Who are the greatest spies who ever lived? In the movies, MI6 agents’ lives were described as exciting and glamorous, but the truth is that a life of a secret agent, or a spy, is not to enjoy gambling in Monte Carlo, surrounded with beautiful women, and cash sticking out of every of his pockets, but to be the defender of his/her country, while being deep inside the enemy territory. It is more like the Daniel Craig’s version of 007.
The security of a state depends largely on information about the plans made by her enemies, and the reliability and quality of the information of its intelligence services.
The era in which the spies were most active is, of course, the period between the two world wars and the Cold War. Perhaps because of this, the largest and most famous spies come precisely from the then major powers (USSR, UK, USA…) However, this period was not the first time the world was introduced to spies.
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Spy craft is considered to be one of the oldest, and even the prehistoric tribes probably had characters who have stolen, from other tribes, the “information” on how to light the fire or what to do with the female after hitting her with a club. Later times have brought a new kind of espionage, and now, we cannot not even imagine the ways in which we are all spied, (just kidding, nobody is spying on us, right?). Let’s continue with our list. Since we cannot classify spies as ”the best” or “the worst”, in order to rank the spies on our list, we have taken into consideration the era in which they have been active as spies, because we all know that “the history is the teacher of life”. The experiences from the elder spies remained as a “guidebook”, that will have its new pages written every time a new and younger spy offers some new wisdom in the world of espionage, and this “book” will serve all the future generations of spies, because we have to face it, there will always be a need for this dangerous and mysterious line of work. If you are interested in a similar topic, also about people who achieve the unimaginable, we suggest that you read our article about 7 Celebrities with Autism.
I think that we have kept you waiting long enough, here are the world’s greatest spies. We have ranked them from the”youngest” to the ”eldest” spies. With the old-school spies being the pioneers and role models in this area, we thought that they deserved higher positions in our list.
7. Aldrich Ames
Started working as a spy in 1969.
Sometimes, when it comes to spy games, you can get confused, pretty easily, since the players can switch sides in a blink of an eye. In this case, a counterintelligence agent of the CIA, turned out to be one of the most effective Russian spies in the recent history of their espionage. Because of financial problems, Aldrich became a mole for Russians, and the information he gave to them compromised, 100 CIA agents, and as a result of that, 10 US Secret Service agents died. The CIA was suspecting that they have a mole in their ranks for long, but since they had no evidence, they supposed that the Russians have somehow bugged them. The things that gave Ames away were, his new expensive house, a brand new sports car, and a huge phone bill every month, and his government salary was not nearly enough to cover all that. This brought the CIA’s attention to him, and he got arrested in 1994 in Washington. He was charged with spying for the USSR, and got sentenced to life.
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6. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Started working as spies in 1942.
Husband and wife spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Russian spies living and working in America, but working for the Russians to be more precise. They have managed to gather over 1,000 highly confidential documents, that contained nuclear secrets, and forwarded them to the USSR. In 1942. Julius was recruited by the KGB, and soon after that he became one of the most effective Soviet spies that operated in the U.S.A. After the arrest in 1953, their spying careers ended. They were charged with espionage, and convicted to death by an electric chair. The couple was executed in an electric chair in Sing Sing prison.
5. Kim Philby
Started working as a spy in 1933
Kim Philby was a spy for the British intelligence service, or at least, that’s what the British thought. The reality was different, he was actually a Socialist by personal choice, and under the control of the Soviet KGB. He was probably the most famous double agent in the cold war era. Philby’s career, has taken him all over the world, from Spain, to Africa, the United States, Istanbul and Moscow, and he got a reputation as one of the best British spies, but what they didn’t know, is that he was actually sending secret information to the Soviet Embassy in Paris all the time. At the end of 40s, he was a mediator between the American and British secret services in Washington, and used that meeting to gather information regarding the American weapons and stocks of nuclear missiles. It is the report from this meeting that influenced Stalin’s political decisions, which resulted with the Korean War. British intelligence suspected that they had a mole in their ranks, but they could not prove anything, until Philby defected to the Soviet Union in 1963, where he continued to work as a spy for the Soviet secret service, until his death in 1988. After his death, the Russian government has awarded him with posthumous medals.
4. Mata Hari
She started working as a spy in 1914
You remember the TV show “Nikita” the beautiful and dangerous female secret agent? Well, if you take away the high-tech weapons and technology, Mata Hari was “Nikita” in real life. Margaret Gertrude Cele, was a well known exotic dancer just before, and during, the second World War. When the war started, she became a mistress as well as a lady companion of many rich people and high ranked military personnel. Since she had a Netherland passport, which was a neutral country, she had frequently crossed the state border, and that attracted the attention of the allied forces. When the British intelligence service brought her in for questioning, Mata Hari claimed that she works for the French government, under cover. But, the French government did not confirm her statement, and soon after that, they intercepted a German radio link, where the details of one of their best spies were discussed. Since all the facts from that message pointed to Mata Hari, she was arrested and accused of being a German spy, and was sentenced to death in October 1917.
3. Fritz Jouber Duquesne
Started working as a spy in 1899
Duquesne was a soldier, adventurer, journalist, and a writer, who became famous for his spy activities during the First and the Second World war, for Germans. When he was young, he fought in his native South Africa during the Second Boer War, against England, where he actually joined the British army, and managed to sabotage their actions, and send information regarding the movement of the British troops. After the beginning of the First World War, Fritz became a German spy, and managed to set several bombs on British ships. He even got captured in 1917, but after spending two years in a jail in New York, but he managed to he escape. Between the two World Wars, he pursued his spying career and had many different identities and fictional stories regarding his history and origin. His stories allowed him to actually become an adviser on big game hunting to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, also to become a publicist in the movie industry, a journalist, and to be at the head of the New Food Society in New York. His spying days were finished in 1942, when he and 32 other German spies were arrested and convicted in the largest American spy trial. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, from which he didn’t escape.
2. Sidney Reilly
Started working as a spy in 1896.
The is the spy that served as the key role in the creation of the character of James Bond, and that is why we had to put him on our 7 of the Greatest Spies Who Ever Lived list. Sidney Reilly was a spy working in the early twentieth century, and he was working for several countries. He got his spy name, the “ace of spies”, thanks to his expertise in personal promotion, fraud, and he was also a master of disguise, which allowed him to cross the state borders under many false names. He gathered military secrets, which included plans and prototypes of military aircrafts. Just like 007, when needed, he used his charm to seduce women who were important in politics. One of his best missions was in 1917. when he was at the head of the British intelligence group that was in charge of overthrowing the Russian Bolshevik government. He led the attempted murder of Lenin, but, they were compromised, and he barely escaped, took a German identity and fled to Finland. During a secret operation in 1925, he was lured to the Soviet Union, and got captured and got sentenced to death by a firing squad.
1. Alan Pinkerton
Started working as a spy in 1850.
A Scottish detective, known for pioneering a lot of spying techniques, which are used even today, was actually the first detective who overshadowed his “targets”, and his undercover operations, named “the interpretation of the role,” helped in forming of the modern espionage. Pinkerton was the founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, in 1850, and his team was most remembered for monitoring and capturing several of important criminals from that period. During the American Civil War, Pinkerton was a close associate and adviser of Abraham Lincoln, and he was also in charge of the Intelligence Service of the Union. In 1861, he helped in the prevention of the murder conspiracy of Lincoln, by placing his spies inside the Confederate army, and even he was undercover as an officer of the Confederation, to gather information regarding the movements of enemy troops.
This was our 7 of the Greatest Spies Who Ever Lived list. We hope that it was as interesting for you to read it, as it was interesting for us to write it. Be sure to regularly follow our website, because you will always find something interesting for you.
