Did Jazep Varonka “Order a Hit” on a British Agent?
Casimir Pilenas, otherwise Casimir Palmer, and also Casimir Palmer-Pilenas, was a private detective, British intelligence agent, and Scotland Yard informant.
According to research by Rita T. Kronenbiter, Pilenas simultaneously worked as an agent of the Russian Okhrana, gathering intelligence among Latvian terrorists.
In 1917, as a British intelligence informant, he facilitated the arrest of Leon Trotsky in Nova Scotia by naval authorities. Palmer-Pilenas accused Trotsky of carrying $10,000, which he claimed had been allocated to Trotsky from pro-German sources. However, during the arrest and subsequent internment, no money was found on either Trotsky or his five companions.
In 1923, Pilenas wrote an article for the New York Times about the Lithuanian annexation of Memel.
According to researcher Albert Lee, US citizen Casimir Palmer-Pilenas in 1937 allegedly worked as a “government intelligence agent” and attempted to expose connections between Henry Ford and the Nazis.
In a series of articles published in autumn 1921 in The Washington Times, Casimir Pilenas-Palmer presents the results of his investigations into the Silesian problem. The British agent accuses the French leadership of intending to annex Upper Silesia to Poland, which was assigned the role of a French “pawn.” It is precisely in this context that brief information appears about Casimir Pilenas’s contacts with Jazep Varonka, who allegedly organized several unsuccessful attempts on his life.
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If we want to get to the bottom of this situation, we need to go back to October 1920. At that time, I was acting director of British military intelligence in Vilnius, and on the morning of the 8th, I had a meeting with Major Pargeter, head of the British military mission in Lithuania, and former British consul Colonel Ward. We had received information that General Żeligowski’s troops were only sixteen miles from Vilnius and were continuing to advance.
Casimir Pilenas-Palmer
Since Żeligowski had agreed not to enter Lithuania, it was decided that Major Pargeter and Captain Pigeol of the French military mission, along with a small delegation, would go to the Polish headquarters to demand explanations.
Soon, when their arrival was reported, the British officer was arrested and detained for eight hours. Captain Pigeol was released.
When the group returned and reported that the advance on Vilnius would continue, it was decided to move our headquarters to Kaunas, where we arrived the following evening. In Vilnius, I had carried out dangerous assignments. Threats to my life arose daily, and the initial quiet of Kaunas seemed to promise an easier future.
However, the calm was broken on the eleventh with the appearance of Captain Schopf. That was enough to understand that we had problems. Schopf was one of many former Lithuanian army officers who had joined General Bermondt-Avalov, a Baltic baron and leader of an insurgent army whose goal was to seize and sell any property in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania on behalf of the Baltic barons.
I suspected that Schopf was involved in some malicious scheme. In an attempt to uncover his intentions, I was fortunate, because a Belarusian nobleman whom I was paying had been admitted to the meetings of Bermondt-Avalov’s associates. After the first meeting, he returned with a report. The intelligence obtained confirmed that the money paid had become the best investment of my life.
The man’s first words were: “Leave immediately. They are going to kill you tomorrow. If you stay here, there will be no escape. This was organized by Varonka, and you know who Varonka is…”
Jazep Varonka
Varonka was a former minister of Belarusian affairs in Kaunas, and I had caused his dismissal after discovering that he was using his position to intrigue with the Bolsheviks on one side and the Germans on the other. Financial assistance was provided to him by a woman named Wildberg, with whom Varonka lived. It was he who had given the order to shoot me on the spot.
As a result, the next day around noon, I left my office and walked along Laisvės Alėja (Freedom Boulevard), a wide tree-lined boulevard leading to the center toward the Hotel Metropole. The Hotel Metropole, where I was temporarily living, stood at the intersection of the boulevard and Daukantas Street, and on the opposite corner stood a shoe-shiner’s booth.
It was there that I saw Schopf, who appeared to be having his shoes polished. But before I reached the corner, seven of my men, warned in advance about the conspiracy against me, surrounded the booth. Schopf could not escape but remained completely calm, merely remarking: “Ah! I see you know all about our little secret. Very well. I’m leaving.” And he walked away after some warnings addressed to him.
The second visit from Varonka’s agent came the next day. His attempt was more successful compared to Schopf’s. Again I was walking along the boulevard toward my hotel, but this time in the evening. At some distance, I sensed that I was being followed by a stranger with a very distinctive appearance. He was a man of about forty, with carefully trimmed mustache, tall, thin, and slightly stooped. He looked like anything but an assassin, as he could easily pass for a very educated and capable statesman.
For some time he continued to maintain a considerable distance, walking behind me. However, as soon as I turned from the center of the road toward a dark wall, he quickened his pace until he was close enough to touch me.
He actually made a motion as if to tap me on the shoulder, but before he could, two of my men, who had been hiding in the doorway of a building used by the Bolsheviks as a meeting place, jumped out and grabbed him.
He did not protest or resist when his loaded revolver was taken away. Why he wanted to speak to me before shooting, I do not know, but it served me well.
All these events were conveyed in detail by the hotel staff to my wife, as a result of which she worked herself into such a state that it became necessary to leave the country urgently, at least for some time. Accordingly, on Sunday, October 17, we left Lithuania for England.
Pilenas, Casimir. Inside story of the French military plot against Silesia // The Washington times., October 23, 1921, SUNDAY MORNING, Second News Feature Section.