– Russian revolutionary, follower of the Social Democratic movement, Doctor of Philosophy, author of scientific works and plays.

Date of Birth: September 8, 1867
Age: 57 years old
Date of death: December 12, 1924
Place of Birth: Berezino, Minsk region, Belarus
Activity: journalist, Marxist theorist, publicist, Ph.D.
Family status: was married

Appearance description:
“His massive, gigantic figure (...) was now blurred and fat. Beneath his broad, bull-like face with a high forehead, small nose, and well-groomed goatee, there was a drooping double chin that almost completely hid his neck. Small, lively eyes set deep. His body, like a sack of flour, was supported by short legs, and he constantly waved his arms, as if trying to maintain his balance.”
This is what his like-minded Estonian Artutr Sifeld wrote about Parvus-Gelfand.

“Russian democracy can achieve its goal only through the final overthrow of tsarism and the dismemberment of Russia into small states. The interests of the German government and the interests of the Russian revolutionaries are thus identical.”

Alexander Parvus

"Lenin was transported to Russia like a plague." Winston Churchill

Biography of Alexander Parvus.

Israel Lazarevich Gelfand born into a Jewish family on September 8, 1867. It will be years before Israel takes on a new name and surname. So the young man will turn into Alexander Parvus. A joyful event in Gelfand’s family took place in Berezina, which is located near Minsk. A major fire soon destroyed the house in which the future revolutionary lived. The city was damaged by the fire.
This was the reason the family moved to Odessa, and its head was born in this locality. The man went to work at the port. Israel was educated in a gymnasium, attended sections where revolutionary-minded youth gathered. Talented Israel Gelfand in 1885 he moved to Zurich to obtain higher education. Here he meets members of the Liberation of Labor group. This is P.B. Axelrod, G.V. Plekhanov, V.I. Zasulich.
The official biography of the revolutionary says that Parvus studied political economy at the University of Basel. Based on the results of his studies, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Israel Gelfand moved to Germany and became a member of the Social Democratic Party. According to I. Deutscher, Parvus wanted to “revive the revolutionary spirit of German socialism.”

Revolution.

Alexander Parvus returned to St. Petersburg in the first days of the revolution. Parvus was accompanied by Leon Trotsky. The revolutionaries launched activities in the executive committee of the Council of Workers' Deputies. Alexander planned to put into practice the theory of “permanent revolution.” Parvus saw the proletariat as an instrument for the formation of revolutionary movements.
Alexander Parvus did not want to stop at the coup in Russia. Alexander's plans included a world socialist revolution.

For almost six months, Parvus spoke to workers with calls to rebel against the current government and create a workers' democracy.
The revolutionaries needed to put pressure on society. Trotsky and Parvus decided to do this through the Russkaya Gazeta. The new editors instantly increased the print media circulation to 100 thousand, and then to 500 thousand copies. The circulation of the Bolshevik-owned newspaper Novaya Zhizn was significantly smaller.
Parvus became a driving force in the St. Petersburg Council. The responsibilities of writing articles and proclamations, developing strategy and tactics fell on his shoulders. The revolutionary was invited to speak at industrial enterprises and in the Soviet. The influence Parvus had on the residents of St. Petersburg was powerful, people followed him.
Parvus was a revolutionary during the day, and spent his evenings creating plays. Satirical work was used to stage performances. Alexander purchased several tickets to performances in advance in order to give countermarks to friends.

From the pen of a revolutionary came the “Financial Manifesto”. The document contained information about corrupt officials in the Russian government, a lack of money in the treasury and fictitious reporting. According to the members of the Council, the people should not pay the debts of the royal family.
The time has come for arrests. The first prisoners were the party leaders. Then Parvus came to replace Trotsky, but soon he too found himself out of favor with the authorities. Alexander Parvus was convicted and sent to Turukhansk for 3 years. But he managed to escape from exile using forged documents.
Disillusioned with the Russian revolution, Parvus decided to turn his attention to the Balkans, where the people were trying to carry out a coup. Shortly before his trip to Germany, Alexander presents “Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System.” Contemporaries considered this the revolutionary's best work.

The work “Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System” influenced representatives of the Second International, including Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Almost nothing is known about Parvus's life in Europe. Biographers had to believe rumors and assumptions.
In 1910, Constantinople became his permanent place of residence. The revolutionary helped the Turkish authorities in the economic sphere. Türkiye became a second home for Parvus. From a young age, Alexander dreamed of becoming rich. In Constantinople this wish was fulfilled. How the revolutionary’s accounts were replenished is still a mystery.
It was difficult for Parvus to live away from his homeland, so after the October Revolution, which made it possible to overthrow the tsarist government, Alexander looked forward to V.I. Lenin will bring the revolutionary home. No miracle happened. Parvus was not offered the position of Minister of Finance. V.I. Lenin avoided connections with Parvus, who had a dubious reputation.

Without waiting for an invitation to the government of Soviet Russia, Alexander Parvus decided to help Russian revolutionaries from Europe. This is how a Russian newspaper appeared in Scandinavia, which tried to ridicule the authorities and promote new ways of life. In response, Russia heard accusations of provocations for the sake of personal enrichment. Parvus expressed his emotions from these events in the book “In the Fight for Truth.”
In 1918, Alexander Lvovich decided to leave politics in the past. The accumulated savings were enough for a decent life and favorite entertainment - provocations. The revolutionary did not earn an impeccable reputation, so even the millions in his accounts did not give Parvus the opportunity to meet and communicate with famous people, politicians and ambassadors. Celebrities avoided connections with Alexander Parvus.

Personal life.

According to official information, Alexander Parvus was married twice. The first wife is Tatyana Naumovna Berman. The woman was known as Tauba Gershevna. Tatyana Berman She was considered an ardent representative of the Social Democratic movement, and part-time she worked as a librarian and translator.
In this union, a son was born to a member of a Jewish family Evgeniy Alexandrovich Gnedin. The young man, having reached adulthood, was appointed to the post of Soviet diplomat, but later became a dissident and wrote memoirs.
No information has been preserved about Parvus’s second wife. It is known that the couple had a son who worked at the USSR Embassy in Italy. Under mysterious circumstances, the man disappeared.

Death of Alexander Parvus

In 1924, Alexander Parvus was in Berlin. In the German capital, the revolutionary suffered a stroke, from which the man was unable to recover. After his sudden death, Parvus' savings disappeared. Who is behind this is unknown.

Books and articles by A. Parvus.

"Coup d'etat and mass political strike" (Staatsstreich und politischer Massenstreik) (1895)
“The World Market and the Agricultural Crisis” (translated from him, 1897)
Das hungernde Russland (1900) (description of a trip through the starving provinces)
"Russia and Revolution" (1906)
“In the Russian Bastille during the Revolution” (In der russischen Bastille während der Revolution) 1907.
"Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System" (1908)
"Capitalist Production and the Proletariat" (Die kapitalistische Produktion und das Proletariat) (1908)
"The Class Struggle of the Proletariat" (Der Klassenkampf des Proletariats) (1908)
"In the ranks of German Social Democracy" (1908)
"Social Democracy and Parliamentarism" (Die Sozialdemokratie und der Parlamentarismus) (1909)
"Socialism and the Social Revolution" (Der Sozialismus und die soziale Revolution) (1909)
"" (1915)
In the fight for truth = Von Parvus. Im Kampf Um Die Wahrheit, BERLIN 19I8. - M.: Alpina Publisher. - 147 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-6465-8.

Film incarnations.

Alexander's life is shrouded in secrets and unsolved mysteries. The revolutionary's biography has incredible gifts of fate and disappointments, which is why screenwriters often use his life story to create films.
In 2006, the documentary film “Parvus of the Revolution” was released. Nine years later, viewers were shown a new film - “Demon of the Revolution”. The second title of the painting is “Parvus Memorandum”.
TV series “Demon of the Revolution” (2017, dir. V. Khotinenko): the role of Parvus was played by Fyodor Bondarchuk.
TV series “Trotsky” (2017, dir. A. Kott, K. Statsky): the role of Parvus was played by Mikhail Porechenkov.
Film "Lenin. Train" (Italy, 1988, dir. Damiano Damiani): the role of Parvus was played by Timothy West.

We offer a publication from 2014 that has not lost any relevance, analyzing the liberal anti-Soviet myth about the “outstanding” role of Parvus in the revolution.

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Non-existent "Lenin's money"

Publications about German money allegedly received by V.I. Lenin for organizing the revolution have not stopped to this day. More recently, on the anniversary of Lenin’s birth, Rossiyskaya Gazeta published a series of articles on this topic (see “Test Tube Revolutions,” April 3, and “Money for the Cradle of the Revolution,” April 22).

In one of them, the director of the RGASPI (former archive of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism) A. Sorokin talks about the financial schemes of the Bolsheviks, a sealed carriage, etc. Having a huge archive in use, Sorokin does not provide any factual evidence, limiting himself to lengthy arguments and reading excerpts from letters .

The evidence base for other seekers of “German gold”, who base their constructions on conjectures and forged documents, looks similar.

There are three main accusations on the topic of Lenin’s mythical money: Parvus, the sealed carriage and other “sources of funds” of Lenin. Let's consider them sequentially.

The name of Parvus is present in almost all “studies” devoted to the topic of the Bolsheviks - “German spies”. At first glance, one gets the impression that Parvus is the “evil genius” of his era. But turning to his biography, we see just an adventurer-businessman, a swindler, gravitating towards power and a luxurious life.

Alexander Parvus (real name Gelfand) grew up in Odessa. He moved to Germany, where he joined the socialists. In the early 1900s. Together with Lenin he published the newspaper Iskra. Then they disagreed harshly, and Parvus joined the Mensheviks.

Even before the war, the future agent of the German General Staff ruined his reputation among revolutionaries. As Gorky's literary agent, he collected a significant sum for the play “At the Lower Depths” - about 100 thousand marks. And instead of handing it over to the party cash desk... he went on a trip with the “lady of his heart.”

After this, the Social Democratic Court of Arbitration expelled him from the party ranks. Parvus went to Constantinople, where he made a good fortune from export-import transactions and smuggling weapons for the Turkish army.

When the First World War began, Parvus considered that his finest hour had come. He returned to Germany and offered his services to the German Foreign Ministry, presenting a memorandum he had concocted with his own hand on organizing a revolution in Russia.

Parvus relied on the fact that the interests of the German government completely coincided with the interests of the Russian revolutionaries and was confident that the Russian Social Democrats would help him in his plan. He even named the exact date of the revolution - January 22, 1916, the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The Germans apparently became interested in this idea, as they allocated him a million marks for revolutionary purposes.

But Parvus' hopes were not destined to come true. The first attempt to talk to Lenin ended with the Bolshevik leader throwing the uninvited guest out the door. Then Lenin published a completely devastating article “At the Last Line”: “Parvus, who showed himself to be an adventurer already in the Russian revolution, has now descended to<...>the last line... He licks Hindenburg’s boots, assuring readers that the German General Staff was in favor of the revolution in Russia.”.

Having swallowed his insult, Parvus made several more attempts to come into contact with Lenin, but they all ended in failure: Lenin categorically refused to deal with him.

After January 1916 passed, and the revolution in Russia never happened, the German Foreign Ministry noticeably cooled towards Parvus and stopped giving him money, reasonably suspecting that he was putting it in his own pocket. Nevertheless, numerous pseudo-historians, speculating on the fact of Lenin’s acquaintance with Parvus, build entire schemes for financing the Bolsheviks by the German General Staff.

But, as one of the first seekers of “German gold” S.P. Melgunov said, “all this is very far from establishing a direct connection between Lenin and Parvus”.

Lenin's passage through Germany in March 1917 was always presented by post-Soviet historians and myth-makers as a secret operation to bring Lenin to Russia, generously sponsored by gold and currency.

In fact, this enterprise was not a secret at all. The whole process was conducted completely openly. Back in 1957, the German historian Werner Hallweg published the book “Lenin’s Return to Russia in 1917,” where he collected most of the documents on this topic.

After the February Revolution, all Russian emigrant revolutionaries who were in Switzerland began to look for ways to return to their homeland. Lenin quickly finds out that in England and France there are “black lists” for revolutionaries, prohibiting them, as opponents of the war, from passing through the territory. The illegal route with false passports also had to be abandoned. “We are afraid that it will not be possible to get out of damned Switzerland soon”, Lenin worries in a letter to Kollontai.

On March 19, 1917, a meeting of representatives of various revolutionary parties took place in Bern. At this meeting, Menshevik leader Yu. Martov proposed the option of traveling through Germany in exchange for part of the German prisoners of war interned by Russia. Lenin immediately agrees with this idea. Martov insists on the need to obtain the consent of the Russian Provisional Government for the exchange of prisoners of war in order to avoid unfavorable rumors regarding such passage.

The revolutionaries formed the “Central Committee for the Return of Russian Political Emigrants to their Homeland,” which included representatives of all parties. The leader of the Swiss Social Democrats, Robert Grimm, was to lead the negotiations.

On March 23, Grimm, through the German envoy Baron Gisbert von Romberg, sent a request to the German Foreign Ministry for the passage of emigrants. The German Foreign Ministry immediately appreciated the benefits of the situation: the Germans, indeed, were ready to support any organizations that could destabilize the situation in Russia.

Therefore, the consideration of the emigrants’ request took place without any particular delays. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs telegraphed to headquarters: “Since it is in our interests that the influence of the radical wing of the revolutionaries prevail in Russia, it seems appropriate to allow them passage.”.

There was intense anticipation for Lenin in Russia. But, despite this, Lenin, under pressure from the united Central Committee, agrees to wait for a response from Petrograd.

Then, after spending two weeks waiting fruitlessly, Lenin decides to act alone. He appoints Fritz Platten to continue negotiations with the German embassy.

Speculation that the travel plan for Russian emigrants originally belonged to the Germans is easily refuted by German documents. As early as March 21, in his report to the Foreign Ministry, the German envoy to Denmark Brockdorff-Rantzau, closely associated with Parvus, did not mention any such proposals. And only on March 23, the envoy in Bern von Romberg, in his letter to the Secretary of State of the German Foreign Ministry Zimmerman, asks: there is, they say, information about such a desire of the Russians; how to behave? After a series of consultations, the Supreme High Command gives the go-ahead: this is in the interests of Germany.

An offer was also received from Parvus to secretly transport Lenin and G. Zinoviev. But this proposal was sharply rejected, and at a time when there was still no clarity regarding the success of negotiations with Headquarters. Lenin firmly did not want to enter into unofficial relations with Berlin. In a letter to Ganetsky, he wrote: “The Berlin permit is unacceptable to me. Either the Swiss government will receive a carriage to Copenhagen or the Russian will agree on the exchange of all emigrants...”.

On April 4, Platten, at a reception with von Romberg, received consent for the passage of emigrants through Germany, regardless of their party affiliation. There, Platten outlined the conditions for emigrants: travel of any number of persons, regardless of their views on the war and without checking documents; the carriage with emigrants enjoys the right of extraterritoriality, which will avoid contact with the Germans; The emigrants themselves pay for their travel.

The only obligation that emigrants take on is to offer the return of interned Germans to Russia. For complete transparency of relations, these conditions had to be published in the Swiss and Russian press.

To avoid slander, Lenin draws up the “Minutes of the meeting of members of the RSDLP”, to which all documents related to the trip are attached.

On April 9, a train with 32 Russian emigrants left Zurich. Romain Rolland wrote in his diary: “... They know that from the very first moment of their stay in Russia they can be arrested, put in prison, shot... They are led by Lenin, who is considered the brain of the entire revolutionary movement.”

What about those who remained in Switzerland, did they find another way to travel?

The days of those remaining passed by awaiting a response from Petrograd. “Our situation has become unbearable”, - Martov telegraphed fellow party members in Russia. Only on April 21 did a reply come from Miliukov. He wrote that travel through Germany was impossible, and once again promised to achieve return through England... The emigrants regarded Miliukov's answer as a mockery. And they declared that they would go to Russia the same way as Lenin. Axelrod, Martov and Semkovsky wrote about this: “Considerations of a diplomatic nature, fears of misinterpretation recede into the background for us before the mighty duty to participate in the Great Revolution.”.

Thus, two more groups of emigrants passed through Germany. In total, 159 revolutionaries returned to Russia through Germany.

Only historians who have agreed to perform propaganda functions unusual for history can depict Lenin’s passage to Russia as a large-scale operation in which “at the suggestion of Parvus, not only the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also Kaiser Wilhelm himself became involved II". But for some reason, propagandists ignore the fact that the Kaiser learned about the operation only on April 12, when Lenin and his group were already in Stockholm. Therefore, the Kaiser’s wish that Russian socialists be given “White Books” and other similar literature for explanatory work remained unheard.

Another reason for accusing the Bolsheviks of working for the Germans is that they received money from the Swiss Social Democrat Karl Moor. In the spring and summer of 1917, the Foreign Bureau of the RSDLP (b) received from him 113,926 Swedish crowns (about 40 thousand dollars). There is an assumption that Moor worked for German intelligence under the pseudonym Bayer.

Lenin was then skeptical about Moor’s sponsorship: “But what kind of man is Moore? Has it been fully and absolutely proven that he is an honest person? That he never had and does not have any direct or indirect dealings with the German social-imperialists?” Due to suspicions about the integrity of More's reputation, the Bolsheviks accepted the money solely as a loan. And in the future, such gifts were no longer accepted.

When in September 1917 Moore received another proposal to transfer funds for the party, the Bolshevik Central Committee “due to the impossibility of verifying the actual source of the funds offered” And "the true goals of Moore's proposals" refused.

By the way, several years after the revolution, in November 1921, Moore came to Moscow, where he tearfully demanded that the money given to the Bolsheviks be returned to him. (Really for the return to German intelligence?..)

The amount received from Moore was about 40 thousand dollars - a considerable amount, of course, but clearly did not reach the “German millions” with which the party coffers were supposed to be full. Moreover, Moore’s money was not even sent to Russia, but was spent exclusively on holding the Third Zimmerwald Socialist Conference in Stockholm in early September 1917.

Soviet historian Lyandres noted: “Taking into account the goals of the conference and the composition of its participants, we can say with confidence that the “German money” with which it was organized was used no less against the government of the Kaiser’s Germany than against the Provisional Government of A.F. Kerensky.”.

So, all three main accusations about the Germans sponsoring Lenin: Parvus, the sealed carriage and other “bribes” like Moore are one complete lie. The head of the Provisional Government, A. Kerensky, who investigated the Bolshevik case in 1917, came to the same conclusion.

But about Kerensky’s investigation and how the topic of “German money” was later mythologized in the next article.

Svetlana Sukhova

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Biography, life story of Parvus Alexander Lvovich

Parvus Alexander Lvovich (real name Israel Lazarevich Gelfand) is a Russian revolutionary, social democrat.

early years

Israel was born into a Jewish family in the city of Berezino, Minsk region, on September 8, 1867. Very soon the house in which the boy lived with his relatives was destroyed by a large fire. Because of this, the Gelfands had to move to Odessa, the homeland of the head of the family.

In Odessa, Israel was assigned to a local gymnasium. In his free time, the teenager attended clubs where revolutionary-minded youth gathered. It was then that the revolutionary spirit was born in Israel.

In 1885, Helphand moved to Switzerland and entered the University of Basel. The young man studied mainly political economy. In 1891, Israel Gelfand graduated from the educational institution with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Revolutionary activities

Immediately after graduating from university, Gelfand moved to Germany. There he joined the Social Democratic Party. Israel was determined to revive the revolutionary spirit of German socialism and did not doubt for a second that its ideas were correct. However, two years later, Israel was expelled from the country as an undesirable foreigner.

In 1894, Alexander Lvovich Parvus was born. This is exactly what Israel Gelfand signed under one of his articles on the topic of the social democratic system. At the same time, Parvus began publishing his own review entitled “From World Politics.” At the same time, Alexander maintained contact with Russian revolutionaries. In 1896, at the International Socialist Congress in London, he was a member of the Russian delegation.

In 1899, Alexander Parvus visited Russia with fake identity documents. The reasons for his trip were that he wanted to collect more material for his book about the 1896 famine.

Until the mid-1900s, Alexander Parvus was engaged in publishing. He was editor of the Dresden newspaper Saxon Workers' Newspaper. He wrote sharp political articles and discussed the world economy and international relations. In 1898, Parvus was expelled from Germany. Alexander placed Rosa Luxemburg in his editorial chair. In general, at the end of the 1890s, many Marxists gathered around Parvus. often visited Alexander in his apartment in Munich, read books from his library and in every possible way contributed to the development of their common ideas and desires.

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1903, Alexander Parvus joined the Mensheviks, but already in 1904, thanks to his influence, he became seriously interested in the theory of permanent revolution. After this, Parvus made several attempts to reconcile the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, believing that the coming revolution would destroy all differences.

In the first days of the revolution, Alexander Parvus came to St. Petersburg in company. The men went straight to the executive committee of the Council of Workers' Deputies. Parvus wanted to implement a permanent revolution and saw the proletariat as an instrument for the fulfillment of his idea. According to Parvus's bold plan, he was to carry out a world socialist revolution.

With the help of newspapers and public speeches, Parvus had a significant influence on the minds of the working class. Alexander was able to inspire people to change - the people listened to his every word.

It is curious that in those years Parvus spent all his evenings not writing new propaganda speeches, but composing satirical plays for theatrical productions. This characterizes Alexander as a romantic person, prone to lyrical fantasies and not lacking in imagination.

Very soon the authorities began to arrest participants in the revolutionary movement. Parvus was no exception. He was sent to Turukhansk for three years, but in reality Alexander spent very little time there - he managed to escape. With false documents and a modest financial reserve, he published the work “Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System,” which made an incredible impression on. After his escape, Parvus lived in Europe for some time. There is no information left about what he did there.

In 1910, Alexander settled in Constantinople. He quickly became a rich man, but how he earned his capital is unknown. After the overthrow of the tsarist government in Russia, Parvus expected to invite him to the post of Minister of Finance. However, the leader of the proletariat never contacted the one he once admired. Parvus began to act decisively - he established the printing of a Russian newspaper in Scandinavia, in which he ridiculed the authorities. Russia perceived this move as provocative and accused Parvus of promoting revolutionary changes for personal gain.

In 1918, Alexander left politics. He lived on his own savings. Unfortunately, due to his imperfect reputation, the political and social elite did not want to communicate with Parvus.

Family

The first wife of Alexander Parvus was Tatyana Naumovna Berman, better known as Tauba Gershevna. She worked as a translator and librarian. In 1898, Tatyana gave Alexander a son, Evgeniy (he lived under the name Gnedin). Evgeniy was a diplomat, memoirist, and participant in the dissident movement.

Alexander lived in marriage with Tatyana until 1903. Then he married a second time. His second wife gave birth to another son. Alexander’s son worked for some time at the USSR Embassy in Italy, and then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Death

On December 12, 1924, Alexander Parvus died in Berlin. The cause of death was stroke. After the death of the revolutionary, all his official papers and money mysteriously disappeared.

Childhood and youth

At the same time, Parvus remained primarily a Russian revolutionary and at the International Socialist Congress in London in July 1896 was a member of the Russian delegation. With false documents he went to Russia, where he collected materials for a book about famine of 1896(“Das hungernde Russland”, 1900).

In the revolution of 1905-1907

The theory of "permanent" revolution

Parvus, in solidarity with the theorists of Marxism, made his contribution to the development of the theory of “permanent revolution”, giving a special place to the role of Russia in it. Parvus believed that in Russia, due to the peculiarities of its historical development, the bourgeoisie is not a revolutionary class, therefore the tasks facing bourgeois revolution, here the proletariat will have to decide. The united front with the bourgeoisie, mandatory until the fall of tsarism, should be considered only as a temporary alliance. Parvus also assessed the revolutionary potential of the Russian peasantry very reservedly, believing that it was not ready to play an independent political role in the revolution and was doomed to remain only an auxiliary, reserve force of the revolution. The proletariat, according to Parvus, must, in the course of an armed uprising, create its own provisional revolutionary government, without entering into alliances with other classes (hence the famous slogan (which Lenin unfairly attributed to Trotsky): “Without a tsar, but a workers’ government”). Parvus saw the main task of this government in the implementation of both transformations of a general democratic nature, already implemented during the bourgeois revolutions in the West, and measures aimed at radically improving the situation of the working class. Due to the fact that a single market has already been formed in the world, the bourgeois revolution and the creation of a government of “workers’ democracy” in Russia will have to push the revolutionary process in the West and lead to socialist revolutions in Western countries, where the conditions for the victory of socialism are already ripe. Having come to power in the West, the proletariat will be able to help its Russian comrades achieve the construction of socialism in Russia. With such ideas, Parvus returned to Russia in revolutionary year 1905 :94, 128 .

In Petersburg

Parvus received the news of the beginning of the revolution in Russia with enthusiastic optimism. Armed with his theory of “permanent revolution,” he decided to test its validity in practice. Hoping, with the help of the Russian proletariat as the vanguard of the bourgeois revolution in Russia, to achieve the beginning of a world socialist revolution, throughout the spring and summer of 1905 he passionately called on Russian workers to seize power and form a social democratic government of “workers’ democracy.” Meanwhile, the situation in Russia continued to heat up, while in Germany Russian emigrants spent their time in fruitless disputes. Gelfand decided to return to Russia to take part in the revolutionary struggle on the spot: Chapter 4. pp. 91-97.

Having lost the "Russian Newspaper", Parvus and Trotsky, in a bloc with the Mensheviks (the left wing of the faction), organized the newspaper " Start”, which just as easily eclipsed the “gray” newspaper of the Bolsheviks.

It was Parvus who was the author of the famous “Financial Manifesto”, which exhausted the government’s patience. The document, adopted by the St. Petersburg Council on December 2, dealt with corruption in the Russian government, its financial insolvency and false balance sheets. “Fear of popular control, which would reveal to the whole world the financial insolvency of the government, makes it delay the convening of popular representation...”. Pointing to the unrepresentative nature of the government (“the autocracy never enjoyed the confidence of the people and had no authority from them”), the Council declared that the Russian people would not pay debts “for all those loans that the tsarist government entered into when it was clearly and openly waging war with by all the people." After October Revolution 1917 the Soviet government will remind foreign creditors of this long-standing warning Nicholas II.

"The Case of Parvus"

Turkish period

Parvus and the “Young Turks”

During the years of reaction, having become disillusioned with the Russian revolution, Parvus became interested in revolutionary events in the Balkans. Even before leaving Germany, he published one of his best works - “Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System,” the first in-depth study imperialism, which had a significant influence on the theoreticians of the Second International, including Lenin. “The study of imperialism,” wrote Radek, “led him to the conviction that a new major impetus for the labor movement would come from the East. While still in Germany, he gave a brilliant outline of the driving forces of the Chinese revolution. From Constantinople he began to write remarkable characteristics of the Turkish liberation movement."

His biographers know very little for certain about this period of Parvus’s life; most of the information falls into the category of rumors, speculation, and assumptions. It is known that, having settled in 1910 V Constantinople, he established contacts with various socialist groups, wrote articles for the government magazine "Young Turkey" and became an economic adviser to the government Young Turk, - but no one knows for sure how. Supporters " Masonic» versions of the Russian revolution believe that one of its leaders, Mehmet Tallat, brought Parvus into contact with the government, Great master lodge "Grand East of Turkey". G. L. Sobolev thinks differently: “He was proud of the deal concluded with Russia for the delivery of grain, which, according to him, saved the Young Turk regime from disaster. Perhaps that is why he became not only a millionaire, but also an adviser to the “Young Turks” government...” But, if you believe Radek, Parvus could attract the attention of the government with his articles as a “deep expert on financial issues”: “He became close to Turkish circles and began to publish excellent combat articles against all the tricks of finance capital in Turkey in the government body “Young Turkey” .

It is also known for certain that it was here, in Turkey, that Parvus’s long-standing dream came true: he finally became rich. But the story of his enrichment is largely a matter of conjecture. “...His articles,” writes Radek, “attracted the attention of financial circles to him. ...He entered into all sorts of relations with Russian and Armenian businessmen in Constantinople, for whom he served as advice, earning big money from it. Having always had a craving for a broad life, he now began to live, scattering money left and right.” Parvus's business was just beginning with expensive advice; subsequently, according to available information, he became the official representative of a number of German companies, including Krupp concern, and earned his first millions by supplying food and weapons to Turkey during Balkan Wars 1912-1913.

Some historians claim that already in Turkey, in 1911, Parvus became a German agent. However, the imperial ambassador in Constantinople, Kurt von Wagenheim, in his telegram dated January 8, 1915, presented Parvus differently: “The famous Russian socialist and publicist Dr. Helphand, one of the leaders of the last Russian revolution, who emigrated from Russia and who was expelled several times from Germany, Lately he has been writing a lot here, mainly on issues of the Turkish economy. Since the beginning of the war, Parvus has taken a clearly pro-German position."

Beginning of the First World War

Return to Europe

"Memorandum of Dr. Gelfand" and "Obituary"

In January 1915, Parvus met with the German ambassador in Constantinople, Kurt von Wagenheim, in a conversation with whom he put forward the idea of ​​​​organizing a revolution in Russia. As follows from Wagenheim's report, Parvus convinced the German ambassador of the complete coincidence of interests of the German government and Russian revolutionaries; knowing the Germans' interest in Ukraine, to complete the coincidence, even stated that Russian revolutionaries would be able to achieve their goals only if the Russian Empire was divided into small states - although not only would not one of the factions of the RSDLP have signed up for this, but Parvus himself would not have signed up for such a thing either before or after he did not express his thoughts (which clearly contradicted his views) anywhere else.

Further, according to Parvus, the ambassador reported: “...Individual factions are disunited, there is inconsistency between them. The Mensheviks have not yet united with the Bolsheviks, who, meanwhile, have already begun to act. Parvus sees his task as uniting forces and organizing a broad revolutionary upsurge. To do this, it is necessary first of all to convene a congress of the leaders of the movement - possibly in Geneva. He is ready to take the first steps in this direction, but he will need a lot of money.”

A receipt from Parvus for receiving 1 million rubles to organize the revolution. Text: “On December 29, 1915, he received one million rubles in banknotes for the needs of the revolutionary movement in Russia from the German envoy in Copenhagen. Dr. A. Gelfand"

At Wagenheim's request, in March 1915 Parvus sent the German government a detailed plan for organizing a revolution in Russia - a document known as the "Dr. Helphand Memorandum". Parvus assigned a key role in his plan to the Bolsheviks, who supposedly “had already begun to act,” but considered success impossible without the combined efforts of all Social Democrats (including numerous national organizations); Disregarding the fact that a significant part of the Mensheviks took a “patriotic” position and considered anti-government speeches unacceptable during the war, Parvus wrote that “the moderate group has always been under the great influence of the German Social Democrats, and the personal authority of some German and Austrian Social Democratic leaders and can now have a strong impact on them”...

Based on the experience of the revolution of 1905-1907, Parvus described in detail on 20 pages how to organize a campaign in the press, how to raise the army, navy and national outskirts to fight tsarism... However, many high-ranking officials were skeptical about Parvus’ memorandum (for example, Finance Minister Helferich On December 26 he wrote: “In my opinion, he has fantasized too much in his plans, especially in the so-called financial plan, in which we are unlikely to be able to participate”), and instead of the originally requested 5 million (for the full implementation of the revolution, according to Parvus’ calculations, it was required 20 million) he received only one million rubles - December 29, 1915. Z. Zeman and V. Scharlau believe that the German side was not at all eager to play with fire and the support of the Russian revolutionaries was initially seen as a way of putting pressure on Nicholas II for the purpose of concluding separate peace, no more .

According to Z. Zeman and V. Scharlau, when Parvus returned to Germany in 1915 he was more than coolly received by all factions of German Social Democracy. At the same time, some, like G. Haas, considered him a Russian agent, others, like E. David, a Turkish agent; and for pacifists he was a profiteer, shamelessly profiting from war. However, the German government allowed the once unwanted foreigner to return to Germany in exchange for certain favors.

It is known that Parvus tried to establish contact with Lenin and even met with him, but there is no information that Lenin accepted the offer of cooperation. It has not even been established what exactly Parvus proposed to the Bolshevik leader: to unite with the Mensheviks and convene for this purpose a “congress of leaders” (as he promised the imperial ambassador) or something more. It is known, in any case, that Lenin at that time was striving for a completely different unification and was busy preparing for the “congress”, which will go down in history as International Socialist Conference in Zimmerwald, and Parvus himself subsequently wrote about this meeting: “I expressed to him my views on the consequences of the war for Social Democracy and drew attention to the fact that as long as the war continues, a revolution cannot occur in Germany, that now a revolution is possible only in Russia , where it could break out as a result of defeat by Germany. However, he dreamed of publishing a socialist magazine, with the help of which, he believed, he could immediately lead the European proletariat from the trenches into revolution."

In Copenhagen

Parvus failed to come to an agreement with Russian Social Democrats abroad; instead of the unification congress of the leaders of the RSDLP took place Zimmerwald Conference, which had nothing to do with either the plans of Parvus or the interests of his patrons; “now,” write Z. Zeman and V. Scharlau, “he had to make a choice: he could inform the Foreign Ministry about his failure in Switzerland and in this case, by agreement with German diplomats, limit himself to socialist propaganda in Western Europe, or try to create his own organization , strong enough for it to operate in Russia." But in Russia, the war drove opponents of the “world massacre” either into hard-to-reach areas of Siberia or into deep underground; Parvus had no personal connections with the Russian underground; as a political figure, he was long forgotten in Russia. When his appointment for January 1916 the revolution did not take place and it was necessary to give explanations; Parvus referred to some of his agents in Russia, who supposedly considered it necessary to postpone the uprising for an indefinite time; however, the names of these mythical agents are unknown to historical science to this day.

Parvus later moved to Copenhagen, where he founded the Institute for the Study of the Causes and Consequences of the World War. Perhaps it was precisely for the purpose of creating his own organization and establishing connections with the Russian underground that he invited many Russian Social Democrats, precisely from among those who opposed the war, to cooperate (few agreed); however, no independent organization arose on the basis of the institute, and the alleged conspiratorial activities of this institution, according to Z. Zeman and V. Scharlau, have no documentary evidence: “the institute was doing what it was supposed to do - research work.” The creation of “jobs” for a very small number of needy Russian emigrants seems to be the end of the Institute’s contribution to the Russian Revolution.

More useful was the import-export company created by Parvus in Copenhagen in 1915. The company supplied various goods to Russia, partly legally, partly through smuggling; when in the summer of 1917 the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b) examined the personal file of Polish revolutionaries Y. Ganetsky And M. Yu. Kozlovsky, accused of speculation and smuggling, Ganetsky, in his testimony regarding this company, reported: “Being in a difficult financial situation, having learned that Parvus was doing business in Copenhagen, I turned to him and offered my services. Parvus first offered me money for my personal equipment in commerce. But, having no experience, I did not want to personally deal with other people's money. A little later, a joint stock company was organized, and I was the manager.”

The American historian S. Lyanders, having studied the correspondence of Ganetsky with his financial agents in Petrograd, intercepted by Russian counterintelligence, came to a disappointing conclusion: “The goods were sent to Petrograd, and the money received for them went to Stockholm, but these funds never went in the opposite direction." But for emigrants, according to Radek, the company still turned out to be useful; in June 1917, defending Ganetsky, Radek wrote from Stockholm to Lenin: “... Ganetsky was generally engaged in trade not for personal gain, but in order to help the party financially. Over the past two years, Ganetsky has given more than one thousand to our organization, despite the fact that all the stories about his wealth are empty gossip...”

In 1917

After the October Revolution (“Midas in reverse”)

Having not received permission to return to Russia, Parvus, according to Trotsky, for some time still tried to participate in the Russian revolution from afar: “After October, Parvus made an attempt to get closer to us; he even began to publish a newspaper for this purpose somewhere in Scandinavia on in Russian, it seems, under the title “From the Outside”... I remember how merrily we laughed about the clumsy attempt of a “former” man to take the Russian revolution under his high hand: “We must instruct Pravda to whip him...” - these were approximately the words Lenin responded to Parvus attempt."

The dreams of young Parvus, in a sense, came true: revolutions in Russia and in Germany took place, while in the Russian revolution some researchers assign to Parvus a role that he could only dream of in his youth. And he managed to get rich. But, having acquired a multimillion-dollar fortune, Parvus 1918 moved away from politics (at the same time, however, in 1921 fired from the newspaper he financed “Die Glocke” Max Beer, for the latter’s attempt to turn the newspaper to the left). “He spent,” writes Radek, “considerable money on a number of Social Democratic publishing houses, but he himself did not take part in them: politically he completely degenerated. He said several years ago: “I Midas on the contrary: the gold that I touch becomes dung."

Death

Family

• wife - Gelfand, Tatyana (Tauba) Naumovna-Gershevna, (b. Berman, 1868-1917), separated in 1902.

Two Parvus

Researchers of the life and work of Parvus Z. Zeman(also known as the first publisher of the famous documents of the German Foreign Ministry) and V. Scharlau were forced to admit that “the mystery of Helphand’s life remained unresolved” and the sources at their disposal make it possible to “partially reveal the mysterious circumstances associated with Helphand’s life,” but nothing more .

On the one hand, the “Memorandum of Dr. Gelfand” alone, coupled with a receipt for receiving money, gives every reason to consider it paid Germanic agent, who acted in the interests of Germany, and from this position interpret all his actions, including considering his Copenhagen Institute only a cover for conspiratorial activities.

On the other hand, people who knew Parvus never believed that he worked for the Kaiser's Germany: a man who believed that a revolution in Russia would inevitably cause a chain reaction, of which Germany would be one of the immediate victims (which would ultimately and happened), - such a person, igniting a revolutionary fire in Russia, could only provide the Kaiser with a deliberate disservice.

Parvus was a supporter of joining Turkey into the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, with his direct participation, Germany provided assistance to Turkey with weapons and food - for some this is the surest proof of his betrayal both in relation to Russia and in relation to social democracy; and for others - only a very dubious path to revolution. “There was always something extravagant in Parvus,” he writes Trotsky after his death . His position during the war Karl Radek states as follows: “Disbelief in the independent forces of the Russian revolution pushed him to the idea that it does not matter who breaks tsarism: let him do it Hindenburg. Russian workers are taking advantage of the defeat of tsarism. What will the German workers do in the face of victorious German imperialism? Parvus answered this question: the war will worsen the situation of the German workers so much that they will rise up and deal with their Hindenburgs. He did not understand only one thing - that this requires one more condition: that the German Social Democracy prepare an uprising of the working class, instead of corrupting its masses with social-patriotic preaching.” His German student K. Henisch formulates Parvus’s position in approximately the same way, only without criticism: “The alliance between the Prussian bayonets and the Russian proletariat will lead to the fall of the tsarist autocracy, but at the same time Prussian semi-absolutism will disappear as soon as it loses the rear of Russian absolutism, which served it protection." Finally, the statement of Parvus himself, made in 1919: “I wanted victory central powers, because I wanted to prevent the reaction of victorious tsarism and allied imperialism and because I believed that in victorious Germany Social Democracy would be strong enough to change the regime."

The “Memorandum of Dr. Gelfand” itself seems to some to be a carefully developed plan of action, while for others it is deliberate, calculated on the ignorance of German officials bluff, in which only three words were filled with real content: “a lot of money will be needed.” It was for the sake of money, as G. L. Sobolev believes, that Parvus himself - in violation of all the rules of conspiracy - spread rumors about the uprising he was preparing in Petrograd. When these rumors reached the Russian capital in 1916, the head of the St. Petersburg security department K. I. Globachev(who, unlike Parvus, through his provocateurs had a direct connection with Social Democratic organizations) reported to his superiors: “...The funds of their organizations are insignificant, which would hardly have happened if they received German assistance.” And specifically regarding Parvus’s plans, Globachev wrote: “These are just dreams that are never destined to come true, because to create such a grandiose movement, in addition to money, you need authority, which Parvus no longer has...”.

Russian Social Democrats, at least from the beginning First World War, refused to consider Parvus a comrade in the struggle: he was equally a stranger to those who called on the workers of all the warring countries " turn the imperialist war into a civil war", and for those who fought for " a world without winners and losers, without annexations And indemnities ", and for those who called on Russian workers to forget their claims to the existing government during the war. And for high-ranking German officials he remained a “Russian revolutionary” and a “famous Russian socialist.” .

see also

Books and articles by A. Parvus

• "Coup d'etat and mass political strike" (Staatsstreich und politischer Massenstreik) (1895)
• “The World Market and the Agricultural Crisis” (translated from him, 1897)
• “Das hungernde Russland” (1900) (description of a trip through the starving provinces)
• "Russia and Revolution" (1906)
• “In the Russian Bastille during the Revolution” (In der russischen Bastille während der Revolution).
• "Colonial Policy and the Collapse of the Capitalist System" (1908)
• "Capitalist Production and the Proletariat" (Die kapitalistische Produktion und das Proletariat) (1908)
• "The Class Struggle of the Proletariat" (Der Klassenkampf des Proletariats) (1908)
• "In the ranks of German Social Democracy" (1908)
• "Social Democracy and Parliamentarism" (Die Sozialdemokratie und der Parlamentarismus) (1909)
• "Socialism and the Social Revolution" (Der Sozialismus und die soziale Revolution) (1909)

Literature

• Zeman Z., Scharlau V. Parvus is a merchant of the revolution. New York, 1991
• Zeman, Z., Scharlau, W. ISBN 978-5-9524-2941-3
• Hoepfner K., Schubert I. Lenin in Germany. - M.: Politizdat, 1985. - P. 67, 102.
• Sobolev G. L. Secret ally. Russian Revolution and Germany. St. Petersburg, 2009
• "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: Biographical Chronicle", vol. 3, pp. 333, 337

Notes

1. Since 1915, the Soviet politician also had the party pseudonym “Molotov” V. M. Molotov (Scriabin)
2. Zeman, Z., Scharlau, W.. - 1st. - Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - 320 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9524-2941-3
3. I. Deutscher. Armed prophet. M., 2006. P. 112
4. First Congress of the RSDLP. Documents and materials
5. S. Tyutyukin, V. Shelokhaev. Strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in the revolution
6. L. Trotsky. Our first revolution. Part I
7. Zeman Z., Scharlau V. Parvus - merchant of the revolution. New York, 1991. P. 77
8. Sobolev G.L. Secret ally. Russian Revolution and Germany. St. Petersburg, 2009. P. 112
9. It should be noted that all of these developments by Helphand were significantly revised and deepened by L. D. Trotsky, and the “theory of permanent revolution” was inextricably intertwined with the name of Trotsky. It is noteworthy that later (upon returning to Germany as a result of escaping from Siberian exile) Helphand revised the conclusions from his theory: skeptically assessing the possibility of receiving help from the European proletariat, Helphand, unlike Trotsky, concluded that the victory of socialism in Russia as a result of the revolution was impossible ( Zeman, Z., Scharlau, W.. - 1st. - Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - P. 128. - 320 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9524-2941-3 ).
10. Sobolev G.L. Secret ally. P. 113
11. L. Trotsky. My life. M., 2001. P. 179
12. This is how L. Trotsky characterizes “New Life”: My life. P. 179
13. I. Deutscher. Armed prophet. P. 151
14. Right there. pp. 180-181
15. Some provisions of the Manifesto, including a call for a financial boycott of the government, would later be reproduced in their "Vyborg Appeal" cadets; moreover, as I. Deutscher writes, “in almost the same terms” (I. Deutscher. Armed Prophet. P. 153-154)
16. Quote by: I. Deutscher. Armed prophet. P. 153. About the Manifesto, see also: A. I. Spiridovich 1905 Preparation of an armed uprising. Council of Workers' Deputies. Work locally. Combat work.
17. Quote by: L. Trotsky. My life. P. 187. See also: I. Deutscher. Armed prophet. P. 153
18. I. Deutscher. Armed prophet. P. 153
19. Encyclopedia of St. Petersburg
20. Sobolev G.L. Secret ally. P. 114
21. Parvus. Here he is called “a famous German and Russian writer and politician”
22. L. Trotsky. My life. P. 170
23. Gorky M. PSS. T. 20. M., 1974. P. 10-11
24. Sobolev G.L. Secret ally. P. 116
25. Zeman Z., Scharlau V. Parvus - merchant of the revolution. P. 8
26. Nadezhda Ioffe about Leon Trotsky
27. “The Viennese Pravda was published and edited mainly by four: Parvus, M.I. Skobelev, L.D. Trotsky and A.A.Ioffe“, writes the latter’s daughter N. Ioffe in her memoirs, where she notes about Parvus: “Parvus took up commercial activities. Gradually this activity became his main one - he made a large fortune and moved away from the revolutionary struggle.”
28. K. Radek. Parvus // Silhouettes: political portraits. . M., 1991. P. 251