Knight Without Armour

An undercover Englishman, A. J. Fothergill, is recruited by Colonel Forrester to spy on Russia because he speaks the language fluently. Under the alias Peter Ouronov, he infiltrates a revolutionary circle led by Axelstein. The radicals plot to blow up General Gregor Vladinoff, the father of Alexandra Vladinoff, but the attempt fails. The would-be assassin is shot and manages to reach Peter’s apartment before dying, and for his inadvertent involvement Peter is sent to Siberia.

World War I makes Countess Alexandra Vladinoff a widow and brings the Bolsheviks to power, freeing Peter and Axelstein. When the Russian Civil War erupts, Alexandra is arrested for being an aristocrat, and Peter is tasked by now-Commissar Axelstein to escort her to Petrograd for trial. Instead, Peter leads her to the safety of the White Army. The Red Army defeats the Whites the next day, and Alexandra is captured again. Peter seizes a prison-commissar commission from a drunken official and uses the document to free her. The two, now deeply in love, flee into the forest on Alexandra’s estate for a brief idyll, and later they board a train.

At a railway station they pretend to be brother and sister, but a communist official possesses a photograph of the Countess. A young and sensitive Poushkoff—the Commissar—arranges to escort them and brings in an old gardener who swears she is not the Countess. They must travel to Samara for identity confirmation, and Poushkoff accompanies them. On the train, his suspicions are confirmed when he sees [Peter] tenderly kiss Alexandra’s hand. He advises them to craft a better story. Across the journey the trio grows closer. They confess that they “understand” his feelings for Alexandra, and Alexandra remarks that meeting him has been the greatest luck they have had. Deeply moved, he breaks down, weeping and kissing her hand, and they comfort him. At a stop, he hints at an escape and steps away. Peter wonders aloud, “What about the boy?” who might suffer if they do run. A shot rings out: Poushkoff has committed suicide to provide a diversion.

The lovers board a barge down the Volga, but Alexandra becomes gravely ill. When Peter goes for a doctor, he is arrested by the Whites for lacking papers. A doctor from an international Red Cross team finds Alexandra and takes her for treatment. About to be executed, Peter makes a break for it. At the station, a Red Cross doctor, a Scotsman who believes his story, dresses his wounded arm while a nurse reads aloud the passenger list for a train bound for Bucharest. When he hears Alexandra’s name, Peter crashes through the door and clings to the outside of the cars. She hears him, and reaches out to him, crying

Here!

as the train speeds them to safety.

Last Updated: October 05, 2025 at 12:10