Ignace Stanislavovich Reiss
Игнатий Станиславович Рейсс
Soviet illegal who broke publicly with Stalin and was murdered by the NKVD
“Whoever remains silent today becomes an accomplice of Stalin.” — his break letter to the Soviet Central Committee, 17 July 1937
Born Nathan Markovich Poretsky into a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, he joined the Polish communist movement in 1919 and later ran Soviet military-intelligence and state-security networks in Western Europe under the names “Ludwig” and “Ignace Reiss.” He received the Order of the Red Banner in 1928 but broke with Stalinism amid the Moscow trials and Great Purge. In an open letter to the Soviet Central Committee dated 17 July 1937, he returned his decoration and declared support for the Fourth International. On 4 September 1937 he was lured out near Lausanne by his longtime acquaintance Gertrud Schildbach and shot dead by an NKVD team directed by Sergei Shpigelglas.
Career timeline
- 1919Joined the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland
- 1921–1937Conducted clandestine Comintern and Soviet intelligence work across central and western Europe
- 1928Awarded the Order of the Red Banner for intelligence service
- 1937.07Broke publicly with Stalin, returned his decoration, and backed the Fourth International
- 1937.09Murdered by an NKVD assassination team near Lausanne