Richard B. Spence


Richard Brian Spence is an American historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Idaho. He specializes in modern Russian, military, secret societies, espionage, and occult history. He has produced biographies of Sidney Reilly and Aleister Crowley. He has been interviewed for various documentaries on the History Channel and is a consultant for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Background

Spence earned a BA in history from California State University, Bakersfield in 1973, then completed an MA in 1976 and a PhD in 1981 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He taught at UC Santa Barbara as a visiting assistant professor from 1981 to 1985.

Career

Spence joined the University of Idaho faculty in 1986, achieved the rank of professor, and later served as chair of the Department of History. His teaching and research spans modern Russia, intelligence and military history, antisemitism and the Holocaust, the history of secret societies, and occultism. He has consulted for the International Spy Museum and has appeared in History Channel programming. He holds emeritus status at the University of Idaho and continues to deliver public lectures.
He has published several books and is the author of numerous articles in Revolutionary Russia, Intelligence and National Security, Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism, American Communist History, The Historian, and other academic journals in addition to articles in general audience magazines. He is known as Rick Spence.
After retiring from teaching, Spence launched the podcast Strange As It Seems in 2024, exploring historical mysteries, espionage, and occult topics drawn from his research career.

Works

Articles

  • "The Savinkov Affair Reconsidered." East European Quarterly 24, no. 1, March 1990.
  • "The Terrorist and the Master Spy, the political partnership of Boris Savinkov and Sidney Reilly, 1918–25." Revolutionary Russia 4, no. 1, June 1991, 111–131.
  • "White against Red in Uriankhai, Revolution and Civil War on Russia's Asiatic Frontier, 1918–1921." Revolutionary Russia 6, no. 1, June 1993, 97–120.
  • "Sidney Reilly in America, 1914–1917." Intelligence and National Security 10, no. 1, January 1995, 92–121.
  • "Sidney Reilly's Lubyanka Diary, 30 October–4 November 1925." Revolutionary Russia 8, no. 2, December 1995, 179–194.
  • "K. A. Jahnke and the German Sabotage Campaign in the United States and Mexico, 1914–1918." The Historian 59, no. 1, Fall 1996, 89–112.
  • "Useful brigand, Ataman S. N. Bulak-Balakhovich, 1917–21." Revolutionary Russia 11, no. 1, 1998, 17–36.
  • "The Tragic Fate of Kalamatiano, America's Man in Moscow." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 12, no. 3, Fall 1999, 346–374.
  • "Russia's Operatsiia Trest, A Reappraisal." Global Intelligence Monthly 1, no. 4, April 1999, 19–24.
  • "Secret Agent 666, Aleister Crowley and British Intelligence in America, 1914–1918." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 13, no. 3, 2000, 359–371.
  • "Interrupted Journey, British Intelligence and the Arrest of Leon Trotskii, April 1917." Revolutionary Russia 13, no. 1, 2000, 1–28.
  • "The Strange Case of Sergius Riis, A Spy in the Interwar Baltic." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 15, no. 2, 2002, 222–242.
  • "Englishmen in New York, The SIS American Station, 1915–21." Intelligence and National Security 19, no. 3, Autumn 2004, 511–537.
  • "Senator William E. Borah, Target of Soviet and Anti-Soviet Intrigue, 1922–1929." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 19, no. 1, Spring 2006, 134–155.
  • "Catching Louis Fraina, Loyal Communist, US Government Informant, or British Agent?" American Communist History 11, no. 1, April 2012, 81–99.
  • "John Reed, American Spy? Reed, American Intelligence and Weston Estes' 1920 Mission to Russia." American Communist History 13, no. 1, 2014, 39–63.
  • "Death in the Adirondacks, Amtorg, Intrigue, and the Dubious Demise of Isaiya Khurgin and Efraim Sklyansky, August 1925." American Communist History 14, no. 2, August 2015, 135–158.
  • "The Voyage of the Shilka, The Bolshevik Revolution Comes to Seattle, 1917." American Communist History 16, no. 1–2, 2017, 88–101.
  • "Tsarina's Necklace, Russian Jewels, Secret Agents, and the Romanovs." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 33, no. 2, 2020, 309–327.

Book contributions

  • "Boris I of Bulgaria." In: Dictionary of World Biography, vol. 2, edited by Frank Northen Magill and Alison Aves. Routledge..

Book reviews