German Virus

Sealed Train

Germany was fighting a two-front war (WW1) (France in the West, Russia in the East). They were losing. They needed a way to knock Russia out of the fight.

• Plan: A wealthy socialist arms dealer named Alexander Parvus pitched a plan to the German government. He argued that Lenin was a “biological weapon.” If they could drop him into Russia, he would create enough chaos to destroy the Russian army from within.
• Vladimir Lenin’s real name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He adopted the name “Lenin” as a revolutionary pseudonym during his political activities, and because of his older brother.

  Lenin

  • Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov was a Russian revolutionary and political activist who was executed for planning an assassination against Alexander III of Russia. He was the elder brother of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union; his execution pushed his younger brother into activism.
  • In a letter written to Stalin in 1932 (six years after Lenin’s death) Anna Ulyanova, Lenin’s older sister, wrote that their maternal grandfather “came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank.” Blank was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. In her letter, Anna Ulyanova said her brother “had always thought highly of Jews.” She also urged Stalin to reveal Lenin’s Jewish background, concluding that “it would be wrong to hide it from the masses.”
• Journey: On April 9, 1917, the German Kaiser authorized a special train. Lenin and 31 other revolutionaries boarded in Zurich. The train was “sealed” (doors locked) because the Germans were terrified that Lenin’s communist ideas would “infect” their own people if he got off.
• Gold: The German Foreign Office didn’t just give him a ticket. They gave him millions of marks in gold. This money was used to restart the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, buy weapons for the Red Guards, and bribe soldiers.
• Churchill Quote: Winston Churchill later described this event perfectly: “Germany sent Lenin into Russia like a plague bacillus.”

American Connection

✡ Leon Bronstein in Bronx

While Lenin was traveling from Europe, Leon Trotsky was traveling from America. His story reveals the Western financial connection.

• Leon Bronstein changed his name to Leon Trotsky to avoid being identified as a Jew and to protect himself from political persecution. The name “Trotsky” was reportedly taken from a jailer in Odessa where he had been imprisoned.
• Luxury: He was living in New York City. Despite having no job, he lived in a modern apartment with a refrigerator and a telephone, and he traveled in a chauffeured limousine.
• Arrest: When the Tsar fell, Trotsky tried to sail back to Russia on the SS Kristianiafjord. He was stopped in Halifax, Canada, by British security. They found $10,000 in gold on him (a massive fortune in 1917).
• Intervention: He should have been arrested as a dangerous subversive. Instead, high-level officials from the US (the Wilson Administration) and Britain ordered his release. He was given a passport and allowed to sail to Russia to join Lenin.

Capitalist Funding

Wall Street Financiers

Why would the world’s richest Capitalists fund Communists who swore to destroy Capitalism? The answer lies in Lesson 1: They shared a common enemy (Tsar’s State Bank).

• Schiff

  ✡Jacob Schiff: The head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. bank in New York. The text confirms he poured millions into the revolution. His motivation was personal (vengeance against the Tsar for 19th-century policies) and financial (destroying the rival economic sovereign).

• Aschberg

  ✡Olof Aschberg: Known as the “Bolshevik Banker.” He ran the Nya Banken in Stockholm. He acted as the laundry machine. Wall Street money went to Stockholm, was melted down or converted, and then sent to Lenin in Russia.

• Guaranty Trust Bank: This J.P. Morgan-affiliated bank had directors who were intimately involved in the “Red Cross Mission” to Russia in 1917. This mission was a cover to funnel funds to the revolutionaries.

The Fixer

✡Maxim Wallach-Finkelstein: Bag Man

Money needs to move, and he was the man who moved it. Maxim Wallach-Finkelstein changed his name to Maxim Litvinov to fit into the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and to not be identified as a Jew.

• London Connection: He lived in London and worked as a clerk. In reality, he was the “Treasurer” of the Bolshevik party.
• Arms Dealer: Before 1917, he used funds from “friends abroad” to buy guns in London and ship them to terrorists in Russia.
• Bag Man: After the revolution, he was appointed the Soviet representative in London. His first act was to demand the Bank of England hand over the Tsar’s frozen assets. They complied. Later, he oversaw the selling of stolen Russian gold back to Western banks.

The Red Pill

Motive: Why Fund Enemy?

This is the “Red Pill.” The banks didn’t fear Communism; they controlled it.

• Destruction of Rival: By funding the Bolsheviks, Western banks destroyed the Russian Empire, which was the only major nation refusing to play by their rules (Central Banking).
• Exploitation: The Bolsheviks needed machinery and technology. To pay for it, they sold Russia’s natural resources (gold, oil, timber) to Western corporations at huge discounts. A desperate, broken Russia was a better customer than a strong, independent Empire.

The Conclusion

Summary

The Russian Revolution was not an organic uprising of the poor. It was a “pincer movement.” German Intelligence pushed from the East (Lenin) to win the war. Wall Street financiers pushed from the West (Trotsky) to capture the Russian economy. The Russian people were simply the victims caught in the middle.

Financial History: Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. This is the definitive academic work tracking the bank transfers from NY to revolutionaries.
Primary Source: Germany and the Revolution in Russia 1915-1918 (Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry). Proves the funding of Lenin.
Bag Man Details: Stephen Mitford Goodson, A History of Central Banking and the Empire. Details Litvinov’s role and the Jacob Schiff connection.
Trotsky in NY: Leon Trotsky, My Life (Autobiography). He describes his time in NY, though he downplays the money.
Churchill Quote: Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, Volume V. Source of the “plague bacillus” quote.