Antony C. Sutton - Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (1974)

7/29/2019 Antony C. Sutton - Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (1974)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/antony-c-sutton-wall-street-and-the-bolshevik-revolution-1974 1/128



W A LL ST REE T A ND T H E

BO LSH EV IKREV OLUT ION

By A ntony C . Sutt on

PREFACE

Since the ear ly 1920s , numer ous pamphlets and ar ticles , even a f ew books , havesought to f or ge a link between "inter national banker s" and "Bolshevikr evolutionar ies ." Rar ely have these attempts been suppor ted by har d evidence, andnever have such attempts been ar gued within the f r amework of a scientif icmethodology. Indeed, some of the "evidence" used in these eff or ts has beenf r audulent, some has been irr elevant, much cannot be checked. Examination of thetopic by academic wr iter s has been s tudious ly avoided; pr obably because the

hypothes is off ends the neat dichotomy of capitalis ts ver sus Communis ts (andeveryone knows , of cour se, that these ar e bitter enemies). M or eover , because agr eat deal that has been wr itten bor der s on the absur d, a sound academic r eputationcould eas ily be wr ecked on the shoals of r idicule. Reason enough to avoid the topic.

For tunately, the State Depar tment Decimal File, par ticular ly the 861.00 section,contains extens ive documentation on the hypothes ized link. When the evidence inthese off icial paper s is mer ged with nonoff icial evidence f r om biogr aphies , per sonalpaper s , and conventional his tor ies , a tr uly f ascinating s tory emer ges .

We f ind ther e was a link between some New Y ork inter national banker s and many

r evolutionar ies , including Bolsheviks . These banking gentlemen — who ar e her eidentif ied — had a f inancial s take in, and wer e r ooting f or , the success of theBolshevik Revolution.

Who, why — and f or how much — is the s tory in this book.

Antony C. Sutton

Mar ch 1974Chapter I

THE A CTORS ON THE REV OL UTION A RY ST A GE

Dear M r . Pr es ident:

I am in sympathy with the Soviet f or m of gover nment as that bes t suited f or theRuss ian people...

Letter to Pr es ident Woodr ow Wilson (October 17, 1918) f r om William Lawr enceSaunder s , chair man, Inger soll-Rand Cor p.; dir ector , Amer ican Inter national Cor p.;and deputy chair man, Feder al Reser ve Bank of New Yor k

The f r ontispiece in this book was dr awn by car toonis t Rober t M inor in 1911 f or the S t.Louis Pos t-Dispatch. M inor was a talented ar tis t and wr iter who doubled as aBolshevik r evolutionary, got himself arr es ted in Russ ia in 1915 f or alleged subver s ion,and was later bank-r olled by pr ominent W all Str eet f inancier s . M inor 's car toon



monopoly maneuver ings in the wor ld of politics and r evolution.

This is also a s tory r ef lecting the betr ayal of the Russ ian Revolution. The tsar s andtheir corr upt political s ys tem wer e e jected only to be r eplaced by the newpower br oker s of another corr upt political sys tem. Wher e the United States could haveexer ted its dominant inf luence to br ing about a f r ee Russ ia it tr uckled to the ambitions

of a f ew Wall Str eet f inancier s who, f or their own pur poses , could accept a centr alizedtsar is t Russ ia or a centr alized M arxis t Russ ia but not a decentr alized f r ee Russ ia. A ndthe r easons f or these ass er tions will unf old as we develop the under lying and, so f ar ,untold his tory of the Russ ian Revolution and its af ter math.4

Footnotes :

1"These ar e the r ules of big bus iness . They have s uper seded the teachings of our par ents and ar e r educible to a s imple maxim: Get a monopoly; let Society work f or you: and r emember that the bes t of all bus iness is politics , f or a legis lative gr ant,f r anchise, subs idy or tax exemption is wor th mor e than a K imber ly or Coms tock lode,s ince it does not r equir e any labor , either mental or phys ical, lot its exploitation"(Chicago: Public Publishing, 1906), p. 157.

2Geor ge F. K

ennan, Russ

ia Leaves

the War (New Y

ork: A

theneum, 1967);and Decis ion to Inter vene.. Soviet- Amer ican Relations , 1917-1920 (Pr inceton,N.J .: Pr inceton Univer s ity Pr ess , 1958).

3 A r thur Pound and Samuel Taylor M oor e, They Told Barr on (New Y ork: Har per &Br other s , 1930), pp. 13-14.

4Ther e is a par allel, and also unknown, his tory with r espect to the M akhanovitemovement that f ought both the "Whites" and the "Reds" in the Civil War of 1919-20(see V oline, The Unknown Revolution [New Y ork: L iber tar ian Book Club, 1953]).Ther e was also the "Gr een" movement, which f ought both Whites and Reds . The

author has never seen even one isolated mention of the Gr eens in any his tory of theBolshevik Revolution. Y et the Gr een A r my was at leas t 700,000 s tr ong!

Chapter II

TROTSKY L E AV ES NEW Y ORK TO COM PL ETE THE REV OL UTION

Y ou will have a r evolution, a terr ible r evolution. What cour se it takes will dependmuch on what M r . Rockef eller tells M r . Hague to do. M r . Rockef eller is a symbol of the A mer ican r uling class and M r . Hague is a s ymbol of its political tools .

Leon Tr otsky, in New Y ork Times , December 13, 1938. (Hague was a New Jer seypolitician)

In 1916, the year pr eceding the Russ ian Revolution, inter nationalis t L eon Tr otsky was

expelled f r om Fr ance, off icially because of his par ticipation in the Zimmerwaldconf er ence but also no doubt because of inf lammatory ar ticles wr itten f or Nashe S lovo,a Russ ian-language newspaper pr inted in Par is . In September 1916 Tr otsky was

politely escor ted acr oss the Spanish bor der by Fr ench police. A f ew days later M adr idpolice arr es ted the inter nationalis t and lodged him in a "f ir s t-class cell" at a char ge of

one-and-one-haf t pesetas per day. Subsequently Tr otsky was taken to Cadiz, thento Bar celona f inally to be placed on boar d the Spanis h Tr ansatlantic Companys teamer Monserr at. Tr otsky and f amily cr oss ed the A tlantic Ocean and landed inNew Y orkon J anuary 13, 1917.

Other Tr otskyites also made their way wes twar d acr oss the A tlantic. Indeed, one



cons ider ation" ar e not at all incons is tent with the Coulter-Gwatkin intervention inTr otsky's behalf ; or , f or that matter , with those later occurr ences , the Stalinis taccusations in the Tr otskyite show tr ials of the 1930s . Nor ar e they incons is tent withthe Gr uzenber g case. On the other hand, the only known dir ect link between Tr otskyand inter national banking is thr ough his cous in A br am Givatovzo, who was a pr ivatebanker in K iev bef or e the Russ ian Revolution and in Stockholm af ter the r evolution.While Givatovzo pr of ess ed antibolshevism, he was in f act acting in behalf of theSoviets in 1918 in curr ency tr ansactions .2 8

Is it poss ible an inter national web (:an be spun f r om these events? Fir s t ther e's

Tr otsky, a Russ ian inter nationalis t r evolutionary with Ger man connections whosparks ass is tance f r om two supposed suppor ter s of Pr ince L vov's gover nment inRuss ia ( A leinikoff and Wolf , Russ ians r es ident in New Y ork). These two ignite theaction of a liber al Canadian deputy pos tmas ter gener al, who in tur n inter cedes with apr ominent Br itish A r my ma jor gener al on the Canadian military s taff . These ar e allver if iable links .

In br ief , allegiances may not always be what they ar e called, or appear . We can,however , sur mise that Tr otsky, A leinikoff , Wolf , Coulter , and Gwatkin in acting f or acommon limited ob jective also had some common higher goal than nationalallegiance or political label. To emphas ize, ther e is no absolute pr oof that this is so. Itis , at the moment, only a logical suppos ition f r om the f acts . A loyalty higher thanthat f or ged by a common immediate goal need have been no mor e than that of f r iendship, although that s tr ains the imagination when we ponder such a polyglotcombination. It may also have been pr omoted by other motives . The pictur e is yetincomplete.

Footnotes :

1L eon Tr otsky, My Lif e (New Y ork: Scr ibner 's , 1930), chap. 22.

2Joseph Nedava, Tr otsky and the Jews (Philadelphia: J ewish Publication Society of A mer ica, 1972), p. 163.

3United States , Senate, Br ewing and Liquor Inter es ts and Ger man and BolshevikPr opaganda (Subcommittee on the Judiciary), 65th Cong., 1919.4Special Repor t No. 5, The Russ ian Soviet Bur eau in the United S tates , July 14, 1919,Scotland House, L ondon S.W.I. Copy in U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-23-1145.

5New Yor k Times , M ar ch 5, 1917.

6L ewis Cor ey, Hous e of Mor gan: A Social Biogr aphy of the Mas ter s of Money (NewY ork: G. W. Watt, 1930).

7M orr is Hillquit. (f or mer ly Hillkowitz) had been def ense attor ney f or J ohann M os t,alter the ass ass ination of Pr es ident M cK inley, and in 1917 was a leader of the NewY ork Socialis t Par ty. In the 1920s Hillquit es tablished himself in the New Y orkbanking wor ld by becoming a dir ector of , and attor ney f or , the Inter national UnionBank. Under Pr es ident Fr anklin D. Roosevelt, Hillquit helped dr aw up the NR A codes

f or the gar ment indus try.

8New Yor k Times , M ar ch 16, 1917.

9U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-85-1002.

10Ibid.



11Ibid., 861.111/315.

12L incoln Steff ens , Autobiogr aphy (New Y ork: Har cour t, Br ace, 1931), p. 764.Steff ens was the "go-between" f or Cr ane and Woodr ow Wilson.

13William Edwar d Dodd, Ambass ador Dodd's Diar y, 1933-1938 (New Y ork:Har cour t, Br ace, 1941), pp. 42-43.

14L incoln Steff ens , The Letter s of Lincoln S teff ens (New Y ork: Har cour t, Br ace, 1941),p. 396.

15U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1026.

16This section is based on Canadian gover nment r ecor ds .

17Gwatkin's memor amada in the Canadian gover nment f iles ar e not s igned, butinitialed with a cryptic mark or s ymbol. The mark has been identif ied as Gwatkin'sbecause one Gwatkin letter (that o[ A pr il 21) with that cryptic mark was

acknowledged.

18

H.J.

Mor gan, Canad ian Men and Women of the Time

s, 1912, 2 vol

s. (Tor onto: W .Br iggs , 1898-1912).

19June 1919, pp. 66a-666. Tor onto Public L ibr ary has a copy; the iss ue of MacLean' s

in which Colonel M acL ean's ar ticle appear ed is not easy to f ind and a f r ill summary ispr ovided below.

20See also Tr otsky, My Lif e, p. 236.21Se e A pp e nd ix 3 .

22 Accor ding to hi

s own account, Tr ot

sky did not arr ive in the U.S. until

January 1917.Tr otsky's r eal name was Br ons tein; he invented the name "Tr otsky." "Br ons tein" is

Ger man and "Tr otsky" is Polish r ather than Russ ian. His f ir s t name is usually given as

"L eon"; however , Tr otsky's f ir s t book, which was published in Geneva, has the initial"N," not "L ."

23Se e A pp e nd ix 3 ; this document was obtained in 1971 f r om the Br itish For eignOff ice but appar ently was known to M acL ean.



26Repor t of Cour t Pr oceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightis ts andTr otskyites" Hear d Bef or e the Militar y Collegium of the Supr eme Cour t of the USS R(M oscow: People's Commiss ar iat of Jus tice of the USSR, 1938), p. 293.

27See p. 174. Thomas L amont of the M or gans was an ear ly suppor ter of M uss olini.

28See p. 122.

Chapter III

L ENIN A ND GERM A N A SSIST A NCE FOR THE BOL SHEV IK REV OL UTION

It was not until the Bolshevik s had r eceived f r om us a s teady f low of f unds

thr ough var ious channels and under var ying labels that they wer e in a pos itionto be able to build up their main or gan Pr avda, to conduct ener getic pr opaga nda



and appr eciably to extend the or iginally narr ow base of their par ty.

Von Kühlmann, minis ter of f or eign aff air s , to the kaiser , December 3, 1917

In A pr il 1917 L enin and a par ty of 32 Russ ian r evolutionar ies , mos tly Bolsheviks , jour neyed by tr ain f r om Switzer land acr oss Ger many thr ough Sweden to Petr ogr ad,Russ ia. They wer e on their way to join L eon Tr otsky to "complete the r evolution."Their tr ans-Ger many tr ans it was appr oved, f acilitated, and f inanced by the Ger manGener al Staff . L enin's tr ans it to Russ ia was par t of a plan appr oved by the Ger man

Supr eme Command, appar ently not immediately known to the kaiser , to aid in thedis integr ation of the Russ ian ar my and so eliminate Russ ia f r om Wor ld War I. Theposs ibility that the Bolsheviks might be tur ned agains t Ger many and Eur ope did notoccur to the Ger man Gener al Staff . M a jor Gener al Hoff man has wr itten, "We neither knew nor f or esaw the danger to humanity f r om the consequences of this jour ney of the Bolsheviks to Russ ia."1

A t the highes t level the Ger man political off icer who appr oved L enin's jour ney toRuss ia was Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, a des cendant of theFr ankf ur t banking f amily Bethmann, which achieved gr eat pr osper ity in thenineteenth century. Bethmann-Hollweg was appointed chancellor in 1909 and in

November 1913 became the sub ject of the f ir s t vote of censur e ever pass ed by theGer man Reichs tag on a chancellor . It was Bethmann-Hollweg who in 1914 told thewor ld that the Ger man guar antee to Belgium was a mer e "scr ap of paper ." Y et onother war matter s — such as the use of unr es tr icted submar ine war f ar e — Bethmann-Hollweg was ambivalent; in January 1917 he told the kaiser , "I can give Y our M a jes ty neither my ass ent to the unr es tr icted submar ine war f ar e nor my r ef usal." By1917Bethmann-Hollweg had los t the Reichs tag's suppor t and r es igned — but not bef or eappr oving tr ans it of Bolshevik r evolutionar ies to Russ ia. The tr ans it ins tr uctions f r omBethmann-Hollweg went thr ough the s tate secr etary A r thur Zimmer mann — who was

immediately under Bethmann-Hollweg and who handled day-to-day oper ationaldetails with the Ger man minis ter s in both Ber n and Copenhagen — to the Ger manminis ter to Ber n in ear ly A pr il 1917. The kaiser himself was not awar e of ther evolutionary movement until af ter L enin had pass ed into Russ ia.

While L enin himself did not know the pr ecise sour ce of the ass is tance, he cer tainlyknew that the Ger man gover nment was pr oviding some f unding. Ther e wer e, however ,inter mediate links between the Ger man f or eign minis try and L enin, as the f ollowingshows :

L ENIN'S TR A NSFER TO RUSSI A IN A PRIL 1917Final decis ion BETHM A NN-

HOLL WEG(Chancellor)Inter mediary I A RTHUR

ZIMM ERM A NN(State Secr etary)

Inter mediary II BROCK DORFF-R A NTZ A U(Ger man M inis ter inCopenhagen)

Inter mediary III A L EXA NDER ISR A EL

HEL PH A ND(alias P A RV US)Inter mediary IV J A COB

FURSTENBERG (alias

G A NETSKY )L ENIN, in Switzer land



L ans ing and M iles in the State Depar tment and Senator Owen in the Congr ess .

Footnotes :

1M ax Hoff man, War Diar ies and Other Paper s (London: M . Secker , 1929), 2:177.

2Z. A . B. Zeman and W. B. Schar lau, The Mer chant of Revolution.. The Lif e of A1exander Is r ael Helphand (Par vus), 1867-1924 (New Y ork: Oxf or d Univer s ityPr ess , 1965).3Z. A . B. Zeman, Ger many and the Revolution in Russ ia, 1915-1918. Documents f r omthe Ar chives of the Ger man For eign Minis tr y (L ondon: Oxf or d Univer s ity Pr ess ,1958), p. ???? 5.

4Ibid.

5Ibid., p. 6, doc. 6, r epor ting a conver s ation with the Fs tonian inter mediary K eskula.

6Ibid., p. 92, n. 3.

7U.S., Committee on Public Inf or mation, The Ger man-Bolshevik Conspir acy, War Inf or mation Ser ies , no. 20, October 1918.

8New Yor k Evening Pos t, September 16-18, 21; October 4, 1918. It is also inter es ting,but not conclus ive of anything, that the Bolsheviks also s toutly ques tioned theauthenticity of the documents .

9Geor ge F. K ennan, "The Siss on Documents ," Jour nal of Moder n His tor y 27-28(1955-56): 130-154.

10John Reed, The S iss on Documents (New Y ork: L iber ator Publishing, n.d.).

11This par t is based on section 861.00 o[ the U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, alsoavailable as National A r chives r olls 10 and 11 of micr ocopy 316.

12U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1117a. The same mess age was conveyed tothe Italian ambass ador .13See A r thur Bullar d paper s at Pr inceton Univer s ity.

Chapter IV

W A LL STREET A ND WORL D REV OL UTION

W hat you Radicals and we who hold oppos ing views diff er about, is not so muchthe end as the means , not so much what should be br ought about as how itshould, and can, be br ought about ....

Otto H. Kahn, dir ector , Amer ican Inter national Cor p., and par tner , Kuhn, Loeb &Co., speaking to the League/or Indus tr ial Democr acy, New Yor k, December 30, 1924

Bef or e Wor ld War I, the f inancial and bus iness s tr uctur e of the United States was

dominated by two conglomer ates : Standar d Oil, or the Rockef eller enter pr is e, and theM or gan complex of indus tr ies — f inance and tr anspor tation companies . Rockef eller and M or gan tr us t alliances dominated not only Wall Str eet but, thr ough inter lockingdir ector ships , almos t the entir e economic f abr ic of the United States .l Rockef eller



565, M ay 24, 6 p.m.f or Guar anty Tr us t Company New Y ork:Thr ee.Olof and self cons ider the new pr opos ition takes car e Olof and will help r ather thanhar m your pr es tige. Situation such co-oper ation necess ary if big things ar e to beaccomplished her e. Str ongly ur ge your arr anging with City to cons ider and act jointlyin all big pr opos itions her e. Decided advantages f or both and pr events playing oneagains t other . City r epr es entatives her e des ir e (hand wr itten) such co-oper ation.Pr opos ition being cons ider ed eliminates our cr edit in name also option but we bothcons ider the r ouble cr edit with the bond option in pr opos itions . Second par agr aphoff er s wonder f ul pr of itable oppor tunity, s tr ongly ur ge your acceptance. Please cableme f ull author ity to act in connection with City. Cons ider our enter taining pr opos itionsatisf actory s ituation f or us and per mits doing big things . A gain s tr ongly ur ge your taking twenty-f ive million of r ouble cr edit. No poss ibility loss and decidedspeculative advantages . A gain ur ge having V ice Pr es ident upon the gr ound. Eff ecther e will be decidedly good. Res ident A ttor ney does not carry s ame pr es tige andweight. This goes thr ough Embass y by code answer same way. See cable onposs ibilities .

ROL PH M A RSH.FR A NCIS,

A M ERIC A N A M B A SS A DOR

Note:—

Entir e M ess age in Gr een Cipher .TEL EGR A PH ROOM 1 5

"Olof " in the cable was Olof A schber g, Swedish banker and head of the Nya Bankenin Stockholm. A schber g had been in New Y ork in 1915 conf err ing with the M or ganf ir m on these Russ ian loans . Now, in 1916, he was in Petr ogr ad with Rolph M ar sh of Guar anty Tr us t and Samuel M acRober ts and Rich of National City Bank ("City" incable) arr anging loans f or a M or gan-Rockef eller consor tium. The f ollowing year ,

A schber g, as we shall see later , would be known as the "Bolshevik Banker ," and hisown memoir s r epr oduce evidence of his r ight to the title.

The State Depar tment f iles also contain a ser ies of cables between A mbass ador Fr ancis , A cting Secr etary Fr ank Polk, and Secr etary of State Rober t L ans ingconcer ning the legality and pr opr iety of tr ansmitting National City Bank andGuar anty Tr us t cables at public expense. On M ay 25, 1916, A mbass ador Fr ancis

cabled Washington as f ollows and r ef err ed to the two pr evious cables :

569, M ay 25, one p.m.

M y telegr am 563 and 565 M ay twenty-f our th ar e sent f or local r epr esentatives of ins titutions addr ess ed in the hope of consummating loan which would lar gely incr easeinter national tr ade and gr eatly benef it [diplomatic r elations?]. Pr ospect f or success

pr omis ing. Petr ogr ad r epr esentatives cons ider ter ms submitted very satisf actory butf ear such r epr esentations to their ins titutions would pr event consummation loan if Gover nment her e acquainted these pr oposals .

FR A NCIS, A M ERIC A N A M B A SS A DOR.1 6

The bas ic r eason cited by Fr ancis f or f acilitating the cables is "the hope of consummating loan which would lar gely incr ease inter national tr ade." Tr ansmiss ionof commer cial mess ages us ing State Depar tment f acilities had been pr ohibited, and onJ une 1, 1916, Polk cabled Fr ancis :

842



In view of Depar tment's r egulation contained in its cir cular telegr aphic ins tr uction of M ar ch f if teenth, (discontinuance of f orwar ding Commer cial mess ages)17 1915, pleaseexplain why mess ages in your 563, 565 and 575, should be communicated.

Her eaf ter please f ollow closely Depar tment's ins tr uctions .

A cting.Polk

861.51/112/110

Then on June 8, 1916, Secr etary of State L ans ing expanded the pr ohibition andclear ly s tated that the pr oposed loans wer e illegal:

860 Y our 563, 565, M ay 24, g: 569 M ay 25.1 pm Bef or e deliver ing mess ages toV ander lip and Guar anty Tr us t Company, I mus t inquir e whether they r ef er to Russ ianGover nment loans of any descr iption. If they do, I r egr et that the Depar tment can notbe a par ty to their tr ansmiss ion, as such action would submit it to jus tif iable cr iticismbecause of par ticipation by this Gover nment in loan tr ansaction by a belliger ent f or the pur pose of carrying on its hos tile oper ations . Such par ticipation is contr ary to theaccepted r ule of inter national law that neutr al Gover nments should not lend their ass is tance to the r ais ing of war loans by belliger ents .

The las t line of the L ans ing cable as wr itten, was not tr ansmitted to Petr ogr ad.The line r ead: "Cannot arr angements be made to send these mess ages thr oughRuss ian channels?"

How can we ass ess thes e cables and the par ties involved?

Clear ly the M or gan-Rockef eller inter es ts wer e not inter es ted in abiding byinter national law. Ther e is obvious intent in these cables to supply loans tobelliger ents . Ther e was no hes itation on the par t of these f ir ms to use StateDepar tment f acilities f or the negotiations . Fur ther , in spite of pr otes ts , the StateDepar tment allowed the mess ages to go thr ough. Finally, and mos t inter es ting f or subsequent events , Olof A schber g, the Swedish banker , was a pr ominent par ticipantand inter mediary in the negotiations on behalf of Guar anty Tr us t. L et us ther ef or e takea closer look at Olof A schber g.

OLOF A

SCH

BE RG IN NEW

Y

ORK , 1916Olof A schber g, the "Bolshevik Banker " (or "Bankier der Weltr evolution," as he has

been called in the Ger man pr ess ), was owner of the Nya Banken, f ounded 1912 inStockholm. His codir ector s included pr ominent member s of Swedish cooper atives andSwedish socialis ts , including G. W. Dahl, K . G. Ros ling, and C. Ger har dM agnuss on.1 8 In 1918 Nya Banken was placed on the A llied black-lis t f or its f inancialoper ations in behalf of Ger many. In r esponse to the blacklis ting, Nya Banken changedits name to Svensk Ekonomiebolaget. The bank r emained under the contr ol of

A schber g, and was mainly owned by him. The bank's L ondon agent was the Br itishBank of Nor th Commer ce, whose chair man was Ear l Gr ey, f or mer ass ociate of CecilRhodes . Other s in A schber g's inter es ting cir cle of bus iness ass ociates includedK r ass in, who was until the Bolshevik Revolution (when he changed color to emer geas a leading Bolshevik) Russ ian manager of Siemens-Schuker t in Petr ogr ad; Car lFur s tenber g, minis ter of f inance in the f ir s t Bolshevik gover nment; and M ax M ay,vice pr es ident in char ge of f or eign oper ations f or Guar anty Tr us t of New Y ork. Olof

A schber g thought so highly of M ax M ay that a photogr aph of M ay is included in A schber g's book.1 9



It is too ear ly to attempt an explanation f or this seemingly incons is tent, illegal, andsometimes immor al inter national activity. In gener al, ther e ar e two plaus ibleexplanations : the f ir s t, a r elentless sear ch f or pr of its ; the second — which agr ees withthe wor ds of Otto K ahn of K uhn, L oeb & Co. and of A mer ican Inter nationalCor por ation in the epigr aph to this chapter — the r ealization of socialis t aims , aims

which "should, and can, be br ought about" by nonsocialis t means .

Footnotes :

1John M oody, The Tr uth abou t the Tr us ts (New Y ork: M oody Publishing, 1904).2The J . P. M or gan Company was or iginally f ounded in L ondon as Geor ge Peabody

and Co. in 1838. It was not incor por ated until M ar ch 21, 1940. The company ceasedto exis t in A pr il 1954 when it mer ged with the Guar anty Tr us t Company, then its mos timpor tant commer cial bank subs idiary, and is today known as the M or gan Guar anteeTr us t Company of New Y ork.

3United States , House, Committee on For eign A ff air s , The S tor y of Pana ma, Hear ings

on the Rainey Resolution, 1913. p. 53.

4Ibid., p. 60.

5Stanf or d, Calif . See also the L os A ngeles Times , October 13, 1966.

6L ater codir ector with H jalmar Schacht (Hitler 's banker) and Emil Wittenber g, of theNationalbank f ür Deutschland.

7United States , Senate, Committee on For eign Relations , Inves tigation of Mexican Aff air s , 1920.

8L incoln Steff ens , The Letter s of Lincoln S teff ens (New Y ork: Har cour t, Br ace, 1941,I:386

9U.S., Senate, Committee on For eign Relations , Inves tigation of Mexican Aff air s ,1920, pts . 2, 18, p. 681.

10Ibid.

11New Yor k Times , J anuary 23, 1919.

12

U.S., Senate, Committee on For eign Relations , op. cit., pp. 795-96.13U.S., Senate, Hear ings Bef or e the Special Committee Inves tigating the Munitions

Indus tr y, 73-74th Cong., 1934-37, pt. 25, p. 7666.

14U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.51/110 (316-116-682).



17Handwr itten in par entheses .

18Olof A schber g, En Vandr ande Jude Fr än Glasbr uksgatan (Stockholm: A lber tBonnier s För lag, n.d.), pp. 98-99, which is included in Memoar er (Stockholm: A lber tBonnier s För lag, 1946). See also Gäs tboken (Stockholm: T idens För lag, 1955) f or f ur ther mater ial on A schber g.



19 A schber g, p. 123.20New Yor k Times , A ugus t 4, 1916.

21M ichael Futr ell, Nor ther n Under gr ound (L ondon: Faber and Faber , 1963), p. 162.

22See Rober t Paul Br owder and A lexander F. K er ensky, The Russ ian Pr ovis ionalgover nment, 1917 (Stanf or d, Calif .: Stanf or d Univer s ity Per ss , 1961), 3: 1365. "V iaBank" is obvious ly Nya Banken.

23

U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1130.24U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.516/129, A ugus t 28, 1922. A State Dept. r epor tf r om Stockholm, dated October 9, 1922 (861.516 /137), s tates in r egar d to A schber g,"I met M r . A schber g some weeks ago and in the conver sation with him hesubs tantially s tated all that appear ed in this r epor t. He also asked me to inquir ewhether he could vis it the United States and gave as r ef er ences some of the pr ominentbanks . In connection with this , however , I des ir e to call the depar tment's attention toDocument 54 of the Siss on Documents , and also to many other dispatches which thislegation wr ote concer ning this man dur ing the war , whose r eputation and s tanding isnot good. He is undoubtedly working closely in connection with the Soviets , and

dur ing the entir e war he was in close cooper ation with the Ger mans " (U.S. State Dept.Decimal File, 861.516/137, Stockholm, October 9, 1922. The r epor t was s igned by Ir aN. M orr is).

25Ibid., 861.516/130, September 13, 1922.

26Ibid.

27Ibid.

28Ibid., 861.516 /140, Stockholm, October 23, 1922.

29Ibid., 861.516 /147, December 8, 1922.

30Ibid., 861.516 /144, November 18, 1922.

31Ibid., 861.316/197, Stockholm, M ar ch 7, 1924.

32This section is based on the Over man Committee hear ings , U.S., Senate,Br ewing and Liquor Inter es ts and Ger man and Bolshevik Pr opaganda, Hear ings

bef or e the Subcommittee on the Judiciary, 65th Cong., 1919, 2:2154-74.

33Count V on Ber ns tor ff , My Thr ee Year s in Amer ica (New Y ork: Scr ibner 's , 1920), p.261.

34Ibid.

35Ibid.

36Fr ench Str other s , F ighting Ger many' s Spies (Gar den City, N.Y .: Doubleday, Page,1918), p. 152.37

U.S., Senate, Over man Committee, 2:2009.38This section is based on the f ollowing sour ces (as well as those cited elsewher e):J ean Bar danne, Le Colonel Nicolai: espion de genie (Par is : Editions Siboney, n.d.);Cour s de J us tice, Aff air e Caillaux, Lous talot et Comby: Pr ocedur e Gener aleInterr ogatoir es (Par is , 1919), pp. 349-50, 937-46; Paul V er gnet, L' Aff air e Caillaux(Par is 1918), especially the chapter titled "M arx de M annheim"; Henr i Guer nut,



Emile K ahn, and Camille M . L emer cier , Etudes documentair es sur L' Aff air e Caillaux(Par is , n.d.), pp. 1012-15; and Geor ge A dam, Tr eason and Tr agedy: An Account of F r ench War Tr ials (L ondon: Jonathan Cape, 1929).

39See p. 70.

40This Interr elationship is dealt with extens ively in the thr ee-volume Over manCommittee r epor t of 1919. See bibliogr aphy.

41See Rudolph Binion, Def eated Leader s (New Y ork: Columbia Univer s ity Pr ess ,

1960).42Geor ge A dam, Tr eason and Tr agedy: An Account of Fr ench War Tr ials (L ondon:J onathan Cape, 1929).

43Ibid.

44The Enemy Within (L ondon: Geor ge A llen & Unwin, 1920).

Chapter V

THE A M ERIC A N RED CROSS M ISSION IN RUSSI A — 1917

Poor M r . Billings believed he was in char ge of a scientif ic miss ion f or the r elief of Russ ia .... H e was in r eality nothing but a mas k — the Red Cr oss complexion of the miss ion was nothing but a mas k .

Cor nelius Kelleher , ass is tant to William Boyce Thompson (in Geor ge F . Kennan,Russ ia L eaves the War)

The Wall Str eet pr o ject in Russ ia in 1917 used the Red Cr oss M iss ion as itsoper ational vehicle. Both Guar anty Tr us t and National City Bank had r epr esentatives

in Russ ia at the time of the r evolution. Fr eder ick M . Cor se of the National City Bankbr anch in Petr ogr ad was attached to the A mer ican Red Cr oss M iss ion, of which agr eat deal will be said later . Guar anty Tr us t was r epr esented by Henry Cr os byEmery. Emery was tempor ar ily held by the Ger mans in 1918 and then moved on tor epr es ent Guar anty Tr us t 'in China.

Up to about 1915 the mos t inf luential per son in the A mer ican Red Cr oss NationalHeadquar ter s in Washington, D.C. was M iss M abel Boar dman. A n active and

ener getic pr omoter , M

iss

Boar dman had been the moving f or ce behind the Red Cr oss

enter pr ise, although its endowment came f r om wealthy and pr ominent per s ons

including J . P. M or gan, M r s . E. H. Harr iman, Cleveland H. Dodge, and M r s . Russ ellSage. The 1910 f und-r ais ing campaign f or $2 million, f or example, was success f ulonly because it was suppor ted by these wealthy r es idents of New Y ork City. Inf act, mos t of the money came f r om New Y ork City. J .P. M or gan himself contr ibuted$100,000 and seven other contr ibutor s in New Y ork City amass ed $300,000. Onlyone per son outs ide New Y ork City contr ibuted over $10,000 and that was William J .Boar dman, M iss Boar dman's f ather . Henry P. Davison was chair man of the 1910 NewY ork Fund-Rais ing Committee and later became chair man of the War Council of the

A mer ican Red Cr oss . In other wor ds , in Wor ld War I the Red Cr oss depended heavilyon Wall Str eet, and specif ically on the M or gan f ir m.

The Red Cr oss was unable to cope with the demands of Wor ld War I and in eff ectwas taken over by these New Y ork banker s . A ccor ding to John Fos ter Dulles , thesebus iness men "viewed the A mer ican Red Cr oss as a vir tual ar m of gover nment,they envisaged making an incalculable contr ibution to the winning of the war ."1 In



Chicago, was r epor ted to be disgus ted with the over tly political activities of thema jor ity of the miss ion. The other medical men wer e William S. Thayer , pr of ess or of medicine at Johns Hopkins Univer s ity; D. J . M cCar thy, Fellow of Phipps Ins titutef or Study and Pr evention of Tuber culos is , at Philadelphia; Henry C. Sher man,pr of ess or of f ood chemis try at Columbia Univer s ity; C. E. A . Wins low, pr of ess or of bacter iology and hygiene at Y ale M edical School; W ilbur E. Pos t, pr of ess or of medicine at Rush M edical College; Dr . M alcolm Gr ow, of the M edical Off icer sReserve Cor ps of the U.S. A r my; and Orr in Wightman, pr of ess or of clinicalmedicine, New Y ork Polyclinic Hospital. Geor ge C. Whipple was lis ted as pr of ess or

of sanitary engineer ing at Harvar d Univer s ity but in f act was par tner of the New Y orkf ir m of Hazen, Whipple & Fuller , engineer ing consultants . This is s ignif icant becauseM alcolm Pir nie — of whom mor e later — was lis ted as an ass is tant sanitary engineer and employed as an engineer by Hazen, Whipple & Fuller .

The ma jor ity of the miss ion, as seen f r om the table, was made up of lawyer s ,f inancier s , and their ass is tants , f r om the New Y ork f inancial dis tr ict. The miss ion was

f inanced by William B. Thompson, descr ibed in the off icial Red Cr oss cir cular as

"Commiss ioner and Bus iness M anager ; Dir ector United States Feder al Bank of NewY ork." Thompson br ought along Cor nelius K elleher , descr ibed as an attache to the

miss ion but actually secr etary to Thompson and with the same addr ess — 14 WallStr eet, New Y ork City. Publicity f or the miss ion was handled by Henry S. Br own, of the same addr ess . Thomas Day Thacher was an attor ney with Simpson, Thacher &Bar tlett, a f ir m f ounded by his f ather , Thomas Thacher , in 1884 and pr ominentlyinvolved in r ailr oad r eor ganization and mer ger s . Thomas as junior f ir s t worked f or thef amily f ir m, became ass is tant U.S. attor ney under Henry L . Stimson, and r etur ned tothe f amily f ir m in 1909. The young Thacher was a close f r iend of Felix Fr ankf ur ter and later became ass is tant to Raymond Robins , also on the Red Cr oss M iss ion. In1925 he was appointed dis tr ict judge under Pr es ident Coolidge, became solicitor gener al under Her ber t Hoover , and was a dir ector of the William Boyce ThompsonIns titute.

TH E 1917 A M ERIC A N RED CROSS M ISSION T O RUSSI A

Member s f r om WallS tr eet f inancial community and their aff iliations

Medical doctor sOr der lies , inter pr eter s , etc.

A ndr ews (L iggett &M yer s Tobacco)

Barr (Chase NationalBank)

Billings (doctor) Br ooks (or der ly)

Gr ow (doctor) Clark (or der ly)

Br own (c/o William B.Thompson)

M cCar thy (medicalr esear ch; doctor)

Rocchia (or der ly)Cochr an (M cCann Co.) Pos t (doctor)

K elleher (c/o William B.Thompson)

Sher man (f ood chemis try) Tr avis (movies)Nicholson (Swir l & Co.) Thayer (doctor) Wyckoff (movies)



Pir nie (Hazen, Whipple &Fuller)

Redf ield (Stetson,J ennings & Russ ell)

Wightman (medicine) Har dy ( jus tice)

Robins (mining pr omoter) Wins low (hygiene) Hor n (tr anspor tation)

Swif t (Swif t & Co.)

Thacher (Simpson,Thacher & Bar tlett)

Thompson (Feder alReserve Bank of N.Y .)

War dwell (Stetson,J ennings & Russ ell)

Whipple (Hazen, Whipple& Fuller)

Cor se (National CityBank)

M agnuson (r ecommendedby conf idential agent of Colonel Thompson)

A lan War dwell, also a deputy commiss ioner and s ecr etary to the chair man, was alawyer with the law f ir m of Stetson, J ennings & Russ ell of 15 Br oad Str eet, NewY ork City, and H. B. Redf ield was law s ecr etary to War dwell. M a jor War dwell was

the son of William Thomas War dwell, long-time tr easur er of Standar d Oil of NewJ er sey and Standar d Oil of New Y ork. The elder War dwell was one of the s igner s of

the f amous Standar d Oil tr us t agr eement, a member of the committee to or ganize RedCr oss activities in the Spanish A mer ican War , and a dir ector of the Gr eenwichSavings Bank. His son A lan was a dir ector not only of Gr eenwich Savings , but also of Bank of New Y ork and Tr us t Co. and the Geor gian M anganese Company (along withW. A ver ell Harr iman, a dir ector of Guar anty Tr us t). In 1917 A lan War dwell was

aff iliated with Stetson, J ennings 8c Russ ell and later joined Davis , Polk, War dwell,Gar dner & Read (Fr ank L . Polk was acting s ecr etary of s tate dur ing the BolshevikRevolution per iod). The Senate Over man Committee noted that War dwell was

f avor able to the Soviet r egime although Poole, the State Depar tment off icial on thespot, noted that "M a jor War dwell has of all A mer icans the wides t per sonal knowledgeof the terr or " (316-23-1449). In the 1920s War dwell became active with the Russ ian-

A mer ican Chamber of Commer ce in pr omoting Soviet tr ade ob jectives .

The tr easur er of the miss ion was J ames W. A ndr ews , auditor of L iggett & M yer sTobacco Company of St. L ouis . Rober t I. Barr , another member , was lis ted as adeputy commiss ioner ; he was a vice pr es ident of Chase Secur ities Company(120Br oadway) and of the Chase National Bank. L is ted as being in char ge of adver tis ingwas William Cochr an of 61 Br oadway, New Y ork City. Raymond Robins , a miningpr omoter , was included as a deputy commiss ioner and descr ibed as "a social

economist." Finally, the mi

ssion included two member

s of Swif t & Company of Union Stockyar ds , Chicago. The Swif ts have been pr evious ly mentioned as being

connected with Ger man espionage in the United States dur ing Wor ld War I. Har old H.Swif t, deputy commiss ioner , was ass is tant to the vice pr es ident of Swif t & Company;William G. Nicholson was also with Swif t & Company, Union Stockyar ds .

Two per sons wer e unoff icially added to the miss ion af ter it arr ived in Petr ogr ad:Fr eder ick M . Cor se, r epr esentative of the National City Bank in Petr ogr ad; and



A M ERIC A N RED CROSSM ISSION TO

Per sonnel Russ ia Rumania

M edical (doctor s andsur geons) 7 16

Or der lies , nur s es 7 10

L awyer s and bus iness men 15 4

T OT A L 29 30

SOURCES:

A mer ican Red Cr oss , Was hington, D.C.

U.S. Department of State, Petr ogr ad embass y, Red Cr oss f ile, 1917.

The Red Cr oss M iss ion to Rumania r emained at its pos t in Jass y f or the r emainder of 1917 and into 1918. The medical s taff of the A mer ican Red Cr oss M iss ion inRuss ia — the seven doctor s — quit in disgus t in A ugus t 1917, pr otes ted the politicalactivities of Colonel Thompson, and r etur ned to the United States . Consequently, inSeptember 1917, when the Rumanian miss ion appealed to Petr ogr ad f or A mer icandoctor s and nur ses to help out in the near cr is is conditions in Jass y, ther e wer e no

A mer ican doctor s or nur ses in Russ ia available to go to Rumania.

Wher eas the bulk of the miss ion in Russ ia occupied its time in inter nalpolitical maneuver ing, the miss ion in Rumania thr ew itself into r elief work assoon as it arr ived. On September 17, 1917, a conf idential cable f r om Henry W.

A nder son,chair man of the Rumania miss ion, to the A mer ican ambass ador Fr ancis in Petr ogr adr eques ted immediate and ur gent help in the f or m of $5 million to meet an impending

catastr

ophe i

n Ru

man

ia.

Th

en

f o

llowe

d a

ser ie

s o

f letter s ,

cab

les ,

and

comm

unicati

ons

f r om A nder son to Fr ancis appealing, unsuccess f ully, f or help.

On September 28, 1917, V opicka, A mer ican minis ter in Rumania, cabled Fr ancisat length, f or r elay to Washington, and r epeated A nder son's analys is of theRumanian cr is is and the danger of epidemics — and wor se — as winter closed in:

Cons ider able money and her oic measur es r equir ed pr event f ar r eaching disas ter ....Useless try handle s ituation without someone with author ity and access togover nment . . . With pr oper or ganization to look af ter tr anspor t r eceive and dis tr ibutesupplies .

The hands of V opicka and A nder son wer e tied as all Rumanian supplies and f inancialtr ansactions wer e handled by the Red Cr oss M iss ion in Petr ogr ad — and Thompsonand his s taff of f if teen Wall Str eet lawyer s and bus iness men appar ently had matter s of gr eater concer n that Rumanian Red Cr oss aff air s . Ther e is no indication in thePetr ogr ad embass y f iles at the U.S. State Depar tment that Thompson, Robins , or Thacher concer ned hims elf at any time in 1917 or 1918 with the ur gent s ituation inRumania. Communications f r om Rumania went to A mbass ador Fr ancis or to one of his embass y s taff , and occas ionally thr ough the consulate in M oscow.

By October 1917 the Rumanian s ituation r eached the cr is is point. V opicka cabledDavison in New Y ork (via Petr ogr ad) on October 5:

M os t ur gent pr oblem her e .... Disas tr ous eff ect f ear ed .... Could you poss ibly arr angespecial shipment .... M us t r ush or too late.

Then on November 5 A nder son cabled the Petr ogr ad embass y saying that delays insending help had alr eady "cos t sever al thousand lives ." On November 13 A nder son



cabled A mbass ador Fr ancis concer ning Thompson's lack of inter es t in Rumanianconditions :

Reques ted Thompson f ur nish details all shipments as r eceived but have notobtained same .... A lso r eques ted him keep me pos ted as to tr anspor t conditions butr eceived very little inf or mation.

A nder son then r eques ted that A mbass ador Fr ancis inter cede on his behalf in or der tohave f unds f or the Rumanian Red Cr oss handled in a separ ate account in L ondon,dir ectly under A nder son and r emoved f r om the contr ol of Thompson's miss ion.

T H O M PSON IN KERENSKY 'S RUSSI A

What then was the Red Cr oss M iss ion doing? Thompson cer tainly acquir ed ar eputation f or opulent living in Petr ogr ad, but appar ently he under took only two ma jor pr o jects in K er ensky's Russ ia: suppor t f or an A mer ican pr opaganda pr ogr am andsuppor t f or the Russ ian L iber ty L oan. Soon af ter arr iving in Russ ia Thompson metwith M adame Br eshko-Br eshkovskaya and David Soskice, K er ensky's s ecr etary, andagr eed to contr ibute $2 million to a committee of popular education so that it could"have its own pr ess and... engage a s taff of lectur er s , with cinematogr aphillus tr ations" (861.00/ 1032); this was f or the pr opaganda pur pos e of ur ging Russ ia tocontinue in the war agains t Ger many. A ccor ding to Soskice, "a packet of 50,000r ubles" was given to Br eshko-Br eshkovskaya with the s tatement, "This is f or youto expend accor ding to your bes t judgment." A f ur ther 2,100,000 r ubles was

depos ited into a curr ent bank account. A letter f r om J . P. M or gan to the StateDepar tment(861.51/190) conf ir ms that M or gan cabled 425,000 r ubles to Thompson at his r eques tf or the Russ ian L iber ty L oan; J . P. also conveyed the inter es t of the M or gan f ir mr egar ding "the wisdom of making an individual subscr iption thr ough M r . Thompson"to the Russ ian L iber ty L oan. These sums wer e tr ansmitted thr ough the National CityBank br anch in Petr ogr ad.

T H O M PSON GIV ES T H E BO LSH EV IKS $1 M ILL ION

Of gr eater his tor ical s ignif icance, however , was the ass is tance given to the Bolsheviks

f ir s t by Thompson, then, af ter December 4, 1917, by Raymond Robins .

Thompson's contr ibution to the Bolshevik cause was r ecor ded in the contempor ary A mer ican pr ess . The Washington Pos t of Febr uary 2, 1918, carr ied the f ollowingpar agr aphs :

GIV ES BOL SHEV IK I A M ILL IONW. B. Thompson, Red Cr oss Donor , Believes Par ty M isr epr esented. New Y ork, Feb.2 (1918). William B. Thompson, who was in Petr ogr ad f r om July until November las t,has made a per sonal contr ibution of $1,000,000 to the Bolsheviki f or the pur pose of spr eading their doctr ine in Ger many and A us tr ia.

M r . Thompson had an oppor tunity to s tudy Russ ian conditions as head of the A mer ican Red Cr oss M iss ion, expenses of which also wer e lar gely def r ayed by hisper sonal contr ibutions . He believes that the Bolsheviki cons titute the gr eates t power agains t Pr o-Ger manism in Russ ia and that their pr opaganda has been under mining the

militar is t r egimes of the Gener al Empir es .

M r . Thompson depr ecates A mer ican cr iticism of the Bolsheviki. He believes theyhave been misr epr es ented and has made the f inancial contr ibution to the cause in thebelief that it will be money well spent f or the f utur e of Russ ia as well as f or the A lliedcause.



withholdingof dir ect communications by r epr es entatives of the United States with the BolshevikGover nment."1 3 Sever al State Depar tment r epor ts complained about the par tisannatur e of Robins ' activities . For example, on M ar ch 27, 1919, Harr is , the A mer icanconsul at V ladivos tok, commented on a long conver sation he had had with Robins andpr otes ted gr oss inaccur acies in the latter 's r epor ting. Harr is wr ote, "Robins s tated tome that no Ger man and A us tr ian pr isoner s of war had joined the Bolshevik ar my upto M ay 1918. Robbins knew this s tatement was absolutely f alse." Harr is thenpr oceeded to pr ovide the details of evidence available to Robins .14

L im it o f A r e a C on tr o ll e d b y B o ls h e v ik s , J a nu a r y 1918

Harr is concluded, "Robbins deliber ately miss tated f acts concer ning Russ ia at that timeand he has been doing it ever s ince."

On r etur ning to the United States in 1918, Robins continued his eff or ts in behalf of the Bolsheviks . When the f iles of the Soviet Bur eau wer e seized by the L uskCommittee, it was f ound that Robins had had "cons ider able corr espondence" withL udwig M ar tens and other member s of the bur eau. One of the mor e inter es tingdocuments seized was a letter f r om Santer i Nuor teva (alias A lexander Nyber g), thef ir s t Soviet r epr esentative in the U.S., to "Comr ade Cahan," editor of the New Yor kDaily For war d. The letter called on the par ty f aithf ul to pr epar e the way f or RaymondRobins :

(To Daily) FORW A RD July 6, 1918

Dear Comr ade Cahan:

It is of the utmos t impor tance that the Socialis t pr ess set up a clamor immediately thatCol. Raymond Robins , who has jus t r etur ned f r om Russ ia at the head of the RedCr oss M iss ion, should be hear d f r om in a public r epor t to the A mer ican people. Thear med intervention danger has gr eatly incr eased. The r eactionis ts ar e us ing theCzecho-Slovak adventur e to br ing about invas ion. Robins has all the f acts about thisand about the s ituation in Russ ia gener ally. He takes our point of view.I am enclos ing copy of Call editor ial which shows a gener al line of ar gument, alsosome f acts about Czecho-Slovaks .

Fr ater nally,

PS& A U Santer i Nuor teva

T H E INT ERN A T ION A L RED CROSS A ND REV OLUT ION

Unknown to its adminis tr ator s , the Red Cr oss has been used f r om time to time as avehicle or cover f or r evolutionary activities . The use of Red Cr oss markings f or unauthor ized pur poses is not uncommon. When Tsar Nicholas was moved f r omPetr ogr ad to Tobolsk allegedly f or his saf ety (although this dir ection was towar ds

danger r ather than s af ety), the tr ain carr ied J apanese Red Cr oss placar ds . The StateDepar tment f iles contain examples of r evolutionary activity under cover of Red Cr ossactivities . For example, a Russ ian Red Cr oss off icial (Chelga jnov) was arr es ted inHolland in 1919 f or r evolutionary acts (316-21-107). Dur ing the Hungar ian Bolshevikr evolution in 1918, led by Bela K un, Russ ian member s of the Red Cr oss (or r evolutionar ies oper ating as member s of the Russ ian Red Cr oss ) wer e f ound inV ienna and Budapes t. In 1919 the U.S. ambass ador in L ondon cabled Washingtons tar tling news ; thr ough the Br itish gover nment he had lear ned that "s ever al A mer icans



who had arr ived in this country in the unif or m of the Red Cr oss and who s tated thatthey wer e Bolsheviks . . . wer e pr oceeding thr ough Fr ance to Switzer land to spr eadBolshevik pr opaganda." The ambass ador noted that about 400 A mer ican Red Cr oss

people had arr ived in L ondon in November and December 1918; of that number onequar ter r etur ned to the United States and "the r emainder ins is ted on pr oceeding toFr ance." Ther e was a later r epor t on January 15, 1918, to the eff ect that an editor of alabor newspaper in L ondon had been appr oached on thr ee diff er ent occas ions by thr eediff er ent A mer ican Red Cr oss off icials who off er ed to take commiss ions toBolsheviks in Ger many. The editor had sugges ted to the U.S. embass y that it watch

A mer ican Red Cr oss per sonnel. The U.S. State Depar tment took these r epor ts

ser ious ly and Polk cabled f or names , s tating, "If tr ue, I cons ider it of the gr eates timpor tance" (861.00 /3602 and /3627).

To summar ize: the pictur e we f or m of the 1917 A mer ican Red Cr oss M iss ion toRuss ia is r emote f r om one of neutr al humanitar ianism. The miss ion was in f act amiss ion of Wall Str eet f inancier s to inf luence and pave the way f or contr ol, thr ougheither K er ensky or the Bolshevik r evolutionar ies , of the Russ ian market and r esour ces .No other explanation will explain the actions of the miss ion. However , neither Thompson nor Robins was a Bolshevik. Nor was either even a cons is tent socialis t.The wr iter is inclined to the inter pr etation that the socialis t appeals of each man wer e

cover s f or mor e pr os aic ob jectives . Each man was intent upon the commer cial; that is ,each sought to use the political pr ocess in Russ ia f or per sonal f inancial ends . Whether the Russ ian people wanted the Bolsheviks was of no concer n. Whether the Bolshevikr egime would act agains t the United States — as it cons is tently did later — was of noconcer n. The s ingle overwhelming ob jective was to gain political and economicinf luence with the new r egime, whatever its ideology. If William Boyce Thompsonhad acted alone, then his dir ector ship of the Feder al Reserve Bank would beinconsequential. However , the f act that his miss ion was dominated by r epr esentatives

of Wall Str eet ins titutions r aises a ser ious ques tion — in eff ect, whether the miss ionwas a planned, pr emeditated oper ation by a Wall Str eet s yndicate. This the r eader willhave to judge f or himself , as the r es t of the s tory unf olds .

Footnotes :

1John Fos ter Dulles , Amer ican Red Cr oss (New Y ork: Har per , 1950).

2M inutes of the War Council of the A mer ican National Red Cr oss (Washington, D.C.,M ay 1917)

3Gibbs Diary, A ugus t 9, 1917. State His tor ical Society of Wiscons in.

4 Billings r epor t to Henry P. Davison, October 22, 1917, A mer ican Red Cr oss A r chives .

5The Pir nie paper s also enable us to f ix exactly the dates that member s of the miss ionlef t Russ ia. In the cas e of William B. Thompson, this date is cr itical to the ar gumentof this book: Thompson lef t Petr ogr ad f or L ondon on December 4, 1917. Geor geF. K ennan s tates Thompson lef t Petr ogr ad on November 27, 1917 (Russ ia Leaves

the War , p. 1140).


7Ibid.

8Ibid.

9Robins is the corr ect spelling. The name is cons is tently spelled "Robbins" in theStale Depar tment f iles .



10U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-11-1265, M ar ch 19, 1918.

11Bullar d ms ., U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-11-1265.

12The New Wor ld Review (f all 1967, p. 40) comments on Robins , noting that he was

"in s ympathy with the aims of the Revolution, although a capitalis t "

13Petr ogr ad embass y, Red Cr oss f ile.

14U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/4168.Chapter VI

CONSOL ID A TION A ND EX PORT OF THE REV OL UTION

M ar x' s gr eat book Das Kapital is at once a monument of r easoning and as tor ehouse of f acts .

Lor d Milner , member of the Br itish War Cabinet, 1917, and dir ector of the LondonJoint S tock Bank

William Boyce Thompson is an unknown name in twentieth-century his tory, yetThompson played a cr ucial r ole in the Bolshevik Revolution.1 Indeed, if Thompsonhad not been in Russ ia in 1917, subsequent his tory might have f ollowed a quitediff er ent cour se. Without the f inancial and, mor e impor tant, the diplomatic andpr opaganda ass is tance given to Tr otsky and L enin by Thompson, Robins , and their New Y ork ass ociates , the Bolsheviks may well have wither ed away and Russ iaevolved into a socialis t but cons titutional society.

Who was William Boyce Thompson? Thompson was a pr omoter of mining s tocks ,one of the bes t in a high-r isk bus iness . Bef or e Wor ld War I he handled s tock-marketoper ations f or the Guggenheim copper inter es ts . When the Guggenheims neededquick capital f or a s tock-market s tr uggle with J ohn D. Rockef eller , it was Thompsonwho pr omoted Y ukon Consolidated Goldf ields bef or e an unsuspecting public to r aisea $3.5 million war ches t. Thompson was manager of the K ennecott syndicate, another Guggenheim oper ation, valued at $200 million. It was Guggenheim Explor ation, onthe other hand, that took up Thompson's options on the r ich Nevada ConsolidatedCopper Company. A bout thr ee quar ter s of the or iginal Guggenheim Explor ationCompany was contr olled by the Guggenheim f amily, the Whitney f amily (who owned

Metr opolitan magazine, which employed the Bolshevik

John Reed), and

John Ryan.In 1916 the Guggenheim inter es ts r eor ganized into Guggenheim Br other s and br ought

in William C. Potter , who was f or mer ly with Guggenheim's A mer ican Smelting andRef ining Company but who was in 1916 f ir s t' vice pr es ident of Guar anty Tr us t.

Extr aor dinary skill in r ais ing capital f or r isky mining pr omotions ear ned Thompson aper sonal f or tune and dir ector ships in Inspir ation Consolidated Copper Company,Nevada Consolidated Copper Company, and Utah Copper Company — all ma jor domes tic copper pr oducer s . Copper is , of cour s e, a ma jor mater ial in the manuf actur eof munitions . Thompson was also dir ector of the Chicago Rock Is land & Pacif icRailr oad, the M agma A r izona Railr oad and the M etr opolitan L if e Insur ance Company.

A nd of par ticular inter es t f or this book, Thompson was "one of the heavies ts tockholder s in the Chase National Bank." It was A lber t H. Wiggin, pr es ident of theChase Bank, who pushed Thompson f or a pos t in the Feder al Res erve Sys tem; and in1914 Thompson became the f ir s t f ull-ter m dir ector of the Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork — the mos t impor tant bank in the Feder al Reserve Sys tem.

By 1917, then, William Boyce Thompson was a f inancial oper ator of subs tantial



up to my neck in the Revolutionary movement." Between the r evolution and about thef all of 1918, Pr ice worked with Rober t M inor in the Commiss ar iat f or For eign A ff air s .

ORG A NIZAT ION OF FO REIGN PROP A G A ND A W ORK IN 1918

PEOPL E'S COMM ISS A RI A T FOR

FOREIGN A FF A IRS(Tr otsky)

PRESS BURE A U(Radek)

BURE A U OF INTERN A TION AL

REV OL UTION A RY PROP A G A ND A

(Reinstein)

Field Oper ativesJohn ReedL ouis Bryant

A lbert Rhys Williams

Robert M inor Philip Pr iceJ acques Sadoul

In November 1918 M inor and Pr ice lef t Russ ia and went to Ger many.4 3 Their pr opaganda pr oducts wer e f ir s t used on the Russ ian M ur man f r ont; leaf lets wer edr opped by Bolshevik air planes amongs t Br itish, Fr ench, and A mer ican tr oops —accor ding to William Thompson's pr ogr am.4 4 The decis ion to send Sadoul, Pr ice, andM inor to Ger many was made by the Centr al Executive Committee of the Communis tPar ty. In Ger many their activities came to the notice of Br itish, Fr ench, and

A mer ican intelligence. On Febr uary 15, 1919, L ieutenant J . Habas of the U.S. A r mywas sent to Düss eldor f , then under contr ol of a Spar tacis t r evolutionary gr oup; heposed as adeser ter f r om the A mer ican ar my and off er ed his s ervices to the Spar tacis ts . Habas

got to know Philip Pr ice and Rober t M inor and sugges ted that some pamphlets bepr inted f or dis tr ibution amongs t A mer ican tr oops . The Scotland Y ar d r epor t r elates

that Pr ice and M inor had alr eady wr itten sever al pamphlets f or Br itish and A mer ican

tr oops, that Pr ice had tr an

slated

some of Wilhelm

Liebknecht'

s work

s into Engli

sh,and that both wer e working on additional pr opaganda tr acts . Habas r epor ted that

M inor and Pr ice said they had worked together in Siber ia pr inting an English-language Bolshevik newspaper f or dis tr ibution by air among A mer ican and Br itishtr oops .45

On June 8, 1919, Rober t M inor was arr es ted in Par is by the Fr ench police and handedover to the A mer ican military author ities in Coblenz. Simultaneous ly, Ger man



agains t Rober t M inor , and has te sugges ts pr ess ur e. Ther e was no s ignif icant attemptmade to develop evidence. Intervention by Colonel House and Gener al Per shing atthe highes t levels in Par is and the cablegr am f r om Colonel House to Senator M orr isSheppar dgive weight to A mer ican newspaper r epor ts that both House and Pr es ident W ilsonwer e r espons ible f or M inor 's has ty r elease without tr ial.5 4

M inor r etur ned to the United States and, like Thompson and Robins bef or e him,tour ed the U.S. pr omoting the wonder s of Bolshevik Russ ia.

By way of summary, we f ind that Feder al Reserve Bank dir ector William Thompsonwas active in pr omoting Bolshevik inter es ts in sever al ways — pr oduction of apamphlet in Russ ian, f inancing Bolshevik oper ations , speeches , or ganizing (withRobins) a Bolshevik r evolutionary miss ion to Ger many (and per haps Fr ance), andwith M or gan par tner L amont inf luencing L loyd Geor ge and the Br itish War Cabinetto eff ect a change in Br itish policy. Fur ther , Raymond Robins was cited by the Fr enchgover nment f or or ganizing Russ ian Bolsheviks f or the Ger man r evolution. We knowthat Robins was undisguisedly working f or Soviet inter es ts in Russ ia and the UnitedStates . Finally, we f ind that Rober t M inor , one of the r evolutionary pr opagandis tsused in Thompson's pr ogr am, was r eleas ed under cir cums tances sugges tingintervention f r om the highes t levels of the U.S. gover nment.

Obvious ly, this is but a f r action of a much wider pictur e. These ar e har dly accidentalor r andom events . They cons titute a coher ent, continuing patter n over sever al year s .They sugges t power f ul inf luence at the summit levels of sever al gover nments .

Footnotes :

1For a biogr aphy see Her mann Hagedor n, The Magna te: William Boyce Thompsonand His Time (1869-1930) (New Y ork: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935).

2Polkovnik' V illiam' Boic' Thompson', "Pr avda o Ross ii i Bol'shevikakh" (New Y ork:Russ ian- A mer ican Publication Society, 1918).

3John Br adley, Allied Inter vention in Russ ia (L ondon: W eidenf eld and Nicolson,1968.)

4Thomas W. L amont, Acr oss Wor ld Fr ontier s (New Y ork: Har cour t, Br ace, 1959), p.85. See also pp. 94-97 f or mass ive br eas tbeating over the f ailur e of Pr es ident W ilsonto act pr omptly to bef r iend the Soviet r egime. Cor liss L amont, his son, became a[f ont-line domes tic lef tis t in the U.S.5Donald M cCor mick, The Mask of Mer lin (L ondon: M acDonald, 1963; New Y ork:Holt, Rinehar t and Wins ton, 1964), p. 208. L loyd Geor ge's per sonal lif e wouldcer tainly leave him open to blackmail.

6Ibid. M cCor mick's italics .

7Br itish War Cabinet paper s , no. 302, sec. 2 (Public Recor ds Off ice, L ondon).

8

The wr itten memor andum that Thompson

submitted to

Lloyd Geor ge andthat became the bas is f or the War Cabinet s tatement is available f r om U.S.

ar chival sour ces and is pr inted in f ull in A ppendix 3.

9War Cabinet paper s , 24/49/7197 (G.T. 4322) Secr et, A pr il 24, 1918.

10L etter r epr oduced in f ull in A ppendix 3. It should be noted that we have identif ied



Thomas L amont, Dwight M orr ow, and H. P. Davison as being closely involved indeveloping policy towar ds the Bolsheviks . A ll wer e par tner s in the J .P. M or gan f ir m.Thacher was with the law f ir m Simpson, Thacher & Bar tlett and was a close f r iend of Felix Fr ankf ur ter .

11Complete memor andum is in U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-13-698.

12See A ppendix 3.

13U.S., Senate, Bolshevik Pr opaganda, Hear ings bef or e a Subcommittee of the

Committee on the Judiciary, 65th Cong., t919, p. 802.14U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.51/184.

15See A ppendix 3.

16Inser ted by Senator Calder into the Congr ess ional Recor d, J anuary 31, 1918, p.1409.

17Hagedor n, op. tit., p. 263.


19L ouis War e, Geor ge Fos ter Peabody ( A thens : Univer s ity of Geor gia Pr ess , 1951).

20Seep. 16.

21If this ar gument seems too f ar f etched, the r eader should see Gabr iel K olko,Railr oads and Regulation 1877-1916 (New Y ork: W . W. Nor ton, 1965), whichdescr ibes how pr ess ur es f or gover nment contr ol and f or mation of the Inter s tateCommer ce Commiss ion came f r om the r ailr oad owner s , not f r om f ar mer s and user s of

r ailr oad services .22C. K . Cumming and Waller W. Pettit, Russ ian- Amer ican Relations , Documents andPaper s (New Y ork: Har cour t, Br ace & Howe, 1920), doe. 44.

23Ibid., doc. 54.

24Ibid., doc. 92.

25U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/3449. But see K ennan, Russ ia Leaves the War ,pp. 401-5.

26Ibid., 861.00 3333.

27See chapter s even.

28Richar d H. Ullman, Inter vention and the War (Pr inceton, N.J .: Pr inceton Univer s ityPr ess , 1961), t). 61.

29Edwar d Cr ankshaw, The For saken Idea: A S tudy o! Viscount Milner (L ondon:L ongmans Gr een, 1952), p. 269.

30Rober t Hamilton Br uce L ockhar t, Br itish Agent (New Y ork: Putnam's , 1933), p. 119.

31Ibid., p. 204.

32See J acques Sadoul, Notes sur la r evolution bolchevique (Par is : Editions de la s ir ene,1919).



34U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/1305, M ar ch 15, 1918.

35Ibid., 861.00/3804.

36Ibid.

37U.S., House, Committee on For eign A ff air s , Conditions in Russ ia, 66th Cong., 3dsess ., 1921.

38Jacob H. Rubin, 1 Live to Tell: The Russ ian Adventur es o! an Amer ican Socialis t(Indianapolis : Bobbs-M err ill, 1934).39U.S., House, Committee on For eign A ff air s , op. cit.

40See Geor ge G. Br untz, Allied Pr opaganda and the Collapse o! the Ger man Empir ein 1918 (Stanf or d, Calif .: Stanf or d Univer s ity Pr ess , 1938), pp. 144-55; see alsoher ein p. 82.

41John W. Wheeler-Bennett, The For gotten Peace (New Y ork: W illiam M orr ow,1939).

42Ther e is a copy of this Scotland Y ar d r epor t in U.S. Star t' Dept. Decimal File, 316-23-1184 9.43Joseph Nor th, Rober t Minor : Ar tis t and Cr usader (New Y ork: Inter nationalPublisher s , 1956).

44Samples of M inor 's pr opaganda tr acts ar e s till in the U.S. State Dept. f iles . See p.197-200 on Thompson.

45See A ppendix 3.


47Ibid., 861.00/4680 (316-22-0774).

48Ibid., 861.00/4685 (/783).

49U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/4688 (/788).

50Ibid.

51Ibid., 316-33-0824.52U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/4874.

53Off ice of Chief of Staff , U.S. A r my, National A r chives , Washington, D.C.

54U.S., Senate, Congr ess ional Recor d, October 1919, pp. 6430, 6664-66, 7353-54;and New Yor k Times , October It, 1919. See also Sacr amento Bee, J uly 17, 1919.

Chapter VII

THE BOL SHEV IK S RETURN TO NEW Y ORK

M ar tens is ver y much in the limelight . T her e appear s to be no doubt about hisconnection with the Guar antee [s ic] T r us t Company, T hough it is sur pr is ing thatso lar ge and inf luential an enter pr ise should have dealings with a Bolshevikconcer n.



The New Yor k Times contacted United States Steel and r epor ted, "Judge Elber t H.Gary said las t night that ther e was no f oundation f or the s tatement with the Sovietr epr es entative her e had had any dealings with the United States Steel Cor por ation."This is technically corr ect. The United States Steel Cor por ation is not lis ted in theSoviet f iles , but the lis t does contain (page 16) an aff iliate, "United States SteelPr oducts Co., 30 Chur ch Str eet, New Y ork City."

The L usk Committee lis t r ecor ds the f ollowing about other f ir ms mentioned byM ar tens and Heller : Standar d Oil — not lis ted. A r mour 8c Co., meatpacker s — lis tedas " A r mour L eather " and " A r mour & Co. Union Stock Y ar ds , Chicago." M orr is Go.,meatpacker s , is lis ted on page 13. Cudahy — lis ted on page 6. A mer ican SteelExpor t Co. — lis ted on page 2 as located at t he Woolwor th Building; it had off er edto tr adewith the USSR. L ehigh M achine Co. — not lis ted. A dr ian K nitting Co. — lis ted onpage 1. Inter national Harves ter Co. — lis ted on page 11. A luminum GoodsM anuf actur ing Co. — lis ted on page 1. A luminum Company of A mer ica — not lis ted.

A mer ican Car and Foundry Expor t — the closes t lis ting is " A mer ican Car Co. —Philadelphia." M .C.D. Bor den 8c Sons — lis ted as located at 90 Wor th Str eet, onpage 4.

Then on Satur day, June 21, 1919, Santer i Nuor teva ( A lexander Nyber g) conf ir med ina pr ess interview the r ole of Inter national Harves ter :

Q: [by New Yor k Times r epor ter ]: What is your bus iness ?

A : Pur chas ing dir ector tot Soviet Russ ia.

Q: What did you do to accomplish this?

A : A ddr ess ed myself to A mer ican manuf actur er s .

Q: Name them. A : Inter national Harves ter Cor por ation is among them.

Q: Whom did you see?

A : M r . K oenig.

Q: Did you go to see him?

A : Y es .

Q: Give mor e names .

A : I went to see so many, about 500 people and I can't r emember all the names . Wehave f iles in the off ice disclos ing them.19

In br ief , the claims by Heller and M ar tens r elating to their widespr ead contacts amongcer tain U.S. f ir ms 2 0 wer e subs tantiated by the off ice f iles of the Soviet Bur eau. On theother hand, f or their own good r easons , these f ir ms appear ed unwilling to conf ir mtheir activities .

EUROPE A N B A NKERS A ID T H E BO LSH EV IKSIn addition to Guar anty Tr us t and the pr ivate banker Boiss evain in New Y ork, someEur opean banker s gave dir ect help to maintain and expand the Bolshevik hold onRuss ia. A 1918 State Depar tment r epor t f r om our Stockholm embass y details thesef inancial tr ans f er s . The depar tment commended its author , s tating that his "r epor ts onconditions in Russ ia, the spr ead of Bolshevism in Eur ope, and f inancial ques tions . . .



U.S. commander in A r changel, aff ir med the Br itish s tatement that " A llied tr oops

in the M ur mansk and A r changel dis tr icts wer e in danger of exter mination unless

they wer e speedily r einf or ced."2 7 Reinf or cements wer e then on the way under thecommand of Br igadier Gener al W. P. Richar dson.

In br ief , while Guar anty Tr us t and f ir s t-r ank A mer ican f ir ms wer e ass is ting thef or mation of the Soviet Bur eau in New Y ork, A mer ican tr oops wer e in conf lict withSoviet tr oops in Nor th Russ ia. M or eover , these conf licts wer e daily r epor ted in theNew Yor k Times , pr esumably r ead by thes e banker s and bus iness men. Fur ther , as weshall see in chapter ten, the f inancial cir cles that wer e suppor ting the Soviet Bur eau in

New Y ork also f or med in New Y ork the "United A mer icans " — a vir ulently anti-Communis t or ganization pr edicting bloody r evolution, mass s tarvation, and panic inthe s tr eets of New Y ork.

Footnotes :

1Copy in U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-22-656.

2Ibid., 861.00/1970.

3U.S., House, Committee on For eign A ff air s , Conditions in Russ ia, 66th Cong., 3dsess ., 1921, p. 78.


5Ibid.

6See Ben jamin Gitlow, [U.S., House, Un- Amer ican Pr opaganda Activities

(Washington, 1939), vols . 7-8, p. 4539.

7See p. 119.8Copy in [U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 316-22-656. Conf ir mation of Guar anty Tr us tinvolvement tomes in later intelligence r epor ts .

9On Fr eder ick C. Howe s ee pp. 16, 177, f or an ear ly s tatement of the manner inwhich f inancier s us e society and its pr oblems f or their own ends ; on FelixFr ankf ur ter , later Supr eme Cour t jus tice, see A ppendix 3 f or an ear ly Fr ankf ur ter letter to Nuor teva; on Raymond Robins see p. 100.

10

The L

usk Committee li

st of per

sonnel in the Soviet Bur eau i

s pr inted in

Appendix 3.The lis t includes K enneth Dur ant, aide to Colonel House; Dudley Field M alone,

appointed by Pr es ident W ilson as collector of cus toms f or the Por t of New Y ork; andM orr is Hillquit, the f inancial inter mediary between New Y ork banker EugeneBoiss evain on the one hand, and John Reed and Soviet agent M ichael Gr uzenber g onthe other .

11Julius Hammer was the f ather of A r mand Hammer , who today is chair man of theOccidental Petr oleum Cor p. of L os A ngeles .

12See A ppendix 3.

13V . I. L enin, Polnoe Sobr anie Sochinenii, 5th ed. (M oscow, 1958), 53:267.

14U.S., House, Committee. on For eign A ff air s , Conditions in Russ ia, 66th Cong., 3dsess ., 1921, p. 75. "Bill" was William Bobr off , Soviet agent.

15Ibid., p. 78.



16New Yor k Times , November 17, 1919.

17Ibid.

18Ibid.

19New Yor k Times , June 21, 1919.

20See p. 119.

21U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.51/411, November 23, 1918.

22Ibid., 316-125-1212.

23U.S., Depar tment of State, For eign Relations o! the United S tates : 1918, Russ ia,1:373.

24U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/4878, July,' 21, 1919.

25

Ibid., 316-21-115/21.26New Yor k Times , A pr il 5, 1919.27Ibid.

Chapter VIII

120 BRO A DW AY , NEW Y ORK CITY

W illiam B. T hompson, who was in Petr ogr ad f r om Ju ly until November las t , has

made a per sonal contr ibution of $1,000,000 to the Bolshevik i f or the pur pose of spr eading their doctr ine in Ger many and A us tr ia ....

Washington Pos t, Febr uar y 2, 1918

While collecting mater ial f or this book a s ingle location and addr ess in the Wall Str eetar ea came to the f or e — 120 Br oadway, New Y ork City. Conceivably, this bookcould have been wr itten incor por ating only per sons , f ir ms , and or ganizations locatedat 120 Br oadway in the year 1917. A lthough this r esear ch method would havebeen f or ced and unnatur al, it would have excluded only a r elatively small segmentof the s tory.

The or iginal building at 120 Br oadway was des tr oyed by f ir e bef or e Wor ld War I.Subsequently the s ite was sold to the Equitable Off ice Building Cor por ation,or ganized by Gener al T. Coleman du Pont, pr es ident of du Pont de Nemour s Powder Company.1 A new building was completed in 1915 and the Equitable L if e

A ss ur ance Company moved back to its old s ite.2 In pass ing we should note aninter es tinginter lock in Equitable his tory. In 1916 the cashier of the Ber lin Equitable L if e off icewas William Schacht, the f ather of H jalmar Hor ace Gr eeley Schacht — later to

become Hitler 's banker , and f inancial genie. William Schacht wa

s an

Amer icancitizen, worked thir ty year s f or Equitable in Ger many, and owned a Ber lin house

known as "Equitable V illa." Bef or e joining Hitler , young H jalmar Schacht served as amember of the Worker s and Soldier s Council (a soviet) of Zehlendoff ; this he lef t in1918 to join the boar d of the Nationalbank f ur Deutschland. His codir ector atDON A T was Emil Wittenber g, who, with M ax M ay of Guar anty Tr us t Company of New Y ork, was a dir ector of the f ir s t Soviet inter national bank, Ruskombank.



J . H. Thomas (Br itish socialis t, f inanced by the Soviets), "Otto K ahn's f ace is towar ds

the light."

H. W. PRITCHETT T r us tee of Car negie Foundation.

PERCY A . ROCK EFELL ER Son of John D. Rockef eller ; marr ied to Isabel, daughter of J . A . Stillman of National City Bank.

J OHN D. RYA N Dir ector of copper-mining companies , National City Bank, andM echanics and M etals Bank. (See f r ontispiece to this book.)

W. L . S A UNDERS Dir ector the Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork, 120 Br oadway,and chair man of Inger soll-Rand. A ccor ding to the National Cyclopaedia (26:81):"Thr oughout the war he was one of the Pr es ident's mos t tr us ted adviser s ." See page 15f or his views on the Soviets .

J . A . STILL M A N Pr es ident of National City Bank, af ter his f ather (J . Stillman,chair man of NCB) died in M ar ch 1918.

C. A . STONE Dir ector (1920-22) of Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork, 120Br oadway; chair man of Stone & Webs ter , 120 Br oadway; pr es ident (1916-23) of

A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation, 120 Br oadway.

T. N. VA IL Pr es ident of National City Bank of Tr oy, New Y ork

F. A . VA NDERL IP Pr es ident of National City Bank.

E. S. WEBSTER Of Stone & Webs ter , 120 Br oadway.

A . H. WIGGIN Dir ector of Feder al Res erve Bank of New Y ork in the ear ly 1930s .BECK M A N WINTHROPE Dir ector of National City Bank.

WILL I A M WOODW A RD Dir ector of Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork, 120Br oadway, and Hanover National Bank.

The inter lock of the twenty-two dir ector s of A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation withother ins titutions is s ignif icant. The National City Bank had no f ewer than tendir ector s on the boar d of A IC; Stillman of NCB was at that t ime an inter mediarybetween the Rockef eller and M or gan inter es ts , and both the M or gan and theRockef eller inter es ts wer e r epr esented dir ectly on A IC. K uhn, L oeb and the du Pontseach had one dir ector . Stone & Webs ter had thr ee dir ector s . No f ewer than f our dir ector s of A IC (Saunder s , Stone, Wiggin, Woodwar d) either wer e dir ector s of or

wer e later to join the Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork. We have noted in an ear lier chapter that W illiam Boyce Thompson, who contr ibuted f unds and his cons ider ablepr es tige to the Bolshevik Revolution, was also a dir ector of the Feder al Reserve Bankof New Y ork — the dir ector ate of the FRB of New Y ork compr ised only ninemember s .

T H E INFLUENCE OF A M ERIC A N INT ERN AT ION A L ON T H EREV OLUT ION

Having identif ied the dir ector s of A IC we now have to identif y their r evolutionaryinf luence.

A s the Bolshevik Revolution took hold in centr al Russ ia, Secr etary of State Rober tL ans ing r eques ted the views of A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation on the policy tobe pur sued towar ds the Soviet r egime. On J anuary 16, 1918 — bar ely two months

af ter the takeover in Petr ogr ad and M oscow, and bef or e a f r action of Russ ia hadcome under Bolshevik contr ol — William Fr anklin Sands , executive secr etary of



A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation, submitted the r eques ted memor andum on theRuss ianpolitical s ituation to Secr etary L ans ing. Sands cover ing letter , headed 120 Br oadway,began:

To the Honour able J anuary 16, 1918Secr etary of StateWashington D.C.

Sir

I have the honor to enclose her ewith the memor andum which you r eques ted me tomake f or you on my view of the political s ituation in Russ ia.

I have separ ated it into thr ee par ts ; an explanation of the his tor ical causes of theRevolution, told as br ief ly as poss ible; a sugges tion as to policy and a r ecital of thevar ious br anches of A mer ican activity at work now in Russ ia ....8

A lthough the Bolsheviks had only pr ecar ious contr ol in Russ ia — and indeed wer e tocome near to los ing even this in the spr ing of 1918 — Sands wr ote that alr eady(January 1918) the United States had delayed too long in r ecognizing "Tr otzky." Headded, "Whatever gr ound may have been los t, should be r egained now, even at thecos t of a s light per sonal tr iumph f or Tr otzky."9

F ir ms located at, or near , 120 Br oadway:

A mer ican Inter national Cor p 120 Br oadwayNational City Bank 55 Wall Str eet

Banker s

Tr ust Co Bldg 14 Wall Str eetNew Y ork Stock Exchange 13 Wall Str eet/12 Br oad

M or gan Building cor ner Wall & Br oadFeder al Reserve Bank of NY 120 Br oadwayEquitable Building 120 Br oadwayBanker s Club 120 Br oadwaySimpson, Thather & Bar tlett 62 Cedar StWilliam Boyce Thompson 14 Wall Str eetHazen, Whipple & Fuller 42nd Str eet BuildingChase National Bank 57 Br oadwayM cCann Co 61 Br oadway

Stetson, Jennings & Russ ell 15 Br oad Str eetGuggenheim Explor ation 120 Br oadwayWeinber g & Posner 120 Br oadwaySoviet Bur eau 110 Wes t 40th Str eetJ ohn M acGr egor Gr ant Co 120 Br oadwayStone & Webs ter 120 Br oadwayGener al Electr ic Co 120 Br oadwayM orr is Plan of NY 120 Br oadwaySinclair Gulf Cor p 120 Br oadwayGuar anty Secur ities 120 Br oadwayGuar anty Tr us t 140 Br oadway



M ap of Wall Str eet A r ea Showing Off ice L ocations

Sands then elabor ates the manner in which the U.S. could make up f or los t t ime,par allels the Bolshevik Revolution to "our own r evolution," and concludes : "I haveevery r eason to believe that the A dminis tr ation plans f or Russ ia will r eceive allposs ible suppor t f r om Congr ess , and the hear ty endor sement of public opinion in theUnited States ."

In br ief , Sands , as executive secr etary of a cor por ation whose dir ector s wer e the mos tpr es tigious on Wall Str eet, pr ovided an emphatic endor sement of the Bolsheviks and

the Bolshevik Revolution, and within a matter of week

s af ter the r evolution

star ted. A nd as a dir ector of the Feder al Res erve Bank of New Y ork, Sands had jus t

contr ibuted $1 million to the Bolsheviks — such endor sement of the Bolsheviks bybanking inter es ts is at leas t cons is tent.

M or eover , William Sands of A mer ican Inter national was a man with tr uly uncommonconnections and inf luence in the State Depar tment.

Sands ' car eer had alter nated between the State Depar tment and Wall Str eet, In the latenineteenth and ear ly twentieth century he held var ious U.S. diplomatic pos ts . In 1910he lef t the depar tment to join the banking f ir m of J ames Speyer to negotiate an

Ecuador ian loan, and f or the next two year s r epr es ented the Centr al A guirr e Sugar Company in Puer to Rico. In 1916 he was in Russ ia on "Red Cr oss work" — actually atwo-man "Special M iss ion" with Bas il M iles — and r etur ned to join the A mer icanInter national Cor por ation in New Y ork.1 0

In ear ly 1918 Sands became the known and intended r ecipient of cer tain Russ ian"secr et tr eaties ." If the State Depar tment f iles ar e to be believed, it appear s that Sands

was also a cour ier , and that he had some pr ior access to off icial documents — pr ior ,that is , to U.S. gover nment off icials . On J anuary 14, 1918, jus t two days bef or e Sands

wr ote his memo on policy towar ds the Bolsheviks , Secr etary L ans ing caused thef ollowing cable to be sent in Gr een Cipher to the A mer ican legation in Stockholm:"Impor tant off icial paper s f or Sands to br ing her e wer e lef t at L egation. Have youf orwar ded them? L ans ing." The r eply of January 16 f r om M orr is in Stockholm r eads :"Y our 460 J anuary 14, 5 pm. Said documents f orwar ded Depar tment in pouch number 34 on December 28th." To these documents is attached another memo, s igned "BM "(Bas il M iles , an ass ociate of Sands): "M r . Phillips . They f ailed to give Sands 1s tins tallment of secr et tr eaties wh. [which] he br ought f r om Petr ogr ad to Stockholm."1 1



matter s which do not concer n me. I believe it to be wise not to off end the Bolshevikleader s unless and until it may become necess ar y to do so — if it should becomenecess ar y — and it is unwise to look on every one as a suspicious or even danger ous

char acter , who has had f r iendly r elations with the Bolsheviki in Russ ia. I think itbetter policy to attempt to use such people f or our own pur poses in developing our policy towar d Russ ia, if it is poss ible to do so. The lectur e which Reed was pr eventedby the police f r om deliver ing in Philadelphia (he los t his head, came into conf lict withthe police and was arr es ted) is the only lectur e on Russ ia which I would have paid tohear , if I had not alr eady seen his notes on the sub ject. It cover ed a sub ject which wemight quite poss ibly f ind to be a point of contact with the Soviet Gover nment, f r omwhich to begin cons tr uctive work!

Can we not use him, ins tead of embitter ing him and making him an enemy? He is notwell balanced, but he is , unless I am very much mis taken, susceptible to discr eetguidance and might be quite usef ul.

Sincer ely your s ,William Fr anklin Sands

The Honour ableFr ank L yon Polk

Counselor f or the Depar tment of StateWashington, D.C.

WFS: A OEnclosur e2 0

The s ignif icance of this document is the har d r evelation of dir ect intervention by anoff icer (executive secr etary) of A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation in behalf of aknown Bolshevik. Ponder a f ew of Sands ' s tatements about Reed: "He can be handled

and contr olled much better by other means

than thr ough the police"; and, "Can wenot use him, ins tead of embitter ing him and making him an enemy? . . . he is , unless

I am very much mis taken, susceptible to discr eet guidance and might be quiteusef ul."Quite obvious ly, the A mer ican Inter national Cor por ation viewed John Reed as

an agent or a potential agent who could be, and pr obably had alr eady been,br ought under its contr ol. The f act that Sands was in a pos ition to r eques t editingamemor andum by Reed (f or Bullitt) sugges ts some degr ee of contr ol had alr eady beenes tablished.

Then note Sands ' potentially hos tile attitude towar ds — and bar ely veiled intent topr ovoke — the Bolsheviks : "I believe it to be wise not to off end the Bolshevik leader sunless and until it may become necess ar y to do so — if it should becomenecess ary . . ." (italics added).

This is an extr aor dinary letter in behalf of a Soviet agent f r om a pr ivate U.S. citizenwhose counsel the State Depar tment had sought, and continued to seek.

A later memor andum, M ar ch 19, 1920, in the State f iles r epor ted the arr es t of JohnReed by the Finnish author ities at A bo, and Reed's poss ess ion of English,

A mer ican and Ger man pass por ts . Reed, tr aveling under the alias of Casgor mlich,carr ieddiamonds , a lar ge sum of money, Soviet pr opaganda liter atur e, and f ilm. On A pr il 21,1920, the A mer ican legation at Hels ingf or s cabled the State Depar tment:

A m f orwar ding by the next pouch cer tif ied copies of letter s f r om Emma Goldman,Tr otsky, L enin and Sir ola f ound in Reed's poss ess ion. For eign Off ice has pr omised tof ur nish complete r ecor d of the Cour t pr oceedings .



Once again Sands intervened: "I knew M r . Reed per sonally."2 1 A nd, as in 1915,Metr opolitan magazine also came to Reed's aid. H. J . Whigham wr ote on A pr il 15,1920, to Bainbr idge Colby in the State Depar tment: "Have hear d John Reed in danger of being executed in Finland. Hope the State Dept. can take immediate s teps to seethat he gets pr oper tr ial. Ur gently r eques t pr ompt action."2 2 This was in addition to an

A pr il 13, 1920 telegr am f r om Harry Hopkins , who was des tined f or f ame under Pr es ident Roosevelt:

Under s tand State Dept. has inf or mation J ack Reed arr es ted Finland, will be executed. A s one of his f r iends and your s and on his wif e's behalf ur ge you take pr ompt action

pr event execution and secur e r eleas e. Feel sur e can r ely your immediate andeff ective intervention.2 3

J ohn Reed was subsequently r eleased by the Finnish author ities .

This par adoxical account on intervention in behalf of a Soviet agent can havesever al explanations . One hypothes is that f its other evidence concer ning Wall Str eetand the Bolshevik Revolution is that John Reed was in eff ect an agent of theM or ganinter es ts — per haps only half awar e of his double r ole — that his anticapitalis t wr itingmaintained the valuable myth that all capitalis ts ar e in per petual war f ar e with allsocialis t r evolutionar ies . Carr oll Quigley, as we have alr eady noted, r epor ted that theM or gan inter es ts f inancially suppor ted domes tic r evolutionary or ganizations andanticapitalis t wr itings .2 4 A nd we have pr esented in this chapter irr ef utabledocumentary evidence that the M or gan inter es ts wer e also eff ecting contr ol of aSoviet agent, inter ceding on his behalf and, mor e impor tant, gener ally intervening inbehalf of Soviet inter es ts with the U.S. gover nment. These activities center ed at as ingle addr ess : 120 Br oadway, New Y ork City.

Footnotes :

1By a quirk the paper s of incor por ation f or the Equitable Off ice Building wer e dr awnup by Dwight W . M orr ow, later a M or gan par tner , but then a member of the law f ir mof Simpson, Thacher & Bar tlett. The Thacher f ir m contr ibuted two member s to the1917 A mer ican Red Cr oss M iss ion to Russ ia (see chapter f ive).

3Carr oll Quigley, Tr agedy and Hope (New Y ork: M acmillan, 1966), p. 938. Quigleywas wr iting in 1965, so this places the s tar t of the inf iltr ation at about 1915, a datecons is tent with the evidence her e pr esented.

4

Fr ank A . V ander lip, Fr om Far m Boy to F inancier (New Y ork: A . A ppleton-Century,1935).

5Ibid., p. 267.6Ibid., pp. 268-69. It should be noted that sever al names mentioned by V ander lip tur nup elsewher e in this book: Rockef eller , A r mour , Guar anty Tr us t, and (Otto) K ahn allhad some connection mor e or less with the Bolshevik Revolution and its af ter math.

7Ibid., p. 269.

8

U.S. Stale Dept. Decimal File, 861.00 /961.9Sands memor andum to L ans ing, p. 9.

10William Fr anklin Sands wr ote sever al books , including Undiplomatic Memoir s(New Y ork: M cGr aw-Hill, 1930), a biogr aphy cover ing the year s to 1904. L ater hewr ote Our .Jungle Diplomacy (Chapel Hill: Univer s ity of Nor th Car olina Pr ess , 1941),



an unr emarkable tr eatise on imper ialism in L atin A mer ica. The latter work is notableonly f or a minor point on page 102: the willingness to blame a par ticular ly unsavoryimper ialis tic adventur e on A dolf Stahl, a New Y ork banker , while pointing ous t quiteunnecess ar ily that Stahl was of "Ger man-J ewish or igin." In A ugus t 1918 hepublishedan ar ticle, "Salvaging Russ ia," in As ia, to explain suppor t of the Bolshevik r egime.

11 A ll the above in U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/969.

12The author cannot f or bear compar ing the tr eatment of academic r esear cher s . In 1973,

f or example, the wr iter was s till denied access to some State Depar tment f iles dated1919.


14U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.516 84, September 2, 1919.

15Ibid.

16Other contr ibutor s to the Mass es mentioned in this book wer e jour nalis t Rober tM inor , chair man of the, U.S. Public Inf o, mar ion Committee; Geor ge Cr eel;Car l Sandbur g, poet-his tor ian; and Boar dman Robinson, an ar tis t.

17Gr anville Hicks , John Reed, 1887-1920 (New Y ork: M acmillan, 1936), p. 215.

18U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 860d.1121 R 25/4.

19Ibid., 360d.1121/R25/18. A ccor ding to Gr anville Hicks in John Reed, "Mass es

could not pay his [Reed's ] expenses . Finally, f r iends of the magazine, notably EugeneBoiss evain, r aised the money" (p. 249).

20

U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 360. D. II21.R/20/221/2, /R25 (John Reed). Theletter was tr ans f err ed by M r . Polk to the State Depar tment ar chives on M ay 2, 1935.

A ll italics added.

21Ibid., 360d.1121 R 25/72.

22Ibid.23This was addr ess ed to Bainbr idge Colby, ibid., 360d.1121 R 25/30. A nother letter ,dated A pr il 14, 1920, and addr ess ed to the s ecr etary of s tate f r om 100 Br oadway,New Y ork, was f r om W. Bourke Cochr ane; it also pleaded f or the r elease of John

Reed.24Quigley, op. cit.

*The John M acGr egor Gr ant Co., agent f or the Russ o- A s iatic Bank (involved inf inancing the Bolsheviks), was at 120 Br oadway — and f inanced by Guar anty Tr us tCompany.

**Sir Er nes t Cass el, pr ominent Br itish f inancier .

Chapter IX

GU A R A NTY TRUST GOES TO RUSSI A

Soviet Govemment des ir e Guar antee [s ic] T r us t Company to become f iscal agentin United States f or all Soviet oper ations and contemplates A mer ican pur chaseEes tibank with a view to complete link ing of Soviet f or tunes with A mer ican



A lexander Gumber g, chief Soviet agent in Scandinavia and later L omonoss off 'sass is tant:

Dear Fr ank: Y ou wer e kind enough to s ay that if I could inf or m you of the s tatus of the $25,000 item of per sonal f unds belonging to M r . & M r s . L omonoss off you wouldset in motion the machinery necess ary to obtain it her e f or them.

I have communicated with M r . L omonoss off with r espect to it, and he tells me thatM r . M ichael Gr uzenber g, who went to Russ ia f or M r . L omonoss off pr ior to thediff iculties between A mbass ador Bakhmeteff and M r . L omonoss off , tr ansmitted the

inf or mation to him r especting this money thr ough thr ee Russ ians who r ecently arr ivedf r om Sweden, and M r . L omonoss off believes that the money is held at the Russ ianembass y in Stockholm, M ilmskilnad Gaten 37. If inquiry f r om the State Depar tmentshould develop this to be not the place wher e the money is on depos it, then theRuss ian embass y in Stockholm can give the exact addr ess of M r . Gr uzenber g, whocan give the pr oper inf or mation r especting it. M r . L omonoss off does not r eceiveletter s f r om M r . Gr uzenber g, although he is inf or med that they have been wr itten:nor have any of his letter s to M r . Gr uzenber g been deliver ed, he is also inf or med.For this r eason it is imposs ible to be mor e def inite than I have been, but I hopesomething canbe done to r elieve his and his wif e's embarr ass ment f or lack of f unds , and it onlyneeds a little help to secur e this money which belongs to them to aid them on this s ideof the water .

Thanking you in advance f or anything you can do, I beg to r emain, as ever ,

Y our s s incer ely,Thomas L . Chadbour ne.

In 1919, at the time this letter was wr itten, Chadbour ne was a dollar-a-year man inWashington, counsel and dir ector of the U.S. War Tr ade Boar d, and a dir ector of theU.S. Russ ian Bur eau Inc., an off icial f r ont company of the U.S. gover nment.Pr evious ly, in 1915, Chadbour ne or ganized M idvale Steel and Or dnance to takeadvantage of war bus iness . In 1916 he became chair man of the Democr atic FinanceCommittee and later a dir ector of Wr ight A er onautical and o[ M ack Tr ucks .

The r eason L omonoss off was not r eceiving letter s f r om Gr uzenber g is that they wer e,in all pr obability, being inter cepted by one of sever al gover nments taking a keeninter es t in the latter 's activities .

On J anuary 11, 1919, Fr ank Polk cabled the A mer ican legation in Stockholm:

Depar tment is in r eceipt of inf or mation that $25,000, per sonal f unds of .... K indlyinquir e of the Russ ian L egation inf or mally and per sonally if such f unds ar e held thus . A scer tain, if not, addr ess of M r . M ichael Gr uzenber g, r epor ted to be in poss ess ion of inf or mation on this sub ject. Depar tment not concer ned off icially, mer elyunder taking inquir ies on behalf of a f or mer Russ ian off icial in this country.

Polk, A cting

Polk appear s in this letter to be unawar e of L omonoss off 's Bolshevik connections , andr ef er s to him as "a f or mer Russ ian off icial in this country." Be that as it may, withinthr ee days Polk r eceived a r eply f r om M orr is at the U.S. L egation in Stockholm:

J anuary 14, 3 p.m. 3492. Y our J anuary 12, 3 p.m., No. 1443.

Sum of $25,000 of f or mer pr es ident of Russ ian commiss ion of ways of communication in United States not known to Russ ian legation; neither can addr ess of M r . M ichael Gr uzenber g be obtained.



M orr is

A ppar ently Fr ank Polk then wr ote to Chadbour ne (the letter is not included in thesour ce) and indicated that State could f ind neither L omonoss off nor M ichaelGr uzenber g. Chadbour ne r eplied on J anuary 21, 1919:

Dear Fr ank: M any thanks f or your letter of J anuary 17. I under s tand that ther e ar e twoRuss ian legations in Sweden, one being the soviet and the other the K er ensky, and Ipr esume your inquiry was dir ected to the soviet legation as that was the addr ess I gaveyou in my letter , namely, M ilmskilnad Gaten 37, Stockholm.

M ichael Gr uzenber g's addr ess is , Holmenkollen Sanitar ium, Chr is tiania, Norway, andI think the soviet legation could f ind out all about the f unds thr ough Gr uzenber g if they will communicate with him.

Thanking you f or taking this tr ouble and ass ur ing you of my deep appr eciation, Ir emain,

Sincer ely your s ,Thomas L . Chadbour ne

We should note that a Wall Str eet lawyer had the addr ess of Gr uzenber g, chief Bolshevik agent in Scandinavia, at a time when the acting secr etary of s tate and theU.S. Stockholm legation had no r ecor d of the addr ess ; nor could the legation tr ack itdown. Chadbour ne also pr esumed that the Soviets wer e the off icial gover nment of Russ ia, although that gover nment was not r ecognized by the United States , andChadbour ne's off icial gover nment pos ition on the War Tr ade Boar d would r equir ehim to know that.

Fr ank Polk then cabled the A mer ican legation at Chr is tiania, Norway, with theaddr ess of M ichael Gr uzenber g. It is not known whether Polk knew he was pass ing on

the addr ess

of an espionage agent, but hi

s me

ssage wa

s a

s f ollow

s:

To A mer ican L egation, Chr is tiania. J anuary 25, 1919. It is r epor ted that M ichaelGr uzenber g is at Holmenkollen Sanitar ium. Is it poss ible f or you to locate him andinquir e if he has any knowledge r especting dispos ition of $25,000 f und belonging tof or mer pr es ident of Russ ian miss ion of ways of communication in the United States ,Pr of ess or L omonoss off .

Polk, A cting

The U.S. r epr esentative (Schmedeman) at Chr is tiania knew Gr uzenber g well. Indeed,

the name had f igur ed in r epor ts f r om Schmedeman to Washington concer ningGr uzenber g's pr o-Soviet activities in Norway. Schmedeman r eplied:

J anuary 29, 8 p.m. 1543. Impor tant. Y our J anuary 25, telegr am No. 650.

Bef or e depar ting to-day f or Russ ia, M ichael Gr uzenber g inf or med our naval attachethat when in Russ ia some f ew months ago he had r eceived, at L omonoss off 's r eques t,$25,000 f r om the Russ ian Railway Exper imental Ins titute, of which Pr of .L omonoss off was pr es ident. Gr uzenber g claims that to-day he cabled attor ney f or L omonoss off in New Y ork, M orr is Hillquitt [s ic] , that he, Gr uzenber g, is inposs ess ion of the money, and bef or e f orwar ding it is awaiting f ur ther ins tr uctions

f r om the United States , r eques ting in the cablegr am that L omonoss off be f ur nishedwith living expenses f or himself and f amily by Hillquitt pending the r eceipt of themoney.3

A s M inis ter M orr is was tr aveling to Stockholm on the same tr ain as Gr uzenber g, thelatter s tated that he would advise f ur ther with M orr is in r ef er ence to this sub ject.



Schmedeman

The U.S. minis ter tr aveled with Gr uzenber g to Stockholm wher e he r eceived thef ollowing cable f r om Polk:

It is r epor ted by legation at Chr is tiania that M ichael Gr uzenber g, has f or Pr of . G.L omonoss off , the . . . sum of $25,000, r eceived f r om Russ ian Railway Exper imentalIns titute. If you can do so without being involved with Bolshevik author ities ,depar tment will be glad f or you to f acilitate tr ans f er of this money to Pr of .L omonoss off in this country. K indly r eply.

Polk, A ctingThis cable pr oduced r esults , f or on Febr uary 5, 1919, Fr ank Polk wr ote to Chadbour neabout a "danger ous bolshevik agitator ," Gr uzenber g:

M y Dear Tom: I have a telegr am f r om Chr is tiania indicating that M ichael Gr uzenber ghas the $25,000 of Pr of . L omonoss off , and r eceived it f r om the Russ ian RailwayExper imental Ins titute, and that he had cabled M orr is Hillquitt [s ic], at New Y ork, tof ur nish Pr of . L omonoss off money f or living expenses until the f und in ques tion can betr ansmitted to him. A s Gr uzenber g has jus t been depor ted f r om Norway as adanger ous bolshevik agitator , he may have had diff iculties in telegr aphing f r om thatcountry. I under s tand he has now gone to Chr is tiania, and while it is somewhat out of the depar tment's line of action, I shall be glad, if you wish, to see if I can have M r .Gr uzenber g r emit the money to Pr of . L omonoss off f r om Stockholm, and amtelegr aphing our minis ter ther e to f ind out if that can be done.

V ery s incer ely, your s ,Fr ank L . Polk

The telegr am f r om Chr is tiania r ef err ed to in Polk's letter r eads as f ollows :

Febr uary 3, 6 p.m., 3580. Impor tant. Ref err ing depar tment's j anuary 12, No. 1443,$10,000 has now been depos ited in Stockholm to my or der to be f orwar ded to Pr of .

L omonoss off by M ichael Gr uzenber g, one of the f or mer r epr esentatives of thebolsheviks in Norway. I inf or med him bef or e accepting this money that I wouldcommunicate with you and inquir e if it is your wish that this money be f orwar ded toL omonoss off . Ther ef or e I r eques t ins tr uctions as to my cour se of action.

M orr is

Subsequently M orr is , in Stockholm, r eques ted disposal ins tr uctions f or a $10,000dr af t depos ited in a Stockholm bank. His phr ase "[this] has been my only

connection with the aff air " sugges ts that M orr is was awar e that the Soviets could,and pr obably would, claim this as an off icially expedited monetary tr ansf er , s incethis actionimplied appr oval by the U.S. of such monetary tr ansf er s . Up to this time the Sovietshad been r equir ed to smuggle money into the U.S.

Four p.m. Febr uary 12, 3610, Routine.

With r ef er ence to my Febr uary 3, 6 p.m., No. 3580, and your Febr uary 8, 7 p.m., No.1501. It is not clear to me whether it is your wish f or me to tr ansf er thr ough you the$10,000 r ef err ed to Pr of . L omonoss off . Being advised by Gr uzenber g that he haddepos ited this money to the or der of L omonoss off in a Stockholm bank and hasadvised the bank that this dr af t could be s ent to A mer ica thr ough me, pr ovided I soor der ed, has been my only connection with the aff air . K indly wir e ins tr uctions .

M orr is

Then f ollows a ser ies of letter s on the tr ansf er of the $10,000 f r om A /B Nor disk



Resebur eau to Thomas L . Chadbour ne at 520 Park A venue, New Y ork City, thr oughthe medium of the State Depar tment. The f ir s t letter contains ins tr uctions f r om Polk,on the mechanics of the tr ansf er ; the second, f r om M orr is to Polk, contains $10,000 ;the thir d, f r om M orr is to A /B Nor disk Resebur eau, r eques ting a dr af t; the f our th is ar eply f r om the bank with a check; and the f if th is the acknowledgment.

Y our Febr uary 12, 4 p.m., No. 3610.

M oney may be tr ansmitted dir ect to Thomas L . Chadbour ne, 520 Park A venue, NewY ork City,

Polk, A cting

* * * * *

Dispatch, No. 1600, M ar ch 6, 1919:

The Honor able the Secr etary of State,Washington

Sir : Ref err ing to my telegr am, No. 3610 of Febr uary 12, and to the depar tment'sr eply, No. 1524 of Febr uary 19 in r egar d to the sum of $10,000 f or Pr of ess or L omonoss off , I have the honor her ewith to inclose a copy of a letter which Iaddr ess ed on Febr uary 25to A . B. Nor disk Resebur eau, the banker s with whom this money was depos ited; acopy of the r eply of A . B. Nor disk Resebur eau, dated Febr uary 26; and a copy of myletter to the A . B. Nor disk Resebur eau, dated Febr uary 27.

It will be seen f r om this corr espondence that the bank was des ir ous of having thismoney f orwar ded to Pr of ess or L omonoss off . I explained to them, however , as will beseen f r om my letter of Febr uary 27, that I had r eceived author ization to f orwar d it

dir ectly to M

r . Thomas L

. Chadbour ne, 520 Park A

venue, New Y

ork City. I alsoinclose her ewith an envelope addr ess ed to M r . Chadbour ne, in which ar e inclosed a

letter to him, together with a check on the National City Bank of New Y ork f or $10,000.

I have the honor to be,s ir , Y our obedient servant,

Ir a N. M orr is

* * * * *

A . B. Nor disk Res er bur eau,

No. 4 V es tr a Tr adgar dsgatan, Stockholm.

Gentlemen: Upon r eceipt of your letter of January 30, s tating that you had r eceived$10,000 to be paid out to Pr of . G. V . L omonoss off , upon my r eques t, I immediatelytelegr aphed to my Gover nment asking whether they wished this money f orwar ded toPr of . L omonoss off . I am to-day in r eceipt of a r eply author izing me to f orwar d themoney dir ect to M r . Thomas L . Chadbour ne, payable to Pr of . L omonoss off . I shall beglad to f orwar d it as ins tr ucted by my Gover nment.

I am, gentlemen,V ery tr uly, your s ,

Ir a N. M orr is

* * * * *

M r . I. N. M orr is ,



A mer ican M inis ter , Stockholm

Deal Sir : We beg to acknowledge the r eceipt of your f avor of yes ter day r egar dingpayment of dollar s 10,000 — to Pr of ess or G. V . L omonoss off , and we her eby havethe pleasur e to inclose a check f or said amount to the or der of Pr of ess or G. V .L omonoss off , which we under s tand that you ar e kindly f orwar ding to this gentleman.We shall be glad to have your r eceipt f or same, ar id beg to r emain,

Y our s , r espectf ully, A . B. Nor disk Res er bur eauE. M olin

* * * * *

A . B. Nor disk Res ebur eau.

Stockholm

Gentlemen: I beg to acknowledge r eceipt of your letter of Febr uary 26, inclos ing acheck f or $10,000 payable to Pr of ess or G. V . L omonoss off . A s I advised you in myletter of Febr uary 25, I have been author ized to f orwar d this check to M r . ThomasL . Chadbour ne, 520 Park A venue, New Y ork City, and I shall f orwar d it to thisgentleman within the next f ew days , unless you indicate a wish to the contr ary.

V ery tr uly, your s ,Ir a N. M orr is

Then f ollow an inter nal State Depar tment memor andum and Chadbour ne'sacknowledgment:

M r . Phillips to M r . Chadbour ne, A pr il 3, 1919.

Sir : Ref err ing to pr evious corr espondence r egar ding a r emittance of ten thousanddollar s f r om A . B. Nor sdisk Resebur eau to Pr of ess or G. V . L omonoss off , which your eques ted to be tr ansmitted thr ough the A mer ican L egation at Stockholm, thedepar tment inf or ms you that it is in r eceipt of a dis patch f r om the A mer ican minis ter at Stockholm dated M ar ch 6, 1919, cover ing the enclosed letter addr ess ed toyou, together with a check f or the amount r ef err ed to, dr awn to the or der toPr of ess or L omonoss off .

I am, s ir , your obedient s ervant

William Phillips, A cting Secr etary of State.

Inclosur e: Sealed letter addr ess ed M r . Thomas L . Chadbour ne, inclosed with 1,600f r om Sweden.

* * * * *

Reply of M r . Chadbour ne, A pr il 5, 1919.

Sir : I beg to acknowledge r eceipt of your letter of A pr il 3, enclos ing letter addr ess edto me, containing check f or $10,000 dr awn to the or der of Pr of ess or L omonoss off ,which check I have to-day deliver ed.

I beg to r emain, with gr eat r espect,V ery tr uly, your s ,

Thomas L . Chadbour ne

Subsequently the Stockholm legation enquir ed concer ning L omonoss off 's addr ess in



example, that the Soviet gover nment r epr esented ninety per cent of the Russ ianpeople "and the other ten per cent is the f or mer pr oper tied and gover ning class ....Natur allythey ar e displeased."1 3 A f or mer A mer ican off icial was quoted as saying, "If wedo nothing — that is , if we jus t let things dr if t — we help weaken the Russ ianSoviet Gover nment. A nd that plays Ger many's game."1 4 So, it was r ecommendedthat "a commiss ion ar med with cr edit and good bus iness advice could help much."

M eanwhile, ins ide Russ ia the economic s ituation had become cr itical and theinevitability of an embr ace with capitalism dawned on the Communis t Par ty and its

planner s . L enin crys tallized this awar eness bef or e the Tenth Congr ess of the Russ ianCommunis t Par ty:

Without the ass is tance of capital it will be imposs ible f or us to r etain pr oletar ianpower in an incr edibly r uined country in which the peasantry, also r uined, cons titutes

the overwhelming ma jor ity — and, of cour s e, f or this ass is tance capital will squeezehundr eds per cent out of us . This is what we have to under s tand. Hence, either thistype of economic r elations or nothing ....1 5

Then L eon Tr otsky was quoted as saying, "What we need her e is an or ganizer likeBer nar d M . Bar uch."1 6

Soviet awar eness of its impending economic doom sugges ts that A mer ican andGer man bus iness was attr acted by the oppor tunity of exploiting the Russ ian marketf or needed goods ; the Ger mans , in f act, made an ear ly s tar t in 1918. The f ir s t dealsmade by the Soviet Bur eau in New Y ork indicate that ear lier A mer ican f inancial andmor al suppor t of the Bolsheviks was paying off in the f or m of contr acts .

The lar ges t or der in 1919-20 was contr acted to M orr is & Co., Chicago meatpacker s ,f or f if ty million pounds of f ood pr oducts , valued at appr oximately $10 million. TheM orr is meatpacking f amily was r elated to the Swif t f amily. Helen Swif t, later

connected with the A

br aham L

incoln Center "Unity," was marr ied to Edwar d

M

orr is

(of the meatpacking f ir m) and was also the br other of Har old H. Swif t, a "ma jor " inthe 1917 Thompson Red Cr oss M iss ion to Russ ia.

Table: C ON TR A CT S M A D E I N 1919 B Y T H E SOV I E T B URE A U W I T H U .S .FIRM S

L udwig M ar tens was f or mer ly vice pr es ident of Weinber g & Posner , located at 120Br oadway, New Y ork City, and this f ir m was given a $3 million or der .

SOV IET GO LD A ND A M ERIC A N B A NKS

Gold was the only pr actical means by which the Soviet Union could pay f or itsf or eign pur chases and the inter national banker s wer e quite willing to f acilitate Sovietgold shipments . Russ ian gold expor ts , pr imar ily imper ial gold coins , s tar ted in ear ly1920, to Norway and Sweden. Thes e wer e tr anss hipped to Holland and Ger many f or other wor ld des tinations , including the United States .

In A ugus t 1920, a shipment of Russ ian gold coins was r eceived at the Den Nor skeHandelsbank in Norway as a guar antee f or payment of 3,000 tons of coal by NielsJ uul and Company in the U.S. in behalf of the Soviet gover nment. These coins wer etr ansf err ed to the Nor ges Bank f or saf ekeeping. The coins wer e examined andweighed, wer e f ound to have been minted bef or e the outbr eak of war in 1914, andwer e ther ef or e genuine imper ial Russ ian coins .1 7



subcommittee of the Committee on For eign Relations , 66th Cong., 2d sess ., 1920.

3M orr is Hillquit was the inter mediary between New Y ork banker Eugene Boiss evainand John Reed in Petr ogr ad.

4U.S. State Dept. Decimal File, 861.00/4214a.

5Ibid., 861.00/1938.

6Ibid.

7Ibid., 861.00/2003.

8Ibid.

9Ibid., 861.00/2002.

10Ibid.

11Ibid., M 316-18-1306.

12Ibid.

13Ibid.

14Ibid.

15V . 1. L enin, Repor t to the Tenth Congr ess of the Russ ian Communis t Par ty,(Bolshevik), M ar ch 15, 1921.

16William Reswick, I Dr eamt Revolution (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1952), p. 78.


18Ibid., 861.51/836.

19Ibid., 861.51, /837, October 4, 1920.

20Ibid., 861.51/837, October 24, 1920.21Ibid., 861.51/853, November 11, 1920.

22Ibid., 316-119, 1132.23Ibid., 316-119-785. This r epor t has mor e data on tr ansf er s of Russ ian gold thr oughother countr ies and inter mediar ies . See also 316-119-846.

24Ibid., 861.516 /86.

Chapter X

J .P. M ORG A N GIV ES A L ITTL E HEL P TO THE OTHER SIDE

I would not s it down to lunch with a M or gan — except poss ibly to lear nsomething of his motives and att itudes .

William E. Dodd, Ambass ador Dodd' s Diar y, 1933-1938



In autumn 1919 the Ber lin newspaper Ber liner Zeitung am Mittak (October 8 and 9)accused the M or gan f ir m of f inancing the Wes t Russ ian gover nment and the Russ ian-Ger man f or ces in the Baltic f ighting the Bolsheviks — both allied to K olchak. TheM or gan f ir m s tr enuous ly denied the char ge: "This f ir m has had no discuss ion, or meeting, with the Wes t Russ ian Gover nment or with anyone pr etending to r epr esent it,at any time."6 But if the f inancing char ge was inaccur ate ther e is evidence of collabor ation. Documents f ound by L atvian gover nment intelligence among thepaper s of Colonel Ber mondt, commander of the Wes ter n V olunteer A r my, conf ir m"the r elations claimed exis ting between K olchak's L ondon A gent and the Ger manindus tr ial r ing which was back of Ber mondt."7

In other wor ds , we know that J .P. M or gan, L ondon, and New. Y ork banker s f inancedK olchak. Ther e is also evidence that connects K olchak and his ar my with other anti-Bolshevik ar mies . A nd ther e seems to be little ques tion that Ger man indus tr ial andbanking cir cles wer e f inancing the all-Russ ian anti-Bolshevik ar my in the Baltic.Obvious ly banker s ' f unds have no national f lag.

Footnotes :

1New Y ork Times , J une 21, 1919.

2Ibid., M ar ch 28, 1920.


4Ibid., 861.51/675

5Ibid., 861.51/656

6Ibid., 861.51/767 — a letter f r om J . P. M or gan to Depar tment of State, November 11,1919. The f inancing itself was a hoax (see A P r epor t in State Depar tment f iles

f ollowing the M or gan letter).

7Ibid., 861.51/6172 and /6361.

Chapter XI

THE A LL I A NCE OF B A NK ERS A ND REV OL UTION

T he name Rock ef eller does not connote a r evolutionar y, and my lif e s ituation hasf os ter ed a car ef ul and cautious att itude that ver ges on conser vatism. I am notgiven to err ant causes ...

John D. Rockef eller III, The Second A mer ican Revolution (New Yor k: Har per & Row.1973)

TH E E V IDENCE PRESENT ED: A SY NOPSIS

Evidence alr eady published by Geor ge K atkov, Stef an Poss ony, and M ichael Futr ellhas es tablished that the r etur n to Russ ia of L enin and his par ty of exiled Bolsheviks ,

f ollowed a f ew weeks later by a par ty of M ensheviks , was f inanced and or ganized bythe Ger man gover nment.1 The necess ary f unds wer e tr ansf err ed in par t thr ough theNya Banken in Stockholm, owned by Olof A schber g, and the dual Ger man ob jectives

wer e: (a) r emoval of Russ ia f r om the war , and (b) contr ol of the pos twar Russ ianmarket.2



M R. WILL I A M S: This is speaking f r om a capitalis tic s tandpoint. The whole inter es tof A mer ica is not, I think, to have another gr eat indus tr ial r ival, like Ger many,England, Fr ance, and Italy, thr own on the market in competition. I think another gover nment over ther e bes ides the Soviet gover nment would per haps incr ease thetempo or r ate of development of Russ ia, and we would have another r ival. Of cour s e,this is ar guing f r om a capitalis tic s tandpoint.

SEN A TOR WOL COTT: So you ar e pr es enting an ar gument her e which you thinkmight appeal to the A mer ican people, your point being this , that if we r ecognize the

Soviet gover nment of Russ ia as it is cons tituted we will be r ecognizing a gover nmentthat can not compete with us in indus try f or a gr eat many year s?

M R. WILL I A M S: That is a f act.

SEN A TOR WOL COTT: T hat is an ar gument that under the Soviet gover nmentRuss ia is in no pos ition, f or a gr eat many year s at leas t, to appr oach A mer icaindus tr ially?

M R. WILL I A M S: A bsolutely.17

A nd in that f or thr ight s tatement by A lber t Rhys Williams is the bas ic clue to ther evis ionis t inter pr etation of Russ ian his tory over the pas t half century.

Wall Str eet, or r ather the M or gan-Rockef eller complex r epr esented at 120 Br oadwayand 14 Wall Str eet, had something very close to Williams ' ar gument in mind. WallStr eet went to bat in Washington f or the Bolsheviks . It succeeded. The Soviettotalitar ian r egime survived. In the 1930s f or eign f ir ms , mos tly of the M or gan-Rockef eller gr oup, built the f ive-year plans . They have continued to build Russ ia,

economically and militar ily.18 On the other hand, Wall Str eet pr esumably did notf or esee the K or ean War and the V ietnam War — in which 100,000 A mer icans and

countless allies los t their lives to Soviet ar maments built with this same impor tedU.S. technology. What seemed a f ar s ighted, and undoubtedly pr of itable, policy f or aWall Str eet syndicate, became a nightmar e f or millions outs ide the elitis t power cir cle andthe r uling class .

Footnotes :

1M ichael Futr ell, Nor ther n Under gr ound (L ondon: Faber and Faber , 1963); Stef anPoss ony, Lenin: The Compuls ive Revolutionar y (L ondon: Geor ge A llen & Unwin,1966); and Geor ge K atkov, "Ger man For eign Off ice Documents on Financial Suppor tto the Bolsheviks in 1917," Inter national Aff air s 32 (Royal Ins titute of Inter national

A ff air s , 1956).

2Ibid., especially K atkov.

3See also V oline (V .M . Eichenbaum), Nineteen-Seventeen: The Russ ian RevolutionBetr ayed (New Y ork: L iber tar ian Book Club, n.d.).

4

Pr inceton, N.J.: Pr inceton Univer

sity Pr

ss, 1972.

5Ibid., p. 149.

6See p. 49.

7Nation's Bus iness , Febr uary 1923, pp. 22-23.



8J ennings C. Wise, Woodr ow Wilson: Disciple of Revolution (New Y ork: Pais leyPr ess , 1938), p.45

9Ibid., p.46

10See p. 89.

11M orr is Hillquit, Loose Leaves f r om a Busy Lif e (New Y ork: M acmillan, 1934), p. 81.

12Wise, op. cit., p. 647

13L eon Tr otsky, The Bolsheviki and Wor ld Peace (New Y ork: Boni & L iver ight,1918).

14In M ay 1973 Chas e M anhattan Bank (chair man, David Rockef eller) opened itM oscow off ice at 1 K ar l M arx Squar e, M oscow. The New Y ork off ice is at 1 ChaseM anhattan Plaza.

15Chicago: Public Publishin, n.d.16Ibid.

17U.S., Senate, Bolshevik Pr opaganda , hear ings bef or e a subcommittee of theCommittee on the Judiciary, 65th Cong., pp. 679-80. See also her ein p. 107 f or ther ole of Williams in Radek's Pr ess Bur eau.

18See A ntony C. Sutton, Wes ter n Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 3vols . (Stanf or d, Calif .: Hoover Ins titution, 1968, 1971, 1973); see also NationalSuicide: Militar y Aid to the Soviet Union (New Y ork: A r lington Hous e, 1973).

Appendix I

DIRECTORS OF M A JOR B A NK S,FIRM S, A ND INSTITUTIONSM ENTIONED IN THIS BOOK

( A S IN 1917-1918)

A M ERIC A N INTERN A TION AL CORPOR A TION(120 Br oadway)J . Ogden A r mour Per cy A . Rockef eller

G. J . Baldwin John D. Ryan

C. A . Coff in W.L . Saunder sW. E. Cor ey J . A . StillmanRober t Dollar C. A . StonePierr e S. du Pont T .N. V ailPhilip A . S. Fr anklin F. A . V ander lipJ . P. Gr ace E.S. Webs ter R. F. Herr ick A .H. WigginOtto H. K ahn Beckman Winthr opH. W. Pr itchett W illiam Woodwar d

CH A SE N A TION AL B A NK

J . N. Hill Newcomb Car lton A . B. Hepbur n D.C. J ackling



S. H. M iller E.R. Tinker C. M . Schwab A .H. WigginH. Bendicott John J . M itchell

Guy E. Tr ipp

EQUIT A BL E TRUST COM P A NY (37-43 Wall Str eet)Char les B. A lexander Henry E. Huntington

A lber t B . Boar dman Edwar d T. J eff r eyRober t.C. Clowry Otto H. K ahnHowar d E. Cole A lvin W. K r echHenry E. Cooper J ames W. L anePaul D. Cr avath Hunter S. M ar s tonFr anklin Wm. Cutcheon Char les G. M eyer Ber tr am Cutler Geor ge Welwood M urr ayThomas de Witt Cuyler Henry H. Pier ceFr eder ick W. Fuller Wins low S. Pier ce

Rober t Goelet L yman Rhoades

Car l R. Gr ay Walter C. TeagleChar les Hayden Henry Roger s Winthr op

Ber tr am G. Work

FEDER AL A DV ISORY COUNCIL (1916)Daniel G. Wing, Bos ton, Dis tr ict No. 1

J . P. M or gan, New Y ork, Dis tr ict No. 2L evi L . Rue, Philadelphia, Dis tr ict No. 3W. S. Rowe, Cincinnati, Dis tr ict No. 4J . W. Norwood, Gr eenville, S.C., Dis tr ict No. 5C. A . L yer ly, Chattanooga, Dis tr ict No. 6J . B. For gan, Chicago, Pr es ., Dis tr ict No. 7Fr ank O. Watts , St. L ouis , Dis tr ict No. 8C. T. J aff r ay, M inneapolis , Dis tr ict No. 9E. F. Swinney, K ansas City, Dis tr ict No. 10T. J . Recor d, Par is , Dis tr ict No. 11Her ber t Fleishhacker , San Fr ancisco, Dis tr ict No.

12

FEDER AL RESERV E B A NK OF NEW Y ORK (120Br oadway)William Woodwar d (1917)Rober t H. Tr eman (1918) Fr anklin D. L ocke (1919)

Class A

Char les A . Stone (1920)Wm. B. Thompson (1918) L . R. Palmer (1919)

Class B



Pierr e J ay (1917)Geor ge F. Peabody (1919) William L awr enceSaunder s (1920)

Class CFEDER AL RESERV E BO A RDWilliam G. M ' A doo A dolph C. M iller (1924)

Char les S. Hamlin ( 1916) Fr eder ic

A. Delano (1920)Paul M . War bur g (1918) W.P.G. Har ding (1922)

J ohn Skelton Williams

GU A R A NTY TRUST COM P A NY (140 Br oadway) A lexander J . Hemphill(Chair man)Char les H. A llen Edgar L . M ar s ton

A . C. Bedf or d Gr ayson M -P M ur phyEdwar d J . Berwind Char les A . PeabodyW. M urr ay Cr ane William C. Potter T. de Witt Cuyler John S. Runnells

J ames B. Duke Thomas F. RyanCaleb C. Dula Char les H. SabinRober t W . Goelet John W. Spoor Daniel Guggenheim A lber t Str aus

W. A ver ell Harr iman Harry P. Whitney A lber t H. Harr is Thomas E. WilsonWalter D. Hines London Committee:

A ugus tus D. J ulliar d A r thur J . Fr aser (Chair man)Thomas W. L amont Cecil F. Parr William C. L ane Rober t Callander

N A TION AL CITY B A NK

P. A . S. Fr anklin P. A . Rockef eller J .P. Gr ace J ames

Stillman G. H. Dodge W.Rockef eller H. A . C. Taylor J .O. A r mour R. S. L ovett J .W. Ster lingF. A . V ander lip J . A .Stillman G. H. M inikenM .T. Pyne

E. P. Swenson E.D. Baps tFr ank Tr umbull J .H. Pos tEdgar Palmer W.C. Pr octer N A TION AL B A NK FÜR DEUTSCHLA ND( A s in 1914, H jalmar Schacht joined boar d in 1918)Emil Wittenber g Hans Winter f eldt



H jalmar Schacht Th M ar baM ar tin Schiff Paul K och

Fr anz Rintelen

SINCL A IR CONSOL ID A TED OIL CORPOR A TION(120 Br oadway)Harry F. Sinclair J ames N. Wallace

H. P. Whitney Edwar d H. ClarkWm. E. Cor ey Daniel C.J ackling Wm. B. Thompson A lber t H.Wiggin

J . G. WHITE ENGINEERING CORPOR A TIONJ ames Br own C.E. Bailey

Douglas Campbell

J.G. WhiteG. C. Clark, Jr . Gano Dunn

Bayar d Dominick, J r . E.G. Williams

A . G. Hodenpyl A .S. Cr aneT. W. L amont H. A . L ar dner

M ar ion M cM illan G.H. K inniat J .H. Par dee A .F. K ountz G. H.

Walbr idge R.B. M ar chant E. N.Chilson Henry Par sons

A . N. Connett Appendix II

THE JEWISH-CONSPIR A CY THEORY OF THE BOL SHEV IK REV OL UTION

Ther e is an extens ive liter atur e in English, Fr ench, and Ger man r ef lecting thear gument that the Bolshevik Revolution was the r esult of a "Jewish conspir acy"; mor especif ically, a conspir acy by J ewish wor ld banker s . Gener ally, wor ld contr ol is seenas the ultimate ob jective; the Bolshevik Revolution was but one phase of a wider

pr ogr am thatsuppo

sedly r ef lect

s an age-old r eligiou

s str uggle between Chr i

stianityand the "f or ces of darkness ."

The ar gument and its var iants can be f ound in the mos t sur pr is ing places and f r omquite sur pr is ing per sons . In Febr uary 1920 Wins ton Chur chill wr ote an ar ticle —r ar ely cited today — f or the London Illus tr ated Sunday Her ald entitled "ZionismV er sus Bolshevism." In this ' ar ticle Chur chill concluded that it was "par ticular lyimpor tant... that the National J ews in every country who ar e loyal to the land of their adoption should come f orwar d on every occas ion . . . and take a pr ominent par t inevery measur e f or combatting the Bolshevik conspir acy." Chur chill dr aws a linebetween "national J ews" and what he calls "inter national J ews ." He ar gues that the

"inter national and f or the mos t atheis tical J ews" cer tainly had a "very gr eat" r ole inthe cr eation of Bolshevism and br inging about the Russ ian Revolution. He ass er ts(contr ary to f act) that with the exception of L enin, "the ma jor ity" of the leadingf igur es in the r evolution wer e J ewish, and adds (also contr ary to f act) that in manycases Jewish inter es ts and Jewish places of wor ship wer e excepted by the Bolsheviks

f r om their policies of seizur e. Chur chill calls the inter national J ews a "s inis ter conf eder acy" emer gent f r om the per secuted populations of countr ies wher e J ews have



actions of Paul War bur g, J udus M agnes , K uhn, L oeb & Company, and Speyer &Company.

The r epor t ends with a bar b at "Inter national J ewry" and places the ar gument intothe context of a Chr is tian-Jewish conf lict backed up by quotations f r om thePr otocols of Zion. A ccompanying this r epor t is a ser ies of cables between the StateDepar tment in Washington and the A mer ican embass y in L ondon concer ning thes teps to be takenwith these documents :3

5399 Gr eat Br itain, TEL . 3253 i pmOctober 16, 1919 In Conf idential File

Secr et f or Wins low f r om Wr ight. Financial aid to Bolshevism & BolshevikRevolution in Russ ia f r om pr ominent A m. J ews : J acob Schiff , Felix War bur g, OttoK ahn, M endell Schiff , J er ome Hanauer , M ax Br eitung & one of the Guggenheims .Document r e- in poss ess ion of Br it. police author ities f r om Fr ench sour ces . A sks f or any f acts r e-.

* * * * *

Oct. 17 Gr eat Br itain TEL . 6084, noon r c-h 5399 V ery secr et. Wr ight f r om Wins low.Financial aid to Bolshevik r evolution in Russ ia f r om pr ominent A m. Jews . No pr oof r e- but inves tigating. A sks to ur ge Br it. author ities to suspend publication at leas t untilr eceipt of document by Dept.

* * * * *

Nov. 28 Gr eat Br itain TEL . 6223 R 5 pr o. 5399FOR WRIGHT. Document r e f inancial aid to Bolsheviki by pr ominent A mer ican jews .Repor ts — identif ied as Fr ench tr ans lation of a s tatement or iginally pr epar ed inEnglish by Russ ian citizen in A m. etc. Seem mos t unwise to give — the dis tinction of pub

licity.

It was agr eed to suppr ess this mater ial and the f iles conclude, "I think we have thewhole thing in cold s tor age."

A nother document marked "M os t Secr et" is included with this batch of mater ial.The pr ovenance of the document is unknown; it is per haps FBI or militaryintelligence. It r eviews a tr ans lation of the Pr otocols of the M eetings of the WiseM en of Zion, and concludes :

In this connection a letter was sent to M r . W. enclos ing a memor andum f r om us with

r egar d to cer tain inf or mation f r om the A mer ican M ilitary A ttache to the eff ect that theBr itish author ities had letter s inter cepted f r om var ious gr oups of inter national Jewssetting out a scheme f or wor ld dominion. Copies of this mater ial will be very usef ul tous .

This inf or mation was appar ently developed and a later Br itish intelligence r epor tmakes the f lat accusation:

SUMM A RY : Ther e is now def inite evidence that Bolshevism is an inter nationalmovement contr olled by J ews ; communications ar e pass ing between the leader s in

A mer ica, Fr ance, Russ ia and England with a view to concer ted action....4

However , none of the above s tatements can be suppor ted with har d empir icalevidence. The mos t s ignif icant inf or mation is contained in the par agr aph to the eff ectthat the Br itish author ities poss ess ed "letter s inter cepted f r om var ious gr oups of inter national J ews setting out a scheme f or wor ld dominion." If indeed such letter sexis t, then they would pr ovide suppor t (or nonsuppor t) f or a pr esently unsubs tantiatedhypothes is : to wit, that the Bolshevik Revolution and other r evolutions ar e the work



of a wor ldwide J ewish conspir acy.M oveover , when s tatements and ass er tions ar e not suppor ted by har d evidence andwher e attempts to unear th har d evidence lead in a cir cle back to the s tar ting point —par ticular ly when everyone is quoting everyone else — then we mus t r e ject the s toryas spur ious . Ther e is no concr ete evidence that Jews wer e involved in the BolshevikRevolution because they wer e Jewish. Ther e may indeed have been a higher pr opor tion of J ews involved, but given tsar is t tr eatment of J ews , what else would weexpect? Ther e wer e pr obably many Englishmen or per sons of English or igin in the

A mer ican Revolution f ighting the r edcoats . So what? Does that make the A mer icanRevolution an English conspir acy? Wins ton Chur chill's s tatement that J ews had a"very gr eat r ole" in the Bolshevik Revolution is suppor ted only by dis tor ted evidence.The lis t of J ews involved in the Bolshevik Revolution mus t be weighed agains t lis ts of non-Jews involved in the r evolution. When this scientif ic pr ocedur e is adopted, thepr opor tion of f or eign Jewish Bolsheviks involved f alls to less than twenty per cent of the total number of r evolutionar ies — and these J ews wer e mos tly depor ted, mur der ed,or sent to Siber ia in the f ollowing year s . M oder n Russ ia has in f act maintained tsar is tanti-Semitism.

It is s ignif icant that documents in the State Depar tment f iles conf ir m that theinves tment banker J acob Schiff , of ten cited as a sour ce of f unds f or the BolshevikRevolution, was in f act agains t suppor t of the Bolshevik r egime.5 This pos ition, as weshall see, was in dir ect contr as t to the M or gan-Rockef eller pr omotion of theBolsheviks .

The per s is tence with which the J ewish-conspir acy myth has been pushed sugges ts thatit may well be a deliber ate device to diver t attention f r om the r eal iss ues and the r ealcauses . The evidence pr ovided in this book sugges ts that the New Y ork banker s whower e also J ewish had r elatively minor r oles in suppor ting the Bolsheviks , while theNew Y ork banker s who wer e also Gentiles (M or gan, Rockef eller , Thompson) hadma jor r oles .

Wh

atb

etter way to

d

iver t atten

tion

f r om t

he r e

al

oper at

or s

th

an

by t

he me

dievalbogeyman of anti-Semitism?

Footnotes :

1See A ppendix 3 f or Schiff 's actual r ole.

2The anonymous author was a Russ ian employed by the U.S. War Tr ade Boar d. Oneof the thr ee dir ector s of the U.S. War Tr ade Boar d at this time was John Fos ter Dulles .


4Gr eat Br itain, Dir ector ate of Intelligence, A Monthly Review of the Pr ogr ess of Revolutionar y Movements Abr oad, no. 9, July 16, 1913 (861.99/5067).

5See A ppendix 3.

Appendix III

SEL ECTED DOCUM ENTS FROMGOV ERNM ENT FIL ES OF THEUNITED ST A TES A ND GRE A T BRIT A IN

Note: Some documents compr ise sever al paper s that f or m a r elated gr oup.

DOCUM ENT NO. 1 Cable f r om A mbass ador Fr ancis in Petr ogr ad to U.S. State



Depar tment and r elated letter f r om Secr etary of State Rober t L ans ing to Pr es identWoodr ow Wilson (M ar ch 17, 1917)

DOCUM ENT NO. 2 Br itish For eign Off ice document (October 1917) claimingK er ensky was in the pay of the Ger man gover nment and aiding the Bolsheviks

DOCUM ENT NO. 3 J acob Schiff of K uhn, L oeb & Company and his pos ition on theK er ensky and Bolshevik r egimes (November 1918)

DOCUM ENT NO. 4 M emor andum f r om William Boyce Thompson, dir ector of the

Feder al Reserve Bank of New Y ork, to the Br itish pr ime minis ter David L loydGeor ge (December 1917)

DOCUM ENT NO. 5 L etter f r om Felix Fr ankf ur ter to Soviet agent Santer i Nuor teva(M ay 9, 1918)

DOCUM ENT NO. 6 Per sonnel of the Soviet Bur eau, New Y ork, 1920; lis t f r om theNew Y ork State L usk Committee f iles

DOCUM ENT NO. 7 L etter f r om National City Bank to the U.S. Tr easury r ef err ing toL udwig M ar tens and Dr . J ulius Hammer ( A pr il 15, 1919)

DOCUM ENT NO. 8 L etter f r om Soviet agent W illiam (Bill) Bobr off to K ennethDur ant ( A ugus t 3, 1920)

DOCUM ENT NO. 9 M emo r ef err ing to a member of the J . P. M or gan f ir m and theBr itish dir ector of pr opaganda L or d Nor thcliff e ( A pr il 13, 1918)

DOCUM ENT NO. 10 State Depar tment M emo (M ay 29, 1922) r egar ding Gener alElectr ic Co.

DOCUM ENT NO . 1

Cable f r om A mbass ador Fr ancis in Petr ogr ad to the Depar tment of State inWashington, D.C., dated M ar ch 14, 1917, and r epor ting the f ir s t s tage of the Russ ianRevolution (861.00/273).

Petr ogr adDated M ar ch 14, 1917,Recd. 15th, 2:30 a.m.

Secr etary of State,Washington

1287. Unable to send a cablegr am s ince the eleventh. Revolutionis ts have absolutecontr ol in Petr ogr ad and ar e making s tr enuous eff or ts to pr eserve or der , whichsuccess f ul except in r ar e ins tances . No cablegr ams s ince your 1251 of the ninth,r eceived M ar ch eleventh. Pr ovis ional gover nment or ganized under the author ity of theDouma which r ef used to obey the Emper or 's or der of the ad jour nment. Rodzianko,pr es ident of the Douma, iss uing or der s over his own s ignatur e. M inis try r epor ted tohave r es igned. M inis ter s f ound ar e taken bef or e the Douma, also many Russ ianoff icer s and other high off icials . M os t if not all r egiments or der ed to Petr ogr ad have

joined the r evolutionis ts af ter arr ival. A mer ican colony saf e. No knowledge of anyin jur ies to A mer ican citizens .

FR A NCIS, A mer ican A mbass ador

On r eceipt of the pr eceding cable, Rober t L ans ing, Secr etary of State, made itscontents available to Pr es ident W ilson (861.00/273):



PERSON A L A ND CONFIDENT I A L

M y Dear M r . Pr es ident:

I enclose to you a very impor tant cablegr am which has jus t come f r om Petr ogr ad, andalso a clipping f r om the New Y ork WORL D of this mor ning, in which a s tatement ismade by Signor Scialoia, M inis ter without por tf olio in the Italian Cabinet, which iss ignif icant in view of M r . Fr ancis ' r epor t. M y own impr ess ion is that the A llies know

of this matter and I pr esume ar e f avor able to the r evolutionis ts s ince the Cour t par tyhas been, thr oughout the war , secr etely pr o-Ger man.

Faithf ully your s ,ROBERT LA NSING

Enclosur e:The Pr es ident,The White House

COMM ENT

The s ignif icant phr as e in the L ans ing-Wilson letter is "M y own impr ess ion is thatthe A llies know of this matter and I pr esume ar e f avor able to the r evolutionis ts s incethe Cour t par ty has been, thr oughout the war , secr etely pr o-Ger man." It will ber ecalled(chapter two) that A mbass ador Dodd claimed that Char les R. Cr ane, of Wes tinghouseand of Cr ane Co. in New Y ork and an adviser to Pr es ident W ilson, was involved inthis f ir s t r evolution.

DOCUM ENT NO . 2

M emor andum f r om Gr eat Br itain For eign Off ice f ile FO 371/ 2999 (The War —Russ ia), October 23, 1917, f ile no. 3743.

DOCUM ENT

Per sonal (and) Secr et.

Disquieting r umor s have r eached us f r om mor e than one sour ce that K er ens ky is mGer man pay and that he and his gover nment ar e doing their utmos t to weaken (and)disor ganize Russ ia, so as to arr ive at a s ituation when no other cour se but a separ atepeace would be poss ible. Do you cons ider that ther e is any gr ound f or suchins inuations , and that the gover nment by r ef r aining f r om any eff ective action ar epur posely allowing the Bolshevis t elements to gr ow s tr onger ?

If it should be a ques tion of br ibery we might be able to compete success f ully if itwer e known how and thr ough what agents it could be done, although it is not apleasant thought.

COMM ENT

Ref er s to inf or mation that K er ensky was in Ger man pay.

DOCUM ENT NO . 3



Cons is ts of f our par ts :

(a) Cable f r om A mbass ador Fr ancis , A pr il 27, 1917, in Petr ogr ad to Washington, D.C.,r eques ting tr ansmiss ion of a mess age f r om pr ominent Russ ian J ewish banker s topr ominent J ewish banker s in New Y ork and r eques ting their subscr iption to theK er ensky L iber ty L oan (861.51/139).

(b) Reply f r om L ouis M ar shall (M ay 10, 1917) r epr esenting A mer ican J ews ;he declined the invitation while expr ess ing suppor t f or the A mer ican L iber tyL oan (861.51/143).(c) L etter f r om J acob Schiff of K uhn, L oeb (November 25, 1918) to State Depar tment(M r . Polk) r elaying a mess age f r om Russ ian Jewish banker K amenka calling f or

A llied help aga ins t the Bolsheviks ("because Bols hevis t gover nment does notr epr es ent Russ ian People").(d) Cable f r om K amenka r elayed by J acob Schiff .

DOCUM ENT S

(a) Secr etary of StateWashington.1229, twenty-s eventh.

Please deliver f ollowing to Jacob Schiff , Judge Br andies [s ic], Pr of ess or Gottheil,Oscar Str auss [s ic] , Rabbi Wise, L ouis M ar shall and M or genthau:

"We Russ ian J ews always believed that liber ation of Russ ia meant also our liber ation.Being deeply devoted to country we placed implicit tr us t tempor ary Gover nment. Weknow the unlimited economic power of Russ ia and her immense natur al r esour ces and

th

e eman

cip

ation

we ob

tain

ed

will en

able

usto

p

ar ticip

ate d

evelop

men

t coun

try.

Wef ir mly believe that victor ious f inish of the war owing help our allies and United States

is near .

Tempor ary Gover nment iss uing now new public loan of f r eedom and we f eel our national duty suppor t loan high vital f or war and f r eedom. We ar e sur e that Russ ia has

an unshakeable power of public cr edit and will eas ily bear a.11 necess ary f inancialbur den. We f or med special committee of Russ ian J ews f or suppor ting loan cons is tingr epr es entatives f inancial, indus tr ial tr ading cir cles and leading public men.

We inf or m you her e of and r eques t our br ether n beyong [s ic] the seas to suppor t

f r eedom of Russ ian which became now cas e humanity and wor ld's civilization. Wesugges t you f or m ther e special committee and let us know of s teps you may takeJ ewish committee suppor t success loan of f r eedom. Bor is K amenka, Chair man, Bar on

A lexander Gunzbur g, Henry Silosber g."

FR A NCIS

* * * * *

(b) Dear M r . Secr etary:

A f ter r epor ting to our ass ociates the r esult of the interview which you kindly gr antedto M r . M or genthau, M r . Str aus and mys elf , in r egar d to the advisability of calling f or subscr iptions to the Russ ian Fr eedom L oan as r eques ted in the cablegr am of Bar onGunzbur g and M ess r s . K amenka and Silosber g of Petr ogr ad, which you r ecentlycommunicated to us , we have concluded to act s tr ictly upon your advice. Sever al days

ago we pr omised our f r iends at Petr ogr ad an ear ly r eply to their call f or aid. Wewould ther ef or e gr eatly appr eciate the f orwar ding of the f ollowing cablegr am,



pr ovided its ter ms have your appr oval:

"Bor is K amenka,Don A zov Bank, Petr ogr ad.Our State Depar tment which we have consulted r egar ds any pr esent attempt towar dsecur ing public subscr iptions her e f or any f or eign loans inadvisable; the concentr ationof all eff or ts f or the success of A mer ican war loans being ess ential, ther eby enablingour Gover nment to supply f unds to its allies at lower inter es t r ates than otherwiseposs ible. Our ener gies to help the Russ ian cause mos t eff ectively mus t ther ef or enecess ar ily be dir ected to encour aging subscr iptions to A mer ican L iber ty L oan. Schiff ,M ar shall, Str aus , M or genthau, Wise, Gonheil."

Y ou ar e of cour s e at liber ty to make any changes in the phr aseology of this sugges tedcablegr am which you may deem des ir able and which will indicate that our f ailur e tor espond dir ectly to the r eques t that has come to us is due to our anxiety to make our activities mos t eff icient.

M ay I ask you to send me a copy of the cablegr am as f orwar ded, with a memor andumof the cos t so that the Depar tment may be pr omptly r eimbur sed.

I am, with gr eat r espect,Faithf ully your s ,

[sgd.] L ouis M ar shall

The Secr etary of StateWashington, D.C.

* * * * *

(c) Dear M r . Polk:

Will you per mit me to send you copy of a cablegr am r eceived thi

s mor ning and whichI think, f or r egular ity's s ake, should be br ought to the notice of the Secr etary of State

or your good self , f or such cons ider ation as it might be thought well to give this .

M r . K amenka, the sender of this cablegr am, is one of the leading men in Russ ia andhas , I am inf or med, been f inancial advisor both of the Pr ince L voff gover nment and of the K er ensky gover nment. He is Pr es ident of the Banque de Commer ce de l' A zovDon of Petr ogr ad, one of the mos t impor tant f inancial ins titutions of Russ ia, but had,likely, to leave Russ ia with the advent of L enin and his "comr ades ."

L et me take this oppor tunity to send s incer e gr eetings to you and M r s . Polk and to

expr ess the hope that you ar e now in per f ect shape again, and that M r s . Polk and thechildr en ar e in good health.

Faithf ully your s ,[sgd.] J acob H. Schiff

Hon. Fr ank L . PolkCounsellor of the State Dept.Washington, D.C.

MM -Encl.[Dated November 25, 1918]

* * * **

(d) Tr ans lation:



The complete tr iumph of liber ty and r ight f ur nishes me a new oppor tunity to r epeat toyou my pr of ound admir ation f or the noble A mer ican nation. Hope to see now quickpr ogr ess on the par t of the A llies to help Russ ia in r ees tablishing or der . Call your attention also to pr ess ing necess ity of r eplacing in Ukr aine enemy tr oops at the verymoment of their r etir ement in or der to avoid Bols hevis t devas tation. Fr iendlyintervention of A llies would be gr eeted everywher e with enthus iasm and looked uponas democr atic action, because Bolshevis t gover nment does not r epr esent Russ ianpeople. Wr ote you September 19th. Cor dial gr eetings .

[sgd.] K amenka

COMM ENT

This is an impor tant ser ies because it r ef utes the s tory of a J ewish bank conspir acybehind the Bolshevik Revolution. Clear ly J acob Schiff of K uhn, L oeb was notinter es ted in suppor ting the K er ensky L iber ty L oan and Schiff went to the tr ouble of dr awing State Depar tment attention to K amenka's pleas f or A llied intervention agains tthe Bolsheviks . Obvious ly Schiff and f ellow banker K amenka, unlike J .P. M or ganand John D. Rockef eller , wer e as unhappy about the Bolsheviks as they had beenabout the tsar s .

DOCUM ENT NO . 4

Descr iption

M emor andum f r om William Boyce Thompson (dir ector of the Feder al Res erve Bankof New Y ork) to L loyd Geor ge (pr ime minis ter of Gr eat Br itain), December 1917.

DOCUM ENT

FIRST

The Russ ian s ituation is los t and Russ ia lies entir ely open to unopposed Ger manexploitation unless a r adical r ever sal of policy is at once under taken by the A llies .

SECOND

Because of their shor ts ighted diplomacy, the A llies s ince the Revolution haveaccomplished nothing benef icial, and have done cons ider able har m to their own

inter ests. THIRD

The A llied r epr esentatives in Petr ogr ad have been lacking insympathetic under s tanding of the des ir e of the Russ ian people to attain democr acy.

Our r epr esentatives wer e f ir s t connected off icially with the Czar 's r egime. Natur allythey have been inf luenced by that envir onment.

FOURTH

M eanwhile, on the other hand, the Ger mans have conducted pr opaganda that has

undoubtedly aided them mater ially in des tr oying the Gover nment, in wr ecking thear my and in des tr oying tr ade and indus try. If this continues unopposed it may r esult inthe complete exploitation of the gr eat country by Ger many agains t the A llies .

FIFTH

I base my opinion upon a car ef ul and intimate s tudy of the s ituation both outs ide and



diss emination of the Bolshevik liter atur e, dis tr ibuting it thr ough agents and byaer oplanes to the Ger man ar my. If the sugges tion is per miss ible, it might be well tocons ider whether it would not be des ir able to have this same Bolshevik liter atur e sentinto Ger many and A us tr ia acr oss the Wes t and Italian f r onts .

EIGHTH

The pr esence of a small number of A llied tr oops in Petr ogr ad would cer tainly havedone much to pr event the over thr ow of the K er ensky gover nment in November . Ishould like to sugges t f or your cons ider ation, if pr esent conditions continue, the

concentr ation of all the Br itish and Fr ench Gover nment employes in Petr ogr ad, and if the necess ity should ar ise it might be f or med into a f air ly eff ective f or ce. It might beadvisable even to pay a s mall sum to a Russ ian f or ce. Ther e is also a lar ge body of volunteer s r ecr uited in Russ ia, many of them included in the Inteligentzia of "Center "class , and these have done splendid work in the tr enches . They might pr oper ly beaided.

NINTH

If you ask f or a f ur ther pr ogr amme I should say that it is imposs ible to give it now. Ibelieve that intelligent and cour ageous work will s till pr event Ger many f r omoccupying the f ield to itself and thus exploiting Russ ia at the expense of the A llies .Ther e will be many ways in which this service can be r ender ed which will becomeobvious as the work pr ogr ess es .

COMM ENT

Following this memor andum the Br itish war cabinet changed its policy to one of tepidpr o-Bolshevism. Note that Thompson admits to dis tr ibution of Bolshevik liter atur e byhis agents . The conf us ion over the date on which Thompson lef t Russ ia (he s tates

November 29th in this document) i

s clear ed up by the Pir nie paper

s at the Hoover Ins titution. Ther e wer e sever al changes of tr avel plans and Thompson was s till in

Russ ia in ear ly December . The memor andum was pr obably wr itten in Petr ogr adin late November .

DOCUM ENT NO . 5

DESCRIPT ION

L etter dated M ay 9, 1918, f r om Felix Fr ankf ur ter (then special ass is tant to the

secr etary of war) to Santer i Nuor teva (alias f or A lexander Nyber g), a Bolshevik agentin the United States . L is ted as Document No. 1544 in the L usk Committee f iles , NewY ork:

DOCUM ENT

W A R DEP A RTM ENTW A SHINGTON

M ay 9, 1918

M y dear M r . Nhor teva [s ic]:

Thank you very much f or your letter of the 4th. I knew you would under s tand thepur ely f r iendly and wholly unoff icial char acter of our talk, and I appr eciate thepr ompt s teps you have taken to corr ect your Sir ola* letter . Be wholly ass ur ed thatnothing has tr anspir ed which diminishes my inter es t in the ques tions which youpr esent. Quite the contr ary. I am much inter es ted in** the cons ider ations you ar e



advancing and f or the point of view you ar e ur ging. The iss ues*** at s take ar e theinter es ts that mean much f or the whole wor ld. To meet them adequately we need allthe knowledge and wisdom we can poss ibly get* * ** .

Cor dially your s ,Felix Fr ankf ur ter

Santer i Nuor teva, Esq.

* Y r jo Sir ola was a Bolshevik and commiss ar in Finland.

** Or iginal text, "continually gr atef ul to you f or ."*** Or iginal text, "inter es ts ."**** Or iginal text added "these days ."

COMM ENT

This letter by Fr ankf ur ter was wr itten to Nuor teva/Nyber g, a Bolshevik agent in theUnited States , at a time when Fr ankf ur ter held an off icial pos ition as special ass is tantto Secr etary of War Baker in the War Depar tment. A ppar ently Nyber g was willing tochange a letter to commiss ar "Sir ola" accor ding to Fr ankf ur ter 's ins tr uctions . TheL usk Committee acquir ed the or iginal Fr ankf ur ter dr af t including Fr ankf ur ter 'schanges and not the letter r eceived by Nyber g.

TH E SOV IET BURE A U IN 1920

Pos ition Name Citizenship Bor n For mer EmploymentRepr esenta tive of USSR

L udwig C. A .K . M A RTENSGer man Russ ia V -P of Weinber g & Posner Engineer ing (120 Br oadway)Off ice manager Gr egory WEINSTEIN Russ ian Russ ia Jour nalis tSecr etary Santer i NUORTEVA Finnish Russ ia J our nalis t

A ss is tant secr etary

Pr ivate secr e tary to NUOR TEVA

K enneth DUR A NT U.S. U.S. (1) U.S. Committeeon Public Inf or mation (2) For mer aide toColonel House

Dor othy K EEN U.S. U.S. High schoolTr ans lator M ary M ODELL Russ ian Russ ia School in Russ iaFile clerk A lexander COL EM A N U.S. U.S. High schoolTelephone clerk Blanche

A BUSHEV ITZOff ice attendant Nes tor

K UNTZEV ICHRuss ian Russ ia High school

Russia

n

Russia —

M ilitary exper t L t. Col. Bor is Tagueeff Russ ian Russ ia M ilitary cr itic onRous tam BEK

Commer cial Depar tmentDaily Expr ess

(L ondon)



Dir ector A . HELL ER Russ ian U.S. Inter national Oxy genCompany

Secr etary Ella TUCH Russ ian U.S. U.S. f ir ms

Clerk Rose HOLLA ND U.S. U.S. Gary School L eagueClerk Henr ietta

M EEROWICHRuss ian Russ ia Social worker Clerk Rose BY ERS Russ ian Russ ia SchoolStatis tician V ladimir

OL CHOV SKY

Inf or mation Depar tmentRuss ian Russ ia Russ ian A r myDir ector Evans CLA RK U.S. U.S. Pr inceton Univer s ityClerk Nor a G. SM ITHM A N U.S. U.S. For d Peace

ExpeditionSteno Etta FOX U.S. U.S. War Tr ade Boar d

— Wilf r ed R.HUM PHRIES

U.K . —

A mer ican Red Cr oss

T echnical Dept.Dir ector A r thur A D A M S Russ ian U.S. —Educational Dept.Dir ector William M AL ISSOFF Russ ian U.S. Columbia Univer s ityM edical Dept.Dir ector L eo A . HUEBSCH Russ ian U.S. M edical doctor

D. H. DUBROWSKY Russ ian U.S. M edical doctor Legal Dept.

Dir ector M orr is HILL QUIT L ithuanian — —Counsel r etained:Char les RECHTDudley FieldM A L ONEGeor ge Cor donB A TTL E

Dept. of Economics & Statis tics

Dir ector Is aac A . HOURWICH Russ ian U.S. U.S. Bur eau of

CensusEva JOFFE Russ ian U.S. National Child

L abor Commiss ionSteno Elizabeth

GOL DSTEINEditor ial Staff of Soviet Russ ia

Russ ian U.S. StudentM anaging editor

J acob w. H A RTM A NN

U.S

. U

.S

.

Colle

ge

of

City

of New

Y orkSteno Ray TROTSKY Russ ian Russ ia Student

Tr ans lator Theodnr eBRESLA UER

Russ ian Russ ia —Clerk V as tly IVA NOFF Russ ian Russ ia



— Clerk David OL DFIEL D Russ ian Russ ia— Tr ans lator J . BLA NK STEIN Russ ian Russ ia—

SOURCE: U.S., House, Conditions in Russ ia (Committee on For eign A ff air s),66th Cong., 3r d sess . (Washington, D.C., 1921).See also Br itish lis t in U.S. State Depar tment Decimal File, 316-22-656, which also has the name of Julius Hammer .

DOCUM ENT NO . 7

DESCRIPT ION

L etter f r om National City Bank of New Y ork to the U.S. Tr easury, A pr il 15, 1919,with r egar d to L udwig M ar tens and his ass ociate Dr . J ulius Hammer (316-118).

DOCUM ENT

The National City Bank of New Y orkNew Y ork, A pr il 15, 1919

Honor able Joel Rathbone, A ss is tant Secr etary of the Tr easuryWashington, D.C.

Dear M r . Rathbone:

I beg to hand you her ewith photogr aphs of two documents which we have r eceivedthis mor ning by r egis ter ed mail f r om a M r . L . M ar tens who claims to be ther epr es entative in the United States of the Russ ian Socialis t Feder al Soviet Republic,and witness ed by a Dr . Julius Hammer f or the A cting Dir ector of the FinancialDepar tment.

Y ou will see f r om these documents that ther e is a demand being made upon us f or anyand all f unds on depos it with us in the name of M r . Bor is Bakhmeteff , allegedRuss ian A mbass ador in the United States , or in the name of any individual, committee,or miss ion pur por ting to act in behalf of the Russ ian Gover nment in subor dination toM r . Bakhmeteff or dir ectly.

We should be very glad to r eceive f r om you whatever advice or in

str uction

s you maycar e to give us in this matter .

Y our s r espectf ully,[sgd.] J . H. Car ter ,

V ice Pr es ident.

J HC:M

Enclosur e

COMM ENT SThe s ignif icance of this letter is r elated to the long-time ass ociation (1917-1974) of the Hammer f amily with the Soviets .

DOCUM ENT NO . 8



DESCRIPT ION

L etter dated A ugus t 3, 1920, f r om Soviet cour ier "Bill" Bobr off to K enneth Dur ant,f or mer aide to Colonel House. Taken f r om Bobr off by U.S. Depar tment of J us tice.

DOCUM ENT

Depar tment of Jus tice

Bur eau of Inves tigation,15 Park Row, New Y ork City, N. Y ., A ugus t 10, 1920

Dir ector Bur eau of Inves tigationUnited States Depar tment of Jus tice, Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir : Conf ir ming telephone conver sation with M r . Ruch today, I am tr ansmittingher ewith or iginal documents taken f r om the eff ects of B. L . Bobr oll, s teamshipF r eder ick VIII.

The letter addr ess ed M r . K enneth Dur ant, s igned by Bill, dated A ugus t 3, 1920,together with the tr ans lation f r om "Pr avda," July 1, 1920, s igned by Tr otzki, andcopies of cablegr ams wer e f ound ins ide the blue envelope addr ess ed M r .K ennethDur ant, 228 South Nineteenth Str eet, Philadelphia, Pa. This blue envelope was in tur nsealed ins ide the white envelope attached.

M os t of the eff ects of M r . Bobr off cons is ted of machinery catalogues , specif ications ,corr espondence r egar ding the shipment of var ious equipment, etc., to Russ ian por ts .

M r . Bobr off was closely ques tioned by A gent Davis and the cus toms author ities , anda detailed r epor t of same will be sent to Washington.

V ery tr uly your s ,G. F. L amb,

Divis ion Super intendent

LETT ER T O KENNET H DUR A NT

Dear K enneth: Thanks f or your mos t welcome letter . I have f elt very much cut off andhemmed in, a f eeling which has been shar ply emphas ized by r ecent exper iences . I

have f elt distr e

ssed at inability to f or ce a diff er ent attitude towar d the bur eau and tosomehow get f unds to you. To cable $5,000 to you, as was done las t week, is but a

sorry joke. I hope the pr oposal to sell gold in A mer ica, about which we have beencabling r ecently, will soon be f ound pr acticable. Y es ter day we cabled asking if youcould sell 5,000,000 r ubles at a minimum of 45 cents , pr esent market r ate being51.44 cents . That would net at leas t $2,225,000. L 's pr es ent need is $2,000,000 to payNiels J uul & Co., in Chr is tiania, f or the f ir s t par t of the coal shipment f r om A mer icatoV ar doe, M ur mansk, and A r changel. The f ir s t ship is near ing V ar doe and the secondlef t New Y ork about July 28. A ltogether , Niels Juul & Co., or r ather the Nor ges ' Bank,of Chr is tiania, on their and our account, hold $11,000,000 gold r ubles of our s ,which they themselves br ought f r om Reval to Chr is tiania, as secur ity f or our coalor der and the necess ary tonnage, but the off er s f or pur chase of this gold that theyhave so f ar been able to get ar e very poor , the bes t being $575 per kilo, wher eas the r ate off er edby the A mer ican M int or Tr easury Depar tment is now $644.42, and cons ider ing thelar ge sum involved it would be a shame to let it go at too heavy a loss . I hope that er eyou get this you will have been able to eff ect the sale, at the same time thus getting a



him, but no, he said he had nothing to wr ite about that I might per haps send duplicates

of our r ecent cables to M ar tens .

K ameneff pass ed by her e on a Br itish des tr oyer en r oute to L ondon, and didn't s topoff her e at all, and K r ass in went dir ect f r om Stockholm. Of the negotiations , alliedand Polish, and of the gener al s ituation you know about as much as we do her e. L 'snegotiations with the Italians have f inally r esulted in es tablishing of mutualr epr es entation. Our r epr esentative, V or ovsky, has alr eady gone to Italy and their r epr es entative, M . Gr avina, is en r oute to Russ ia. We have jus t sent two ship loads of Russ ian wheat to Italy f r om Odess a.

Give my r egar ds to the people of your cir cle that I know. With all good wishes to you.

Sincer ely your s ,Bill

The batch of letter s you s ent — 5 Cr anbour ne Road, Char lton cum Har dy,M anches ter , has not yet arr ived.

L 's r ecommendation to M oscow, s ince M . asked to move to Canada, is that M . shouldbe appointed ther e, and that N., af ter having some weeks in M oscow acquaintinghimself f ir s t hand, should be appointed r epr esentative to A mer ica.

L . is shar ply cr itical of the bur eau f or giving too eas ily visés and r ecommendations .He was obvious ly sur pr ised and incensed when B. r eached her e with contr actssecur ed in M oscow upon s tr ength of letter s given to him by M . The later mess agef r om M . evidently didn't r each M oscow. What L . plans to do about it I don't know. Iwould sugges t that M . cable in cipher his r ecommendation to L . in this matter . L .would have nothing to do with B. her e. A wkwar d s ituation may be cr eated.L . ins tanced also the Rabinoff r ecommendation.

Two envelopes,

M

r . K

enneth Dur ant, 228 South Nineteenth Str eet, Philadelphia, Pa.,U.S. A .

SOURCE: U.S. State Depar tment Decimal File, 316-119-458/64.

NOT E: IDENT IFIC AT ION OF INDIV IDU A LS

William (Bill) L .BOBROFF

Soviet cour ier and agent. Oper atedBobr off For eign Tr ading and Engineer ing Company of M ilwaukee. Invented the voting sys tem used in the Wiscons in L egilatur e.

K enneth DUR A NT A ide to Colonel House; see text.

SHOEN Employed by Inter national OxygenCo., owned by Heller , a pr ominentf inancier and Communis t.

EWER Soviet agent, r epor ter f or LondonDaily Her ald.

KL ISHK O Soviet agent in Scandinavia

NUORTEVA A lso known as A lexander Nyber g,f ir s t Soviet r epr esentative in UnitedStates ; see text.

Sir Bas ilTHOM PSON



Chief of Br itish Intelligence

"L " L ITV INOFF.

"H" Wilf r ed Humphr ies , ass ociated withM ar tens and L itvinoff , member of Red Cr oss in Russ ia.

Bolshevik commiss ar of tr ade andK R A SSIN

labor , f or mer head of Siemens- Schuker t in Russ ia.

COMM ENT S

This letter sugges ts close ties between Bobr off and Dur ant.

DOCUM ENT NO . 9DESCRIPT ION

M emor andum r ef err ing to a r eques t f r om Davison (M or gan par tner) to ThomasThacher (Wall Str eet attor ney ass ociated with the M or gans) and pass ed to DwightM orr ow (M or gan par tner), A pr il 13, 1918.

DOCUM ENT

The Berkeley Hotel, L ondon A pr il 13th, 1918.

Hon. Walter H. Page, A mer ican A mbass ador to England,L ondon.

Dear Sir :

Sever al days ago I r eceived a r eques t f r om M r . H. P. Davison, Chair man of the War Council of the A mer ican Red Cr oss , to conf er with L or d Nor thcliff e r egar ding thes ituation in Russ ia, and then to pr oceed to Par is f or other conf er ences . Owing to L or dNor thcliff e's illness I have not been able to conf er with him, but am leaving with M r .Dwight W . M orr ow, who is now s taying at the Berkeley Hotel, a memor andum of thes ituation which M r . M orr ow will submit to L or d Nor thcliff e on the latter 's r etur n toL ondon.

For your inf or mation and the inf or mation of the Depar tment I enclose to you,her ewith, a copy of the memor andum.

Respectf ully your s ,[sgd.] Thomas D. Thacher .

COMM ENT

L or d Nor thcliff e had jus t been appointed dir ector of pr opaganda. This is inter es ting inthe light of William B. Thompson's subs idizing of Bolshevik pr opaganda and hisconnection with the M or gan-Rockef eller inter es ts .

DOCUM ENT NO . 10



DESCRIPT ION

This document is a memor andum f r om D.C. Poole, Divis ion of Russ ian A ff air s inthe Depar tment of State, to the secr etary of s tate concer ning a conver sation with M r .M . Oudin of Gener al Electr ic.

DOCUM ENT

M ay 29, 1922

M r . Secr etary:

M r . Oudin, of the Gener al Electr ic Company, inf ormed me this mor ning that hiscompany f eels that the time is poss ibly appr oaching to begin conver sations withK r ass in r elative to a r esumption of business in Russ ia. I told him that it is the vi ew of the Depar tment that the cour se to be pur sued in this matter by A mer ican f ir ms is aques tion of business judgment and that the Depar tment would cer tainly inter pose noobstacles to an A mer ican f ir m r esuming oper ations in Russ ia on any bas is which thef ir m consider ed pr acticable.

He said that negotiations ar e now in pr ogr ess between the Gener al Electr ic Companyand the A llgemeine Elektr izitats Gesellschaf t f or a r esumption of the wor ki ngagr eement which they had bef or e the war . He expects that the agr eement to be madewill include a pr ovis ion f or cooper ation of Russ ia.

Respectf ully,DCP D.C. Poole

COMM ENT

This i

s an impor tant document a

s

it r elate

sto the f or thcoming r e

sumption of r elations with Russ ia by an impor tant A mer ican company. It illustr ates that the

initiative came f r om the company, not f r om the State Depar tment, and that noconsider ation was

given to the eff ect of tr ansf er of Gener al Electr ic technology to a self -declar edenemy This GE agreement was the firs t s tep down a road of major technical transfers

Antony C. Sutton - Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (1974)

Documents

Transcript of Antony C. Sutton - Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (1974)