The bright personality of Israel (Alexander) Lazarevich Gelfand (Parvus) - a Russian revolutionary and German imperialist, a Marxist scientist and a prominent entrepreneur, a cosmopolitan and a German patriot, a behind-the-scenes politician and international financier, social democratic publicist and political adventurer - has long attracted the attention of historians … This interest is understandable: without Parvus, as well as without “German money,” there probably would have been no Bolshevik revolution in the form in which it took place in Russia in 1917.
DOCTOR ELEPHANT
Alexander Parvus, aka Israel Lazarevich Gelfand, was born on September 8, 1867 in the town of Berezino, Minsk province, into the family of a Jewish craftsman. After the pogrom, the Gelfand family was left without a home and property and moved to Odessa, where Lazar worked as a loader in the port, and Israel studied at the gymnasium. Apparently, it was the Odessa gymnasium that Israel Gelfand owed his excellent literary Russian language and knowledge of European languages: linguistic barriers did not exist for him. In Odessa, the young gymnasium student Gelfand joined the Narodnaya Volya circles. At the age of 19, he went to Switzerland, to Zurich, where he met members of the "Labor Emancipation Group". Under their influence Gelfand became a Marxist. In 1887 he entered the University of Basel, from which he graduated in 1891 with a Ph. D. His thesis was titled "The technical organization of labor (" cooperation "and" division of labor ")". Israel Gelfand often appeared in the socialist press under the pseudonym Alexander Parvus (“small” - lat.), Which became his new name.
Dr. Parvus did not return to Russia, but moved to Germany, where he joined the Social Democratic Party. The leader of the German Social Democracy Karl Kautsky treated Parvus with sympathy, giving him the playful nickname Doctor Elephant. Indeed, there was something elephant in the appearance of Parvus.
The publicist Parvus writes a lot and is cocky. His articles are read by young Russian Marxists. Vladimir Ulyanov, in a letter from Siberian exile, asks his mother to send him copies of all of Parvus's articles. Friendship with the Russian Marxists gave birth to the newspaper Iskra, which from the second issue began to be published in a printing house set up at Parvus's apartment in Munich. Parvus's apartment became a meeting place for Russian revolutionaries, especially Parvus became close to Trotsky. In essence, it was Parvus who put forward the thesis of permanent revolution, which was later adopted by Trotsky. Parvus predicted the inevitability of a world war and the Russian revolution.
In 1905, with the beginning of the first Russian revolution, Parvus went to Russia. Together with Trotsky, he heads the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. After the defeat of the revolution, Parvus finds himself behind bars in "Kresty", he is sentenced to three years of exile in Turukhansk. But everything is already ready for escape: a fake passport, attendance, money. In Yeniseisk, having drunk the guards, Parvus flees, appears in Italy, then ends up in Germany and never returns to his homeland.
A number of high-profile scandals are associated with the name of Parvus: he abandons two wives with his sons without a livelihood, spends on his mistress the income from the copyright of Maxim Gorky abroad, which were entrusted to him. The Bolsheviks and Gorky demand the return of the money, Germany begins to hand over the escaped revolutionaries to Russia, and Parvus disappears from the sight of the German and Russian authorities for several years.
In 1910, he emerges in Turkey as a successful businessman, becomes the largest supplier of food for the Turkish army, a representative of the arms dealer Basil Zakharov and the Krupp concern.
COINCIDENCE OF GOALS
Parvus's finest hour comes with the outbreak of the First World War. He stands for the victory of Germany, since this should lead first to a revolution in Russia, and then to a world revolution. "Germany's victory over Russia is in the interests of European socialism, so the socialists must conclude an alliance with the German government to overthrow the tsarist regime, including in a revolutionary way," he believed.
In 1915, the goals of Germany, seeking victory on the Eastern Front and Russia's withdrawal from the war, and Parvus, who kindled a revolutionary fire in Russia, coincided. Germany struck at Russia from the front, and the revolutionaries from the rear.
In the course of his political and commercial activities, Parvus met Dr. Max Zimmer, the representative of the German and Austrian embassies for anti-Russian nationalist movements, which were funded by Germany and Austria-Hungary. In early January 1915, Parvus asked Dr. Zimmer to arrange a meeting with the German ambassador to Turkey von Wangenheim. At a reception on January 7, 1915, a socialist merchant declared to the German ambassador: “The interests of the German government fully coincide with the interests of the Russian revolutionaries. Russian democrats can achieve their goals only if the autocracy is completely destroyed and Russia is divided into separate states. On the other hand, Germany will not be able to achieve complete success unless there is a revolution in Russia. In addition, even if Germany wins, Russia will pose a considerable danger to it if the Russian Empire does not disintegrate into separate independent states."
The next day, January 8, 1915, von Wangenheim sent a telegram to the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin with detailed information about the conversation with Parvus, expressed a benevolent attitude towards his ideas and conveyed his request to personally present to the Foreign Ministry the plan for withdrawing Russia from the war through the revolution.
On January 10, 1915, Gottlieb von Jagov, State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry, telegraphed to the Great Kaiser's General Staff: "Please, receive Dr. Parvus in Berlin."
At the end of February 1915, Parvus was received at the German Foreign Ministry by Yagov, a representative of the military department, Dr. Ritzler (a confidant of the Reich Chancellor) and Dr. Zimmer, who returned from Turkey, took part in the conversation. The minutes of the conversation were not kept, but as a result of it, on March 9, 1915, Parvus submitted a 20-page memorandum to the Foreign Ministry, which was a detailed plan to overthrow the autocracy in Russia and its dismemberment into several states.
“The Parvus plan,” write Gelfand's biographers Z. Zeman and U. Sharlau, “contained three most important points. First, Gelfand offered to support the parties fighting for the socialist revolution in Russia, primarily the Bolsheviks, as well as nationalist separatist movements. Secondly, he considered the moment to be suitable for conducting anti-government propaganda in Russia. Thirdly, he thought it important to organize an international anti-Russian campaign in the press”.
FIGHT PLAN
Here is a fragment of Parvus's plan, which he wrote on the pages of a notebook of the Berlin hotel Kronprinzenhof at the end of December 1914: “Siberia. It is also necessary to pay special attention to Siberia because huge shipments of artillery and other types of weapons from the United States to Russia will probably pass through Siberia. Therefore, the Siberian project should be considered separately from the rest. It is necessary to send several energetic, careful and well-equipped agents to Siberia with a special mission to blow up railway bridges. They will find enough helpers among the exiles. Explosives can be delivered from the Ural mining plants, and small quantities from Finland. Technical guidelines could be developed here.
Press campaign. The assumptions about Romania and Bulgaria were confirmed after the completion of work on this memorandum and in the course of the development of the revolutionary movement. The Bulgarian press is now exclusively pro-German, and there has been a noticeable turn in relation to the Romanian press. The measures we have taken will soon yield even more tangible results. It is especially important to get to work now.
1. Financial support of the Social Democratic faction of the Bolsheviks, which by all available means continues to fight against the tsarist government. Contacts should be established with its leaders in Switzerland.
2. Establishing direct contacts with the revolutionary organizations of Odessa and Nikolaev through Bucharest and Iasi.
3. Establishing contacts with organizations of Russian sailors. Such contact already exists through a gentleman in Sofia. Other connections are possible via Amsterdam.
4. Support for the activities of the Jewish socialist organization "Bund" - not Zionists.
5. Establishing contacts with authoritative figures of Russian social democracy and with Russian social revolutionaries in Switzerland, Italy, Copenhagen, Stockholm. Support for their efforts aimed at immediate and tough measures against tsarism.
6. Support for those Russian revolutionary writers who take part in the struggle against tsarism even in war conditions.
7. Connection with Finnish Social Democracy.
8. Organization of congresses of Russian revolutionaries.
9. Influence on public opinion in neutral countries, especially on the position of the socialist press and socialist organizations in the struggle against tsarism and for joining the central powers. Bulgaria and Romania are already doing this successfully; continue this work in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Italy.
10. Equipment of the expedition to Siberia with a special purpose: to blow up the most important railway bridges and thereby prevent the transportation of weapons from America to Russia. At the same time, the expedition must be supplied with rich funds for organizing the transfer of a certain number of political exiles to the center of the country.
11. Technical preparation for the uprising in Russia:
a) provision of accurate maps of Russian railways, indicating the most important bridges that must be destroyed in order to paralyze transport links, as well as indicating the main administrative buildings. Arsenals, workshops that should be given maximum attention;
b) an exact indication of the amount of explosives required to achieve the goal in each individual case. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the lack of materials and the difficult circumstances in which the actions will be carried out;
c) clear and popular instructions for the handling of explosives when blowing up bridges and large buildings;
d) simple recipes for making explosives;
e) the development of a plan for the resistance of the insurgent population in St. Petersburg against the armed government, with special regard to the workers' quarters. Protection of houses and streets. Protection from cavalry and infantry. The Jewish socialist "Bund" in Russia is a revolutionary organization that relies on the masses of the workers and which played a role as early as 1904. He is in an adversarial relationship with the "Zionists" from whom nothing can be expected for the following reasons:
1) since their membership in the party is fragile;
2) since the Russian patriotic idea has become popular among them since the beginning of the war;
3) since after the Balkan War the core of their leadership actively sought the sympathy of the British and Russian diplomatic circles, although this did not prevent them from cooperating with the German government. Because he is generally incapable of any political action."
Parvus drew up a list of urgent financial and technical measures. Among them: the provision of explosives, maps indicating the bridges to be exploded, the training of couriers, contacts with the Bolshevik faction in exile in Switzerland, financing of left-wing radical newspapers. Parvus asked the German government (in mid-March 1915 he became the main government consultant on the Russian revolution) to fund his plan.
MILLIONS IN THE TOP OF THE REVOLUTION
On March 17, 1915, von Jagov telegraphed to the state treasury of Germany: "To support revolutionary propaganda in Russia, 2 million marks are required." A positive answer comes in two days. It was an advance. Of the 2 million, Parvus receives immediately and transfers them to his accounts in Copenhagen. There he founded a commercial empire that deals with trading operations. Including illegal transactions for the sale of coal, metals, weapons to Germany, Russia, Denmark and other countries. Parvus received huge incomes, which he left in Russia or transferred to accounts in other countries. Most of the funds Parvus invests in the creation of media around the world. They had to turn the world and the population of Russia against the tsarist regime.
Lenin's slogan of converting the imperialist war into a civil war is the fruit of Parvus's program. Only Parvus spoke about 5-10 million marks for the Russian revolution, and in the end the figure was much larger. In addition to Gelfand, who was the main link between the Bolsheviks and the German imperial government, in the summer of 1917 the Bolsheviks had other channels of communication with Berlin. Eduard Bernstein, a German Social Democrat and an ardent critic of Lenin, estimated the total amount of "German aid" at about 50 million gold marks. The figure of 50 million marks received by the Bolsheviks from Germany is also named by the English historian Ronald Clark.
Parvus' personal funds served as a cover for "German money", which still confuses researchers. Whatever large sums the "sponsors of the Russian revolution" spent, they expected not only to acquire political capital for their own money, but also to compensate financial costs in excess. Reforms, perestroika, revolutions and civil wars, which brought Russian society into a state of destruction and discord, were always accompanied by the leakage of enormous wealth to the West.
A particularly sensitive topic is the relationship between Parvus and Lenin. "Lenin is needed in Russia for Russia to fall," Parvus wrote. This is the whole essence of Parvus's relationship to the leader of the Bolsheviks. They had known each other even before the 1905 revolution: together they created the newspaper Iskra. After Parvus received an advance payment of 2 million marks from the German authorities, his first intention was to go to Switzerland to see Lenin in order to include him in his plan.
In mid-May 1915, Parvus arrived in Zurich to talk with Lenin. Alexander Solzhenitsyn more or less accurately described the circumstances under which Parvus imposed his society on Lenin, but Solzhenitsyn could not know the content of their conversation. Lenin, naturally, preferred not to mention this episode. Parvus was brief: “I presented to Lenin my views on the social-revolutionary consequences of the war and drew attention to the fact that as long as the war continues, a revolution cannot take place in Germany; that now the revolution is possible only in Russia, where it can break out as a result of the victories of Germany. He dreamed, however, of the publication of a socialist journal, with the help of which, he believed, he could immediately throw the European proletariat out of the trenches into the revolution. The irony of Parvus is understandable even in hindsight: Lenin did not go into direct contact with Parvus, but the channel of communication with him was always free.
The Austrian researcher Elisabeth Kheresh, who published the Parvus plan, quotes the words allegedly spoken by the chairman of the Bolshevik Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky in 1922: “Kuzmich (one of Lenin’s party nicknames - B. Kh.) was indeed recruited in 1915 by the representative of the German General Staff Alexander Gelfand Lazarevich (aka Parvus, aka Alexander Moskvich)."
Lenin in 1915 continued to rave about the idea of a world revolution, and it does not matter where - in Switzerland, America or Russia. Parvus offered colossal money to organize the revolution in Russia. Whose money is it - for Lenin it did not matter. Although Lenin did not officially tell Parvus: “Yes, I will cooperate with you,” a quiet agreement was reached to act in compliance with secrecy rules, through intermediaries.
Can Parvus' offer to Lenin be considered recruitment? In the narrow "espionage" sense of the word - probably not. But in the military-political plan, the anti-Russian goals of imperial Germany, the "businessman from the revolution" Parvus and the "revolutionary dreamer" Lenin at this stage coincided. For Lenin, as a revolutionary internationalist, it was quite permissible to cooperate with the German Empire against the Russian Empire, of which he was an implacable enemy. Simply put, the Bolsheviks did not care with whose money they made the revolution.
At the same time, the German authorities, having given money to Parvus, opened Pandora's box. The Germans had no idea about Bolshevism. Walter Nicolai, the head of German military intelligence, wrote: “At that time, like everyone else, I did not know anything about Bolshevism, and I only knew about Lenin that Ulyanov lived in Switzerland as a political émigré, who delivered valuable information to my service. about the situation in tsarist Russia, against which he fought. The Kaiser's military intelligence, together with the German Foreign Ministry, ensured the implementation of Parvus's plan in the part in which it corresponded to Germany's goals to withdraw Russia from the war.
OWN GAME
However, Parvus would not have been a financial genius and political adventurer on a global scale if he had not played his own game: the revolution in Russia was only the first part of his plan. It was to be followed by a revolution in Germany. At the same time, the financial flows of the world revolution would be concentrated in the hands of Parvus. Of course, the Germans did not know about the second part of Parvus's plan.
Parvus set about creating his own organization in order to influence events in Russia. Parvus decided to locate the headquarters of the organization in Copenhagen and Stockholm, through which illegal contacts of the Russian emigration with Russia, Germany - with the West and Russia were carried out. First of all, Parvus created the Institute for Scientific and Statistical Analysis (Institute for the Study of the Consequences of War) in Copenhagen as a legal "roof" for conspiratorial activities and gathering information. He took five Russian socialist émigrés from Switzerland to Copenhagen, providing them with unimpeded passage through Germany, thereby anticipating the famous story of the "sealed carriage." Parvus almost got Nikolai Bukharin as a staff member of his institute, who refused this offer only under pressure from Lenin. But Lenin provided Parvus with his friend and assistant Yakov Furstenberg-Ganetsky, a former member of the Central Committee of the united RSDLP, as a contact person.
Parvus combined political, analytical and intelligence work with commercial activities. He created an export-import company that specialized in the secret trade between Germany and Russia and financed revolutionary organizations in Russia from his income. For this company, Parvus received special import and export licenses from the German authorities. In addition to business, Parvus' company was also involved in politics, had its own network of agents who, plying between Scandinavia and Russia, kept in touch with various underground organizations and strike committees, coordinated their actions. Soon the Netherlands, Great Britain and the USA entered the sphere of activity of Parvus, but his main commercial interests were focused on trade with Russia. Parvus bought from Russia copper, rubber, tin and grain, which were badly needed for the German war economy, and supplied chemicals and machinery there. Some goods were transported across the border legally, others were smuggled.
Dr. Zimmer got acquainted with the structures of Parvus and made the most favorable impression about them. He conveyed his positive opinion to the German ambassador in Copenhagen, Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, who opened the doors of the German embassy in front of Parvus. The first meeting of Count Brockdorff-Rantzau with Parvus took place at the end of 1915. “Now I got to know Gelfand better and I think there can be no doubt that he is an extraordinary person, whose extraordinary energy we simply have to use both now, when the war is going on, and afterwards - regardless of whether we personally agree with by his convictions or not,”wrote Count Brockdorff-Rantzau. He took to heart Parvus's ideas about Russia and became a permanent intercessor for his affairs in the German Foreign Ministry.
Parvus and his structures were energetically preparing the X-Day in Russia: it was supposed to be the next anniversary of Bloody Sunday - January 22, 1916. On this day, a general political strike was planned, designed, if not to bury, then to undermine the tsarist regime as much as possible. Strikes did take place in the country, but not as numerous as Parvus had hoped. So there was no revolution. The German leadership considered it a defeat for Parvus. During the year from Berlin on delicate issues of organizing subversive activities in Russia, Parvus was not approached.
THIRD OPTION
The situation was changed by the revolution in Russia, which took place in February 1917. Germany needed Parvus again. In a conversation with Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, Parvus expressed his conviction that after the revolution, only two options for Germany's relations with Russia are possible: either the German government decides on a wide occupation of Russia, the destruction of its imperial state system and the dismemberment of Russia into several states dependent on Germany, or it concludes a quick peace with the Provisional Government. For Parvus himself, both options were equally unacceptable: the first was associated with the risk of raising the patriotism of the Russian people and, accordingly, the fighting spirit of the Russian army; the second - with a slowdown in the implementation of the revolutionary program of Parvus.
However, there was also a third option: Lenin. The German side, through the mediation of Parvus, transports the leader of the Bolsheviks to Russia, where Lenin immediately launches anti-government activities, persuades the Provisional Government to sign the peace, or he himself, with the German assistance provided through Parvus, comes to power and signs a separate peace with Germany.
In the matter of delivering Lenin to Russia, Parvus enlisted the support of the German General Staff and entrusted Furstenberg-Ganetsky to inform Lenin that a railway corridor had been arranged for him and for Zinoviev in Germany, without specifying that the proposal came from Parvus.
The departure of Russian emigrants from Zurich was scheduled for April 9, 1917. Several dozen Russian revolutionaries left Zurich with Lenin. There were several "Russian" trains. Parvus immediately informed the German Foreign Ministry that he was going to meet the Russians in Sweden. The main goal of Parvus was contact with Lenin. This contact was provided by Furstenberg-Ganetsky, who was waiting for Lenin and his companions in Malmo and escorted them to Stockholm. Lenin, however, did not go to a personal meeting with Parvus: for the leader of the Bolsheviks it was impossible to think of anything more compromising than a demonstration of his connection with Parvus.
Radek took over the role of the main negotiator with Parvus on the part of the Bolsheviks. On April 13, 1917, Parvus and Radek talked in complete secrecy all day. Apparently, it was then that Parvus directly offered his support to the Bolsheviks in the struggle for power in Russia, and they, in the person of Radek, accepted it. Russian emigrants moved on to Finland, and Parvus - to the German embassy. He was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry, where a secret, without protocol, conversation with State Secretary Zimmermann took place.
As early as April 3, 1917, the German Treasury, by order of the Foreign Ministry, allocated 5 million marks to Parvus for political purposes in Russia; apparently, Zimmermann negotiated with Parvus about the use of these huge funds. From Berlin, Parvus left again for Stockholm, where he was in constant contact with members of the foreign bureau of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party Radek, Vorovsky and Furstenberg-Ganetsky. Through them, German money was pumped to Russia, to the Bolshevik treasury. Lenin's letters from Petrograd to Fürstenberg in Stockholm are full of phrases: "We still have not received money from you."
A year later, in 1918, the chief of the Great Kaiser's General Staff, Erich von Ludendorff, admitted: "We took upon ourselves a great responsibility by bringing Lenin to Russia, but this had to be done for Russia to fall."
THE CALCULATIONS WERE NOT JUSTIFIED
Parvus accepted the October Revolution in Russia with delight. But Parvus's hopes that Lenin would give him the portfolio of people's commissar in the Soviet government did not come true. Radek informed Parvus that the Bolshevik leader could not allow him to return to Russia. As Lenin put it, "the cause of the revolution must not be stained with dirty hands." After the Bolsheviks took power, Parvus began to interfere with both the Germans and the Bolsheviks: he knew too much.
Already in 1918, Parvus became a fierce critic of Lenin. Especially after the Leninist Council of People's Commissars announced a program for the nationalization of banks, land and industry. The program, which Parvus described as criminal, hit his commercial interests. He decided to politically destroy Lenin and began to raise millions to create an empire of Russian-language newspapers from China to the borders of Afghanistan and their delivery to Russia. But it was too late. Lenin and the Bolsheviks became entrenched in power.
Disappointed with Bolshevism, Parvus retired from public affairs and decided to spend the rest of his life in Switzerland, but he was expelled from there, because his real role in the destruction of Russia gradually began to emerge.
After the Kaiser's empire fell in 1918, they began to ask who was behind all these events (the second part of Parvus's plan surfaced). The Swiss found an excuse to invite Parvus to leave the country. He moved to Germany, where he bought a large villa near Berlin, where he died in the same year as Lenin - in 1924. The death of the "chief financier" of the Bolshevik revolution did not evoke sympathetic comments either in Russia or in Germany. For the right wing, Parvus was a revolutionary and destroyer of foundations. For the left, he is a "pimp of imperialism" and a traitor to the cause of the revolution. "Parvus is a part of the revolutionary past of the working class, trampled into the mud," Karl Radek wrote in an obituary in the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda.
