We love substantial - lifespan spy stories . The gadgetry ! The clandestine meetings ! The coded messages ! But thus far , most spy chronicle have glossed over the role of butterfly - collecting . That was a terrible mistake .
Commenterspagornasmshared thisreal history of a spyworking in the early 1900s — and the by chance important role that butterfly stroke - collecting and birdwatching played in his employment :
It ’s not sci - fi , but I would have it away to see the tale of Colonel Frederick M. Bailey ( Mission to Taskhent , his autobiography , is brilliant ) . He was a undercover agent in the British secret service , work a signals intelligence activity unit in Meshed , Persia / Iran , in 1919 , when he was call up to trip through British India to Kashgar , where he then infiltrated into Soviet Turkestan during the Russian Civil War , with the military mission of “ undoing ” the Bolshevik revolution while scoping Soviet plans for what became have a go at it as the Kalmyk Projekt , their attempt to overrun British India through Afghanistan ’s territory .
After he ’s embedded in Tashkent , he befriends a blindingly cagey American diplomat who take a hop him from jail . Bailey was an expert in terminology ( he taught himself Tibetan and helped Francis Younghusband contribute the British invasion of Tibet in 1904 ) , and eventually break under cover as a Cheka federal agent hunt himself . After more shenanigans , wherein he was made to understand between Sultan of Afghan ( who was seek Soviet protection from British India ) and the local Bolshevik apparatchik .
Bailey eventually found a friend he made in prison house , a German captive captured sooner in the war , and the two fly through the desert to modern - day Ashgabat ( then part of Persia ) . But Bailey was n’t done with the region : a few curt year later he repay to Central Asia to support and expand the Basmatchi Rebellions , which live a decade and caused enormous heartache for the Bolsheviks as they examine to consolidate control over the region .
Like most British / priggish imperialists , Bailey was also an amateur horticulturalist and entomologist ; he discovered several young species of poppy and butterflies all while playing hide and seek with the former version of the KGB .
Anyway , true statement is better than fabrication sometimes !
Today , Bailey ’s butterfly stroke assemblage ishoused in the archives of theAmerican Museum of Natural History .
When you think about it , butterfly - collecting , bird - watching , and worm - hunt are all much more practical hobbyhorse for a spy than the Bond - inspired 1 of target practice and stool barkeeper hate you . It gives an self-justification to carry a notebook computer and a tv camera everywhere . Jaunts to remote locations are easy explained , and having the odd snatch of gadgetry on your someone is simply expected .
If nothing else , it should give the writers of the next Bond moving-picture show some really novel ideas .
Image : Karner Blue , Lycaeides melissa samuelis by Sam Droege /USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
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