three ambassadors”), a counterrevolutionary conspiracy organized in 1918 by the diplomatic representatives of Great Britain, France, and the United States in Soviet Russia for the purpose of overthrowing worker-peasant power.

Primary participants in the conspiracy were R. Lockhart, the organizer, who was chief of the special British mission, Cromie, the naval attaché, and S. Reilly, lieutenant of the intelligence service, all of Great Britain; J. Noulens, ambassador, M. Grenard, general consul, Lavergne, head of the military mission, and H. Vertemont, captain of the intelligence service, of France; and D. Francis, the ambassador, and K. Kalamatiano, the spy network resident, of the USA. The diplomatic conspirators drew Russian counterrevolutionists and paid spies into the plot. They prepared an insurrection in Moscow (as well as in other cities) and planned the arrest of members of the Soviet government. The conspiracy was disclosed and liquidated by the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (All-Russian Cheka) on Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1918. On Dec. 3, 1918, the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced Kalamatiano and his assistant A. V. Fride to death by firing squad and eight defendants to varying terms of imprisonment. Lockhart, Grenard, Reilly, and Vertemont, the latter two being fugitives from justice, were declared to be outlaws.