Isaiah Oggins was an American-born communist and spy for the Soviet secret police. After working in Europe and the Far East, Oggins was arrested, served eight years in the GULAG detention system, and was summarily executed on the orders of Joseph Stalin.
The American Thread Company's Jillson Mills in Willimantic, Connecticut, where Oggins was born and grew up
Early 20th-century photo of Harbin, site of Oggins' last posting before his arrest by the Soviets
21st-century photo of Norillag (the Norilsk GULAG), where Oggins spent most of his imprisonment
Oggins died while under observation by Grigory Mairanovsky of the effects of curare (here, as part of a South American hunting kit)
Ignace Reiss – also known as "Ignace Poretsky," "Ignatz Reiss," "Ludwig," "Ludwik", "Hans Eberhardt," "Steff Brandt," Nathan Poreckij, and "Walter Scott " – was one of the "Great Illegals" or Soviet spies who worked in third party countries where they were not nationals in the late 1920s and 1930s. He was known as a nevozvrashchenec ("unreturnable").
Reiss' brother died in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920 (here, Polish soldiers display captured Soviet battle flags after the Battle of Warsaw)
Reiss received the Order of the Red Banner (here, first variant, on red cloth (1918–1924))
The Great Purge by Joseph Stalin of Bolshevik revolutionaries led Reiss to defect (here, Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, all marked either for assassination or execution
Lausanne railway station, where Reiss met Schildbach, who led him to his death