The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison
America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent
Marguerite wrote two accounts of her second Russian imprisonment. In both, she described being interrogated repeatedly by a man named Roller, who tried to make her confess that she was spying in Siberia. He told her that she would be tried in secret and, if found guilty, she could receive the death sentence. In her …
Continue reading "Was Marguerite really on a secret mission?"
Having apparently appeased Cheka, Marguerite Harrison was released from solitary confinement and placed in a cell with a dozen other women who faced political charges. These inmates included a young peasant girl who was overheard speaking about a new revolution, wives and girlfriends of White Russian Army officers, and aristocrats who had supported the czar. …
Marguerite knew that it was only a matter of time before Mogilevsky would grow dissatisfied with her reports and order her arrest. The time came on on October 20. She had returned to the guesthouse after working late at the Foreign Office and was getting ready for bed around two o’clock in the morning when …
Continue reading "The game ends: Marguerite Harrison is arrested"
Marguerite knew the Reds suspected her, but she tried to tell herself they had no evidence against her. Then one night in early April as she walked from work at the Foreign Office, a soldier stopped her in the street and demanded her name. When she told him, he replied, “You’re arrested.” The soldier led …
