(October Revolution) is 100 years old. And the disputes about the source of funding for the activities of the Bolsheviks do not subside, if they do not grow. Supporters vehemently deny that the Bolsheviks took money from foreigners, opponents just as vehemently confirm. There are no direct documents, but circumstantial evidence is enough.

In particular, on December 3, 1917, Secretary of State Kuhlmann stated in a letter to the Kaiser: “Only when the Bolsheviks began to receive a constant influx of funds from us through various channels and under various labels, they were able to put their main organ, Pravda, on its feet. ", carry out energetic propaganda and significantly expand the initially narrow base of their party."

Russian money

For some reason, the least and rather vaguely talk about Russian money in the revolution. There were several sources. And one of them is the capital of merchants and industrialists-Old Believers. The most famous are the names of Savva Morozov and Nikolai Shmit, who, back in the first Russian revolution, transferred tens, if not hundreds of thousands of rubles to the cause of the Bolsheviks. Moreover, both of them died a strange death, and the Bolsheviks took part in the division of their property. After the death of the manufacturer Schmit, the Bolsheviks stepped up the scheme to take away his fortune. Schmitt's sisters were disinherited through fictitious marriages, his brother was blackmailed, as a result of which he received only 17 thousand, the rest of the money was transferred to the disposal of the "Bolshevik center" of the RSDLP.

It is worth noting that by 1917 the Old Believers had become a serious political force that opposed the Russian autocracy. By the way, Nizhny Novgorod played a significant role in these scenarios - it was here that the All-Russian Congresses of the Old Believers were held for many years. And many heirs of the Old Believer capitals, instead of continuing the work of their ancestors, went into the revolution.

Maxim Gorky made a significant contribution to the Bolsheviks' box office, deducting 40% of the proceeds from the production of "The Lower Depths" in Germany and successfully collecting money during his visit to the United States. The Bolsheviks received constant funding from expropriations, in other words, from robbing banks and entrepreneurs. Yakov Sverdlov, a native of Nizhny Novgorod, took part in their organization. The amounts were different. So, the Ural fighting squad of the Kadomtsev brothers in 1906 robbed a mail train near Ufa, where they seized more than 200 thousand rubles, of which 60 thousand were handed over to Lenin by a special courier. The Kadomtsev group did not disdain the robbery of wine shops. Money was laundered through a network of enterprises and firms, both in Russia and abroad.

For understanding, a sailor on the Volga received 15-20 rubles a month, the salary of a policeman was a little more than 20 rubles a month (the uniform was for his own). Monthly party membership dues averaged 1 ruble. 50 kopecks, and the party itself numbered 24-25 thousand people.

Germans and revolution

The most developed version of financing the Bolsheviks with the money of Germany and Astro-Hungary. Through Alexander Parvus, who established contacts with the German authorities as early as 1915. Marxist supporters deny funding from the then enemy of the Russian Empire on the grounds that there is no direct evidence and receipts from Lenin. But there are documents from the German General Staff confirming the transfers and other circumstantial evidence. According to information widely published in the modern German press (the last publication in the journal Der Spiegel in December 2007) from open sources of the German Foreign Ministry, the Russian Bolsheviks received from the German Foreign Ministry only for four years - from 1914 to the end of 1917 d. funds for the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in the form of cash and weapons in the amount of 26 million Reichsmarks, which corresponds to today's 75 million euros.

According to the historian Yuri Felshtinsky, during the war, Germany spent at least 382 million marks on so-called “peaceful propaganda”, and until May 1917, more money was spent on Romania or Italy than on Russia. In Russia, according to Felshtinsky, the only newspaper funded by the Germans in 1917 was Pravda. According to the British historian J. Smil, by the end of 1917 Germany's expenses for organizing unrest in Russia amounted to approximately 30 million marks. Now experts are talking about the amount of 60 million German marks for a revolution in Russia.

Trotsky and Wall Street

American financiers also gave money for the revolution. Through Trotsky, who had family and business connections on Wall Street.

In particular, we are talking about Abram Lvovich (Leibovich) Zhivotovsky, the maternal uncle of Leon Trotsky. It was a well-known stock speculator, a millionaire; since 1912 - a member of a special consortium of the "Russian-Asian Bank". In 1915, he created the Petrograd Trade and Transport Joint Stock Company, one of his suppliers was the American Metal Company, financial settlements were made through the New York National City Bank. Zhivotovsky knows three more brothers as entrepreneurs and stock exchange dealers, who settled after the revolution in different countries and tried to "establish contacts between the Soviet Republic and the commercial circles of the West."

Joseph Nedava estimates Trotsky's income in 1917 at $12 a week "and some other lecture fees." Trotsky stayed in New York in 1917 for three months, from January to March, so his income from Novy Mir was $144 and, let's say, there were another $100 in lecture fees, for a total of $244. At the same time, Trotsky was able to give 310 dollars to friends, pay for a New York apartment, provide for his family, and, leaving New York for Petrograd in 1917 to organize the Bolshevik phase of the revolution, had with him ... 10,000 dollars set aside.

Trotsky's connections to Wall Street were exposed back in 1974 by Anthony Sutton in his book Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, based on declassified US, Canadian, and British government archives. The book contains, in particular, a letter to US President Woodrow Wilson (October 17, 1918) from William Lawrence Saunders, President of the Ingersoll Rand Corporation, Director of the American International Corporation and Vice Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: “Dear Mr. President, I sympathize with the Soviet form of government as the most suitable for the Russian people…”. Trotsky was the liaison between the Bolsheviks and Wall Street. According to Sutton, Wilson personally issued Trotsky a passport and provided $10,000 (more than $200,000 in today's money).

Trotsky himself commented in the Novaya Zhizn newspaper on rumors about dollars from bankers: “Regarding the story of 10 thousand marks or dollars, neither my government nor I knew anything about it before the appearance of information about it already here, in Russian circles and the Russian press. Trotsky further wrote: “Two days before my departure from New York for Europe, my German co-thinkers gave me a farewell meeting. At this rally, a meeting was held for the Russian revolution. The collection gave $310”. However, another historian, again an American, Sam Landers, in the 90s found evidence in the archives that Trotsky did bring money to Russia. In the amount of $32,000 from Swedish socialist Karl Moor.

Why did you decide to study the life of Vladimir Lenin and then write his biography?

— I started writing about Lenin after I had conducted a large-scale study of the structure of the Bolshevik Party in the period 1917-1923. Then I studied not only those who were members of the Central Committee, but also ordinary communists. Actually, I wanted to understand what kind of responsibility they bear for the terrible events that took place in Russia and other countries. For this, I needed an analysis of the political, economic and cultural background of the October Revolution of 1917.

In addition, I needed to identify the contribution of individual leaders, starting with the founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin. But in order to understand Lenin, it was clearly not enough to study the general facts.

Was it difficult to access the archives?

— When in the early 1980s I began to write my trilogy about the political life of Lenin, only those historians who were trusted in the USSR and considered their own could gain access to the Soviet archives. Everything changed in 1991: already in September of this year I arrived in Moscow. And it was then - after the August coup - that access to archival documents was opened.

For two years I studied these previously inaccessible treasures.

By the way, recently such studies have become much easier to obtain in the archives of the Hoover Institute for War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. There are no less documents about the USSR and Russia than in the Russian archives!

What struck you the most in Lenin's biography?

- Access to the main sources about the life and work of Lenin for many years was limited by the Soviet authorities. After his death, Lenin became a kind of icon. Both in the East and in the West, his image (whether positive or negative) was exploited in a political context. And when the archives were opened, it became possible to understand what Lenin was like in a purely human sense.

He was a bright man who was blinded by his own brightness. He had his own charm. And Lenin was impartial in his calculations. At the same time, he was overwhelmed by unbridled passions, including an obsession with Marxism. Finally, Lenin cheated on his long-suffering devoted wife.

He was a spoiled child and a dangerous genius rolled into one.

- What achievement of Lenin would you call the main one?

— Lenin contributed to the fact that Russia came out of the First World War, and then saved the country from German intervention. And he was able to achieve this, despite the active opposition within his party. Nevertheless, many lands that were part of the Russian Empire were occupied by Germany.

More importantly, it was Russia's withdrawal from the war that contributed to the fact that Germany almost won it. Such a scenario would have been fatal for Lenin, but this did not happen.

Thus, his greatest achievement set the stage for the worst of nightmares.

Still, one should not put Lenin on a pedestal. He would never have taken power if Russia in 1917 had not been in an acute phase of economic, political and military crisis.

What about foreign funding?

- Of course, the Bolsheviks received money from the German authorities, who wanted to weaken the Russian army and bring the "peace party" to power. Of course, this is not the only reason why Lenin came to power. But without German money at the beginning of 1917, Lenin would not have succeeded.

Would anything have come of it without Trotsky?

Lev was a strategist and tactician in the seizure of power in Petrograd in October 1917. He also persuaded Lenin to refuse to ally with other parties on the left. Trotsky was an important figure. But like many politicians who wrote about their activities, he exaggerated his own contribution to the cause of the revolution.

In my opinion, Trotsky is a wonderful example of an arrogant revolutionary politician who, along with Lenin, did not understand how dangerous dictatorship is.

Lenin was still lucky to die in his bed! But Trotsky in 1940 fell victim to the system that he himself helped build.

- And if you remember Joseph Stalin?

“Lenin always felt that Stalin could be used. In general, he appreciated Stalin's ability to rule, intimidate and destroy. Lenin's mistake was that he believed he could always keep Stalin under control. However, when Lenin began to experience health problems, Stalin stopped listening to him. Lenin felt like a father whom his own son decided not to know.

However, Russian and Western historians tend to exaggerate the importance of the contradictions that arose between Lenin and Stalin in 1922-1923.

This conflict is a very minor thing, especially in the light of the emerging Soviet system.

In general, Lenin and Stalin are in many ways the same field: they established a one-party system of government, mobilized society, created a manipulative statehood, committed judicial arbitrariness and stood at the head of militant atheism. Let's not idealize Lenin!

Can we then call the path that Lenin chose to build the state realistic?

- You must be joking! Is it possible to modernize the country and improve people's lives if the economy and society are quarantined?

Lenin did not secure Russia even in international relations. Yes, he kept the Communist International from making dangerous decisions, but this happened after the invasion of Poland in 1920, which turned into a real nightmare for Lenin himself and for the Red Army.

- How did the perception of Lenin's personality change?

- Once upon a time, his figure was considered quite controversial. Western communists admired him, his comrades-in-arms relied on him.

I think that now Lenin is not particularly popular. And the conclusion that Leninism is a disastrous way of organizing society, economy and politics is obvious.

Who will choose a dictatorship if there is a democracy?

There should be no doubt here: the democratic scenario of the development of events after the overthrow of the Romanovs in 1917 was not impossible. Although it is difficult to envy the position of Russia at that time ...

What did Lenin give to modern politics?

— He contributed to the invention of totalitarianism. He had predecessors in revolutionary France, and then followers from among the leaders of the world communist movement of the 20th century.

Despite his brilliant intellect (and perhaps because of it), he did not know what he was doing. Lenin looked at the world through a cloudy glass. And for this "myopia" and self-doubt, millions of people paid with their lives.

What is Lenin's legacy?

The communist past still leaves its mark on modern Russia, despite the fact that the communists themselves have long lost power in the country. The demolition of monuments to Lenin will not help - it is necessary to reform approaches and practices. And only then it will be possible to say that "deleninization" has occurred.

And Lenin's Mausoleum, standing on Red Square in his honor, is not only a defiant architectural object: it is a symbol of the Russian authorities' unwillingness to abandon the past, which brought pain not only to Russia, but also to other states.

The sources of funding for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its main ideologues have occupied historians for many years. Interesting facts were made public in the 2000s, after some documents from the German and Soviet archives were declassified. Researchers of the biography of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) have repeatedly noted that the leader of the world proletariat was not scrupulous in obtaining money to fan the “revolutionary fire”. Who benefited from inciting a civil war in Russia, how German and American bankers financed the Bolsheviks - read in our material.

Outside Interest

One of the main reasons for the beginning of revolutionary unrest in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was the country's participation in the First World War. The international armed conflict, which had no analogues at that time, was the result of increased contradictions between the largest colonial powers that formed in the Entente (Great Britain, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy).

Conspiracy theorists also point out that British and American bankers and industrialists had their own interests in this war - the destruction of the old world order, the overthrow of monarchies, the collapse of the Russian, German and Ottoman empires and the capture of new markets.

However, attacks on the Russian autocracy from abroad were inflicted even before the global world conflict. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began, the money for which the Land of the Rising Sun was lent by American bankers - the Morgans, the Rockefellers. The Japanese in 1903-1904 themselves spent huge sums on various political provocations in Russia.

But even here the Americans could not do without: a colossal amount of 10 million dollars for those times was lent by the banking group of the American financier of Jewish origin Jacob Schiff. The future leaders of the revolution did not disdain this money, guided by the principle "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." In this case, the enemies were all those who opposed the reactionary forces in Russia.

Destructive processes

As a result of the war with the Japanese, the Russian Empire lost the struggle for dominance in the Far East and the Pacific. According to the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth concluded in September 1905, Japan was given the Liaodong Peninsula along with a branch of the South Manchurian Railway, the southern part of Sakhalin Island. In addition, Korea was recognized as a sphere of influence of Japan, the Russians withdrew their troops from Manchuria.

Against the backdrop of the defeats of the Russian Empire on the battlefields, dissatisfaction with the foreign policy and social structure of the state was ripening in the country. Destructive processes within Russian society began at the end of the 19th century, but only at the beginning of the 20th century did they gain strength capable of crushing the empire, without whose approval until recently “not a single gun in Europe could fire”.

The dress rehearsal of the 1917 revolution took place in 1905 after the well-known events of January 9, which went down in history as Bloody Sunday - the execution by the imperial troops of a peaceful demonstration of workers led by the priest Gapon. Strikes and numerous speeches, unrest in the army and navy forced Nicholas II to establish the State Duma, which somewhat relieved the situation, but did not solve the problem at the root.

War has come

By 1914, the beginning of the First World War, the reactionary processes in Russia were already of a systemic nature - Bolshevik propaganda was unfolding throughout the country, numerous anti-monarchist newspapers were published, revolutionary leaflets were printed, strikes and rallies of workers acquired a massive character.

The global armed conflict, in which the Russian Empire was drawn into, made the already difficult existence of workers and peasants unbearable. In the first year of the war, the production and sale of consumer goods in the country fell by a quarter, in the second - by 40%, in the third - by more than half.

"Talents" and their fans

By February 1917, when the "popular masses" in the Russian Empire were finally ripe for the overthrow of the autocracy, Vladimir Lenin (Ulyanov), Leon Trotsky (Bronstein), Matvey Skobelev, Moses Uritsky and other leaders of the revolution had already lived abroad for many years. What kind of money did the ideologists of the "bright future" exist in a foreign land all this time, and not badly at that? And who sponsored the leaders of the smaller proletariat who remained in their homeland?

It is no secret that the radical Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) raised money to fight the bourgeois capitalists by far from always legal methods, or rather, often illegal ones. In addition to donations from altruists and provocateurs, such as the big industrialist Savva Morozov or Trotsky's uncle, the banker Abram Zhivotovsky, expropriations (or, as they were called, "exes"), that is, robberies, were common for the Bolsheviks. By the way, the future Soviet leader, Iosif Dzhugashvili, who went down in history under the name Stalin, took an active part in them.

Friends of the revolution

With the outbreak of the First World War, a new upsurge of the revolutionary movement in Russia begins, fueled, among other things, by money from abroad. This was helped by the family ties of the revolutionaries operating in Russia: Sverdlov had a banker brother in the United States, the uncle of Trotsky, who was hiding abroad, turned over millions in Russia.

Israel Lazarevich Gelfand, better known as Alexander Parvus, played an important role in the development of the revolutionary movement. He was a native of the Russian Empire, had connections with influential financial and political circles in Germany, as well as with German and British intelligence. According to some reports, it was this man who was one of the first to pay attention to the Russian revolutionaries Lenin, Trotsky, Markov, Zasulich and others. In the early 1900s, he helped publish the Iskra newspaper.

Viktor Adler, one of the leaders of the Austrian Social Democracy, became another true "friend of the Russian revolutionaries". It was to him that in 1902 Lev Bronstein, who had escaped from Siberian exile, went, having left his wife with two small children in his homeland. Adler, who later saw in Trotsky a brilliant demagogue and provocateur, provided the guest from Russia with money and documents, thanks to which the future People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the RSFSR successfully reached London.

There at that time, under the name Richter, lived Lenin and. Trotsky conducts propaganda activities, speaks at meetings of social-democratic circles, and writes to Iskra. The sharp-tongued young journalist is sponsored by the party movement and wealthy "comrades-in-arms." A year later, Trotsky-Bronstein in Paris meets his future common-law wife, a native of Odessa, Natalya Sedova, who was also fond of Marxism.

In the spring of 1904, Trotsky was invited to visit his estate near Munich by Alexander Parvus. The banker not only introduces him to the circle of European supporters of Marxism, devotes him to the plans for the world revolution, but also develops with him the idea of ​​​​creating Soviets.

Parvus was also one of the first to predict the inevitability of the First World War for new sources of raw materials and markets. Trotsky, who by that time had become deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, took part with Parvus in the revolutionary events of 1905 in Petrograd, which, to their chagrin, did not lead to the overthrow of the autocracy. Both were arrested (Trotsky was sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia) and both soon fled abroad.

After the events of 1905, Trotsky settled in Vienna, generously sponsored by his socialist friends, lived in grand style: he changed several luxurious apartments, became a member of the highest social democratic circles in Austria-Hungary and Germany. Another sponsor of Trotsky was the German theorist of Austro-Marxism, Rudolf Hilferding, with his support, Trotsky published the reactionary newspaper Pravda in Vienna.

Money doesn't smell

During the outbreak of the First World War, Lenin and Trotsky were in the territory of Austria-Hungary. They, as Russian subjects, were almost arrested, but Viktor Adler stood up for the leaders of the revolution. As a result, both left for neutral countries. Germany and the United States were preparing for war: in America, President Woodrow Wilson, close to the bigwigs of the financial world, came to power and the Federal Reserve System (FRS) was created, the former banker Max Warburg was put at the head of the German intelligence services. Under the control of the latter, Nia-Bank was established in Stockholm in 1912, which later financed the activities of the Bolsheviks.

After the failed revolution of 1905, for some time the revolutionary movement in Russia remained almost without "feeding" from abroad, and the paths of its main ideologists - Lenin and Trotsky - diverged. Significant sums began to arrive after Germany was bogged down in the war, and again largely thanks to Parvus. In the spring of 1915, he proposed to the German leadership a plan to incite revolution in the Russian Empire in order to force the Russians to withdraw from the war. The document described how to organize an anti-monarchist campaign in the press, conduct subversive agitation in the army and navy.

Parvus' plan

The key role in terms of overthrowing the autocracy in Russia was assigned to the Bolsheviks (although the final division in the RSDLP into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks took place only in the spring of 1917). Parvus urged "against the backdrop of a losing war" to direct the negative feelings of the Russian people against tsarism. He was also one of the first to offer support for separatist sentiments in Ukraine, stating that the formation of an independent Ukraine "can be seen both as a liberation from the tsarist regime and as a solution to the peasant question." The Parvus plan cost 20 million marks, of which the German government at the end of 1915 agreed to lend a million. It is not known how much of this money reached the Bolsheviks, since, as German intelligence reasonably believed, part of the money was pocketed by Parvus. Part of this money definitely reached the revolutionary cash desk and was spent for its intended purpose.

The well-known Social Democrat Eduard Bernstein, in an article published in 1921 in the newspaper Vorverts, claimed that Germany paid the Bolsheviks more than 50 million gold marks.

Dvuliky Ilyich

Kerensky claimed that Lenin's associates received a total of 80 million from the Kaiser's treasury. The funds were transferred, among other things, through Nia-Bank. Lenin himself did not deny that he took money from the Germans, but he never named specific amounts.

Nevertheless, in April 1917 the Bolsheviks were publishing 17 dailies with a total weekly circulation of 1.4 million. By July, the number of newspapers increased to 41, and circulation rose to 320,000 a day. And this is not counting the numerous leaflets, each circulation of which cost tens of thousands of rubles. At the same time, the Central Committee of the Party acquired a printing house for 260,000 rubles.

True, the Bolshevik Party also had other sources of income: in addition to the already mentioned robberies and robbery, as well as membership fees of the party members themselves (an average of 1-1.5 rubles per month), money came from a completely unexpected direction. So, General Denikin reported that the commander of the Southwestern Front, Gutor, opened a loan of 100 thousand rubles to finance the Bolshevik press, and the commander of the Northern Front, Cheremisov, subsidized the publication of the newspaper "Our Way" from state money.

After the October Revolution of 1917, funding for the Bolsheviks through various channels continued.

Conspiracy theorists claim that the material support of the Russian revolutionaries was provided by structures of large financiers and bankers-masons like the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. U.S. Secret Service documents dated December 1918 noted that large sums for Lenin and Trotsky went through Fed Vice President Paul Warburg. The leaders of the Fed asked for another million dollars from the Morgan financial group - for emergency support of the Soviet government.

In April 1921, the New York Times reported that Lenin's account in one of the Swiss banks received 75 million francs in 1920 alone, Trotsky had 11 million dollars and 90 million francs, Zinoviev and Dzerzhinsky - 80 million francs (there are no documents confirming or refuting this information).

February 24, 2012, 14:10

The film (2004) documented the long-circulated version that the October Revolution was made with German money. The film shocked people of the old Soviet sourdough (and me too). It is not easy for them to believe that the Bolsheviks were brought to power by the diabolical plan of the German Foreign Ministry, developed and implemented by one of the first Russian revolutionaries Alexander Parvus. (Based on a documentary shown on RTR in 2004) This story has until recently been shrouded in secret. This secret was carefully hidden by the Bolsheviks, their German patrons, and the financial circles of Germany, involved in the implementation of what is still called the "Great October Socialist Revolution". This is a documented version of the activities of the man who brought Lenin to power. Berlin .. Here, in the capital of Germany, which had been at war with Russia for half a year, a gentleman arrived from Constantinople, well known to the police under the name Alexander Parvus. Here he was waiting for an important meeting, on which depended not only his fate, but also the fate of Germany, the fate of the country, whose citizenship he unsuccessfully sought for many years. Parvus came to Berlin on the recommendation of the German ambassador to Turkey, von Wangeheim. An influential diplomat close to Kaiser Wilhelm II in a secret telegram advised not to trust Pargus too much Nevertheless, the meeting took place - in the most closed and aristocratic department of Kaiser Germany - in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minutes of the conversation were not kept, but a few days later - March 9, 1915 Parvus provided his memorandum, printed on 20 pages, which in essence was a detailed plan to take Russia out of the war through revolution. We managed to find this memorandum plan in the archives of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He speaks Natalia Narochnitskaya, author of the book "Russia and Russians in the First World History": - Parvus' plan was grandiose in its simplicity. It had everything - from the geography of revolutionary actions, strikes, strikes, which were supposed to paralyze the supply of the army, to a plan of destruction of civil and national self-consciousness, which was grandiose in scale. The collapse of the Russian empire from within was also the central point in Fargus's plan - the rejection of the Caucasus, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Never before has Germany had such an expert on Russia who knew all her weaknesses so well.. He says: - Alexander Parvus - in fact, this is Israel Lazarevich Gelfand. "Parvus" was his pseudonym, taken from Latin - he obviously did not correspond to the reality of the appearance of this obese man, because "parvus" in translation is "small". For the leadership of Kaiser Germany, this plan to destroy Russia from the inside was just a gift of fate - the First World War was going on. After a few months of the war, it became clear to the German command that it was necessary to liquidate the eastern Russian front as soon as possible and transfer all forces to the western one - where the allies of Russia, the British and French, fought. In addition, Turkey, which entered the war on the side of Germany, recently suffered a crushing defeat from Russian troops in the Caucasus. . The Germans started talking about a separate peace with Russia, but Tsar Nikolai Romanovich and the Supreme Duma put forward the slogan "War to a victorious end." He speaks Zbinek Zeman (Czech Republic), biographer of Alexander Parvus: - Parvus wanted a revolution to take place in Russia. The Germans wanted to withdraw Russia from the war. These were two goals that were completely different from each other. In his plan-memorandum, Parvus constantly referred to the experience of the first Russian revolution of 1905. This was his personal experience. . Then he became about one of the leaders of the Council of Workers-Deputies created in St. Petersburg, in fact, its founding father. Alexander Parvus was one of the first political emigrants who returned to Russia in 1905, at the height of strikes and strikes. Natalia Narochnitskaya, author of the book "Russia and Russians in the First World History"": - It was he, and not Lenin at all, who played the role of first violin. Lenin generally came to the hat analysis. At that time in St. Petersburg were already in the lead Parvus and Trotsky. Both were lively journalists. Somehow they managed to get their hands on two newspapers - "Start" and " Russian newspaper". Soon the circulation of these publications at a symbolic price of one kopeck grew to one million copies. N. Narochnitskaya: - Parvus was the first to realize that the manipulation of public consciousness is the most important tool of politics. AT December 1905 the population of the empire was seized with panic. On behalf of the Petersburg Council, a certain "Financial Manifesto" was printed, in which the country's economy was painted in the darkest colors. Immediately, the population began to withdraw their bank deposits, which almost led to the collapse of the entire financial system of the country. The entire composition of the Soviet, including Trotsky, was arrested. Soon the author was also taken into custody. provocative publications. During his arrest, he presented a passport in the name of an Austrian-Hungarian citizen Karl Vaverka, then he admitted that in reality he was a Russian citizen wanted since 1899 - a tradesman Israel Lazarefic Gelfand. He showed the following about himself: he was born in the Minsk province in the town of Berezino in 1867. In 1887 he left for Switzerland, where he graduated from the university. Known in the socialist as the author of theoretical articles. Marital status - married, has a son 7 years old, does not live with his family. Elisabeth Heresh (Austria), biographer of Alexander Parvus: - Sitting in prison, Parvus ordered expensive suits and ties for himself there, took pictures with friends, used the prison library. Visitors came - this is how Rosa Luxembourg visited him while in St. Petersburg . The punishment was not severe - three years of administrative exile in Siberia. On the way to the appointed place, taking advantage of the carelessness of the guards, Parvus fled. Autumn 1906 he appears in Germany, where he publishes a book of memoirs "In the Russian Bastille during the Revolution." This was the first success of Parvus' black PR in creating a negative image of Russia in the eyes of the German reader. After the meeting at the Foreign Ministry with Parvus in 1915 high-ranking German officials appreciated his subversive experience. He becomes the chief consultant of the German government on Russia. Then he is given first tranche - one million gold marks. Then follow new millions "for the revolution" in Russia. The Germans relied on internal unrest in the enemy's country. From the "Parvus plan":"The plan can only be carried out by the party of Russian Social Democrats. Its radical wing, under the leadership of Lenin, has already begun to act... " For the first time Lenin and Parvus met in Munich in 1900. It was the parvus who persuaded Lenin to print "Spark"in his apartment, where an illegal printing house was equipped. : - Relations between Parvus and Lenin were problematic from the very beginning. These were two types of people who hardly converge with each other. At first it was ordinary envy - Lenin always saw in Parvus ideological rival . An already difficult relationship was complicated by a scandal with Gorky. Parvus offered to represent the copyright of the "petrel of the revolution" when staging Gorky's play "At the bottom". By agreement with Gorky, the main income was to go to the party cash desk - that is, under the control of Lenin, and a quarter to Gorky himself - which was a lot. Only in one Barilna performance was shown over 500 times. But it turned out that Parvus appropriated the entire amount - 100 thousand marks. Gorky threatened to sue Parvus. But Rosa Luxembourg convinced Gorky not to wash dirty linen in public. Everything was limited to a closed party court, to which Parvus did not even appear. In a letter to the leadership of the German Social Democrats, he cynically stated that "d The money was spent on a trip with a young lady in Italy... ". This young lady was herself Rosa Luxembourg. Winfred Scharlau (Germany), biographer of Alexander Parvus: - It was a political scandal that caused great damage to his name, and made it possible for many revolutionaries to assert their opinion about Parvus as a deceiver. And now in Switzerland, Parvus was to see Lenin again - with the one to whom he assigned the main role in his plan. According to the memories Krupskaya, Lenin in 1915 For a whole year he spent whole days sitting in local libraries, where he studied the experience of the French Revolution, absolutely not hoping to apply it in Russia in the coming years. E. Heresh: - Rumors spread quickly about the arrival of Parvus. Parvus rented the best room in the most luxurious hotel in Zurich, where he spent time surrounded by lush blondes. His mornings began with champagne and cigars. In Zurich, Parvus distributed a large sum of money among the Russian political emigrants and went on a date with Lenin in Bern, where he found him dining in a cheap restaurant among "his own". Lenin was unhappy that Parvus was looking for a meeting in a public place. Therefore, the fateful conversation was moved to the modest emigre apartment of Lenin and Krupskaya. From the memoirs of Parvus: "Lenin sat in Switzerland and wrote articles that almost did not go beyond the emigre environment. He was completely torn away from Russia and bottled up. I developed my views on him. Revolution is possible in Russia only if Germany wins ". N. Narochnitskaya: - The question arises - why did Parvus choose Lenin? It was Parvus who found him and gave him this chance. Lenin was a cynic and even among the revolutionaries, not everyone was ready to take money from the enemy at the time of the Patriotic War. Parvus as -as if he understood Lenin's terrible ambition, his unscrupulousness, Parvus made him understand that Lenin would have new opportunities, and these opportunities were money. Vahan Hovhannisyan, Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia from the "Dashnaktsutyun" party: - It was in May 1915 that the well-known Swiss meeting between Lenin and Parvus took place, when Lenin accepted Parvus' plan for the destruction of Russia - "the Bolsheviks - power, Russia - defeat." During these months - April, May, summer of 1915, the entire world press wrote about the genocide against the Armenian people. This destruction began in the 15th year and is known in history as the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire. Lenin did not find a word of sympathy, not a word of condolence even for the Armenian Bolsheviks. Parvus was the evil genius of the Armenian people and it was then that Parvus warned Lenin against any pro-Armenian gestures and speeches. The solution is quite simple. The answer lay in the special position of Parvus in Turkey. The main organizers of the Armenian genocide, the ministers in the government of the Young Turks, Tala Pasha and Enver Pasha, became his closest friends. Having left for Turkey for three months after the scandal with Gorky, Parvus lived there for five years. E. Heresh: - Parvus pushed aside any ideology and began to make his huge fortune. He acted as an arms dealer, trade agent, merchant, businessman, publicist and as a consultant to the government of the Young Turks. His residence was on the princely islands. In a short time, becoming a super-influential person, Parvus played a significant role in Turkey's decision to enter the war on the side of Germany. N. Narochnitskaya: - He has a plan to say directly that all this is a pure matter of money. And he understood that the raval of the country and the falling away of parts from it during the war is a collapse for the state. Making an alliance with Lenin, Parvus is sent to the capital of Denmark, a neutral state during the First World War. In Copenhagen, it was easier to establish ties with Russia. Here parvus had to create " offshore to launder German money. E. Heresh: -After the meeting in Switzerland, Lenin did not want to meet Parvus in person anymore. He sends his confidant, Yakov Ganetsky, to Copenhagen instead of himself. In Copenhagen, Parvus creates a commercial export-import company, appointing Yakov Ganetsky, Lenin's liaison, as its manager. After "October" of the 17th year, Ganetsky will be appointed by Lenin as Deputy Chief Commissioner of the State Bank ... The office headed by Ganetsky made it possible to send their people under the guise of "business partners" to Russia to create an underground network. Z. Zeman:- He may have been the discoverer of what is called a "phrank organization" - these were cover organizations, conditional societies that did not do what they officially announced. Such an organization was the "Institute for the Study of the Social Consequences of the War", which Parvus opened in Copenhagen in 1915 with German money. Among its employees - A. Zurabov, former deputy of the State Duma, and Moses Uritsky who established the work of courier agents. After "October" 17th year Uritsky will be appointed by Lenin Chairman of the Petrograd Cheka. Z. Zeman:- This is a very close connection between politics, economics and secret services. At that time, this technology was still in a trial, experimental stage. It hasn't been fully developed yet. Neutral Denmark was then a "mecca" for speculators. But even against this background, Ganetsky's activities in arms smuggling were so defiant that they became the reason for his arrest and then deportation from the country. Hans Bjorkegren (Sweden), author of the book "Russian Post" says: - In Stockholm at that time there were banks, businesses, and people like Parvus, Ganetsky, Vorovsky, Krasin lived here - just criminals, smugglers. Parvus came to Stockholm from Copenhagen two or three times a month to personally manage affairs. Agents arriving from Russia stayed in his six-room apartment. Among the permanent agents of Parvus were well-known Bolsheviks - Leonid Krasin and Vatslav Vorovsky who at the same time were part of Lenin's inner circle. Krasin Parvus got a job in the German company "Siemens-Schuher" as the manager of the Petrograd branch. After "October" of the 17th year, Krasin will be appointed Lenin's People's Commissar of Trade and Industry. For Vorovsky, Parvus establishes a bureau of the same firm in Stockholm. After "October" of the 17th year, Vorovsky will be appointed Lenin's plenipotentiary in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. Thus, "commercial ties" are being actively established between Stockholm and Petrograd. Through the catalogs of the goods offered, Parvus' agents transmit secret information written in invisible ink, including Lenin's instructions from Zurich. But the main task of these firms was the scrolling of the money that Parvus received from Germany for the Bolshevik party fund. Often these were fictitious loans for transactions that almost never took place. In Copenhagen, Parvus becomes especially close to the German ambassador to Denmark, Count Brohdor Brassau. This sophisticated aristocrat becomes a personal friend of Parvus and his main lobbyist in Berlin. From 1922 to 1928, the count will be the German ambassador to Soviet Russia. Alexander Parvus gave birth to ideas easily and simply. So in the autumn of 1915, he gives the count a new proposal. Through diplomatic channels, he transports him to Berlin. It was a description of some financial transaction. According to its author, it will cost little to Germany, but will lead to a large collapse of the ruble in Russia. With this financial provocation, Parvus wanted to repeat his success of 1905. The offer was interesting. And Parvus was immediately invited to Berlin for a consultation. Then he promises to organize a major political strike in Russia. He receives 1 million rubles on the eve of 1916. Mass strikes took place in Petrograd and southern Russia. But they did not develop into a mass armed uprising, appointed by Parvus for January 9th. The people then did not succumb to provocations. In Berlin, they doubted whether the money reaches its goal. It has been suggested that the parvus is simply embezzling money. Parvus urgently needed to prove the effectiveness of his work. From the "Parvus plan":"Particular attention should be paid to the city of Nikolaev, since there, in a very tense situation, two large warships are being prepared for launching ..." Built at the Nikolaev shipyards and commissioned in 1915, the battleships "Empress Catherine" and "Empress Maria" were Russian a response to the dominance of two German battleships in the waters of the Black Sea. German ships sailed under the Turkish flag and boldly shelled the coast and port cities. The battleship "Empress Maria" outnumbered the German ships with numerous heavy artillery and fast speed. And then the "tip" of Parvus was realized. On October 7, 1916, the battleship "Empress Maria" was blown up, a terrible fire broke out, which claimed the lives of more than two hundred sailors. N. Narochnitskaya: - The grandeur of his cunning plan was to destroy the defense consciousness. Thousands of newspapermen paid by him, even deputies of the State Duma, gloated over the defeat of their own army, during successful offensives they shouted that the war was "shameful and senseless." He became the first author on the political technology of turning the Patriotic War into a civil one. The interest of the German Foreign Ministry re-emerged in Parvus after the February Revolution. I had to hurry. Provisional Governments about continued the war with Germany, confirming allied obligations to France and England. At the same time, the United States of America also opposed Germany. Financing for Parvus was again unfrozen. To implement the plan, Parvus was needed Lenin. But not in Switzerland, but in Russia ... German high-ranking figures, together with Parvus, developed plan to transport Lenin to Russia. The route passed through Germany. According to the laws of war, citizens of the enemy's country were to be immediately arrested when crossing the border. But by personal order of the Kaiser, an exception was made for Lenin and his handy, Russian subjects. E. Heresh: - Lenin said that in no case should you buy tickets with German money. Therefore, Parvus bought them privately. The departure of internationalist immigrants from Switzerland turned out to be quite stormy. A group of patriotic Russians gathered at the station. It has already been said that the Germans paid Lenin "good money". When the departing sang the "Internationale", there were shouts all around: "German spies!", "The Kaiser pays your fare!". A small brawl broke out at the station, and Lenin prudently fought back with an umbrella he had seized in advance ... E. Heresh:- The so-called "sealed" car was part of a regular train. It is interesting that all other German trains had to pass Lenin's train, this "state matter" was so important for Germany. In total, 33 people were accommodated in the "sealed" car. Famine reigned in Germany. But the passengers of the special train had no problems with food. Lenin with Zinoviev constantly drinking freshly bought beer. In Berlin, the train was put on sidings for a day, and under the cover of night, high-ranking representatives of the Kaiser arrived at the train. It was after this meeting that Lenin revised his "April theses". In Sweden, Lenin sent Radek to meet with Parvus. From the memoirs of Parvus:"I told Lenin through a mutual friend - peace negotiations are now needed. Lenin replied that his business was revolutionary agitation. Then I said: tell Lenin - if state policy does not exist for him, then he will become a tool in my hands ... " On the day of Lenin's arrival in the Swedish newspaper of the left democrats Politiken, a photograph of Lenin appeared with the caption - "the leader of the Russian revolution". E. Heresh:- By this time, Lenin had already been out of Russia for ten years - in exile, and hardly anyone remembered him at home, with the exception of some party comrades, so this signature was absolutely absurd. But ... this is how Parvus "worked". On the instructions of Parvus Yakov Ganetsky directed a grandiose meeting of Lenin at the Finland Station in St. Petersburg - with an orchestra, with flowers, with an armored car and Baltic sailors. An urgent "encryption" went to Berlin: ".. Lenin's entry into Russia was a success. He works completely according to our desire ..." The next day, Lenin delivered the "April theses." N. Narochnitskaya: - In these "April theses" there was a program and tactics for the complete destruction and defeat of the entire state system to the ground. Already in the first paragraph of the theses there is a call for so-called "fraternization" with the enemy. Surprisingly, "fraternization" coincided with the suspension of hostilities by the German side. The desertion began. After Lenin's arrival in Petrograd, German money poured into the Bolshevik cash desk like a river. Parvus frantically exchanges telegrams with his agents. He speaks Kirill Alexandrov, historian: - Ganetsky's telegram - ".. we will organize a rally on Sunday. Our slogans are "All power to the Soviets", "Long live workers' control over the armaments of the whole world", "Hl :), peace, freedom"..." Roughly speaking, in all the slogans capable of impressing that already debauched mass that followed the Bolsheviks and which, in the end, carried out the October coup .. E. Heresh: - Those leaflets and slogans with which Lenin during the July putsch of 1917 wanted to stir up the capital of Russia, Petrograd, all of them came from the pen of Parvus. The goal of the Bolsheviks during the riots in July 1917 was the capture of the counterintelligence Directorate of the General Staff. It was here that the documents and correspondence of persons convicted of dealing with the enemy were concentrated. Counterintelligence, without the consent of the interim government, organized a "leak" of compromising evidence to the press. The provisional government was forced to open an investigation on charges of high treason and organizing an armed rebellion against the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin. From the testimony of witnesses: "The Bolsheviks paid more for a strike day than for a working day. For participating in a demonstration and shouting slogans from 10 to 70 rubles. For shooting in the street - 120-140 rubles." The money coming from Germany was sent to the "Siberian" and "Russian-Asiatic" trading banks. The main managers of this money were Ganetsky's relatives. N. Narochnitskaya: - Sitting in his luxurious estates, in diamond cufflinks, Parvus paid back with a revolution to a country that he did not feel sorry for, which he hated. But for himself, he left a piece of a completely different world. From the testimony of witnesses: “In Copenhagen, we went to Parvus. He occupied a mansion, had a car, was a very rich man, although a Social Democrat. a separate peace with Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria, but not with Germany.The date was set for November 8-9. This scenario deprived Lenin of his main trump card in the struggle for power, and Parvus had to answer the German Foreign Ministry for wasted money. " Procrastination is like death! Now everything is hanging by a thread!"- hysterically exclaimed Lenin. On October 25 (or November 7, according to a new style), an illegal seizure of power by the Bolsheviks took place. Lenin and Trotsky became leaders. Immediately after the coup, another 15 million marks were transferred to Lenin to support him - after all, the Bolshevik government was not popular with the population. At the same time, peace negotiations with Germany began. Germany's tough territorial claims provoked a strong reaction in Russian society. Even Lenin's associates considered accepting such conditions dangerous. Lenin insisted on making peace on any terms: "We have no army, and a country that does not have an army must accept an unheard of shameful peace!" N. Narochnitskaya: - Exactly what Germany was going to conquer, starting the First World War, was torn away from Russia. And the tragedy lay in the fact that the surrender of these vast territories did not occur as a result of a military defeat, but, on the contrary, at a moment when victory was almost in hand .. Trotsky played his game. He made a statement: " We stop hostilities, but do not sign peace! In response to Trotsky's bold statement, Germany immediately resumed the offensive. Encountering no resistance, the German troops easily advanced deep into Russia. The new conditions already provided for about a million rejected kilometers. It was larger than the territory of Germany itself .. This treaty immediately turned Russia into a second-rate state. This was the price of power. Parvus expected that Lenin would give him Russian banks in gratitude. But that did not happen. Lenin conveyed to Parvus: " A revolution cannot be made with dirty hands." Then Parvus decided to take revenge. There were two assassination attempts on Lenin in 1918!! What the Kaiser was preparing for Russia hit Germany like a boomerang. Germany was defeated in the war. The Kaiser fled. The German government was headed by friends of Parvus - the socialists. Social upheavals and devastation on the model of Bolshevik Russia were not included in Parvus' plans. On the night of January 14 Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were killed. This murder was ordered and paid for by Parvus. Having reached the ultimate goal for both Lenin and Berlin, neither one nor the other needed Parvus. E. Heresh: - In this story, Parvus, like a puppeteer, pulled the strings, puppets, who played the performance he invented, which we still call "revolution". Lenin died in January 1924. Parvus died in December of the same year. a few German comrades-in-arms attended his funeral. His grave has been lost. And in Russia, the name of the person who brought Lenin to power will be forgotten... The film itself: http://armnn.ru/index.рhr?option=com_content&view=article&id=449:2010-07-14-18-32- 11&catid=44:interesting Updated on 24/02/12 14:49 A: Sorry if anyone has seen the movie before. I didn’t see it in 2004, but now I was shocked too. Very reminiscent of today. Who plays the role of Parvus today and who pays him money to arrange such a thing in our country? Who?
Berezovsky, Malashenko, Nemtsov. (photo found at Net-net link) Updated on 24/02/12 15:01: aniase 02/24/12 14:39 I want to clarify that the thread stretches further. It is authentically known that some American banks financed the revolution in Russia. It also means Obama and Clinton US Ambassador to Russia McFaul, specialist in color revolutions Updated on 24/02/12 15:13: And who plays the role of Lenin? Who plays the role of Lenin today? Tell me who is Parvus, who is Lenin? And whose money is making noise on the Internet? After all, it is enough to pay one, 2, 3, then the crowd and competent manipulation of it.

This story has been shrouded in mystery for almost a century. The secret was carefully concealed by the Bolsheviks, their German patrons, world banking circles. Only now it became known how much the cold planned sabotage, which was later nicknamed the "Great October Socialist Revolution", cost.

Historians assign a large role in the events of those days to the Bolshevik center, which was created by Lenin to ensure "normal conditions" for the leaders of the faction, publish propaganda newspapers and finance the work of ideologically correct schools in Russia and abroad.

In fact, the center was a robber common fund. The cash desk was replenished by attacks by Bolshevik combat squads and the collection of "donations" using blackmail and extortion. In parallel with this, part of the funding migrated from the pockets of the rich, to whom members of the party were carefully and unobtrusively assigned.

One of the richest merchants in Moscow was the manufacturing king Savva Morozov. Morozov's fabrics used about in greater demand than English ones, and were sold even abroad - in China and Persia. For his work, Savva Morozov received an astronomical salary - two hundred and fifty thousand rubles a year. On the love front, he also confidently won. And one day on his way - as it turned out, not by chance - the Bolshevik and the revolutionary Maria Andreeva met. She was familiar with Lenin, she was in a civil marriage with Gorky. The actress of the Moscow Art Theater and the most beautiful of all the artists of the Russian stage.

The novel was stormy and wasteful for Morozov. Andreeva managed to get several million rubles for the Bolsheviks, which is comparable to the budget of a small country. After Savva Morozov allegedly shot himself, his nephew Nikolai Schmit inherited his fortune. The young businessman immediately, like his uncle, found himself in the tenacious hands of the Bolsheviks. Krasin, Bauman, Shantser became his new friends. He employed several party members in his factory. They received a fairly large salary and instead of work they were preparing for the revolution.

Despite increased secrecy measures, in December 1905, Schmitt was arrested. He later died in prison under mysterious circumstances. The interest of the Bolsheviks switched to the sisters of the deceased revolutionary. They acted simply, but effectively: the faithful servants of the party, Viktor Taratuta and Nikolai Andrikanis, "beguiled" the amorous sisters and took them as wives. All Schmitt's inheritance - 280 thousand gold rubles - ended up in the party fund. Nadezhda Krupskaya later noted in her Memoirs: "At this time, the Bolsheviks received a solid material base."

Revolutionary Russia. Factory committee of the Vulkan plant in Petrograd, 1917. Reproduction of TASS Newsreels

The adherents of the revolution also had German patrons. Back in 1907, when the organizers of the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP had financial difficulties, 300 pounds for its holding was received from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Donations came after. From December 1916 to February 1917, one thousand 117 rubles 50 kopecks were credited to the party's cash desk. This money allowed the Bolsheviks to conduct energetic propaganda and put the central organ of the party, the newspaper Pravda, on its feet. If in March 1917 the newspaper had only 8 thousand subscribers, then in April 17 daily newspapers were already published with a total circulation of 320 thousand copies and a total weekly circulation of one million 415 thousand units. By July, the number of newspapers had already exceeded 40, and the daily circulation reached 320,000 copies.

There is a formula that the revolution is conceived by wise men, carried out by fanatics, and scoundrels use its fruits. When all this is concentrated in one person, then his name is Alexander Parvus. Marxist theorist, revolutionary, businessman, "merchant of the revolution". The essence of his plan was simple: holding an all-Russian strike at arms factories under anti-war slogans, organizing uprisings and strikes, setting fire to oil fields, and agitating against tsarism.

German officials appreciated Parvus' subversive experience and quickly approved him for the position of the German government's chief adviser on Russia. Then he was allocated the first tranche - a million gold marks. And then new millions "for the revolution" in Russia followed. For the leadership of Kaiser Germany, this plan to destroy Russia from within was a godsend. The operation cost 20 million rubles.

Parvus' ideas are still relevant today. The current "opposition", as well as the "opposition" of the 1905 model, is financed from the same foreign source. Their goal has also not changed: to cause upheaval and destabilization at any cost.