Alexander Lvovich Parvus, born Israel Lazarevich Gelfand (8 September 1867 – 12 December 1924) and sometimes called Helphand in the literature on the Russian Revolution, was a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

theoretician, publicist, and controversial activist in the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

Biography

Early life

Israel Lazarevich Gelfand was born to a

Lithuanian Jewish {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...

family on 8 September 1867 in the

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

of Berazino in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, (in present-day

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

). Although little is known of Israel's early childhood, the Gelfand family belonged to the lower-middle class, with his father working as an artisan of some sort — perhaps as a

locksmith Locksmithing is the work of creating and bypassing locks. Locksmithing is a traditional trade and in many countries requires completion of an apprenticeship. The level of formal education legally required varies by country, ranging from no formal ...

or as a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

. When Israel was a small boy, a fire damaged the family's home in Berazino, prompting a move to the city of

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

, Russian Empire, (present-day

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), the hometown of Israel's paternal grandfather. Gelfand attended gymnasium in Odessa and received private tutoring in the humanities. He also read widely on his own, including material by the iconic Ukrainian poet

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

, the journalist Nikolai Mikhailovsky, and the political satirist

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...

, which led the young Gelfand to begin to question the legitimacy of the Tsarist Empire.

Revolutionary

In 1886, the 19-year-old Gelfand first travelled from Russia to

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It was there that Gelfand was first exposed to the writings of

Alexander Herzen Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the precursor of Russian socialism and one of the main precursors of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudo ...

as well as the revolutionary literature of the day. He returned to Russia briefly the following year but he became the subject of official scrutiny by the tsarist secret police and was forced to leave the country again for his safety.Zeman and Scharlau, ''The Merchant of Revolution,'' pg. 14. He would remain abroad for more than a decade. Returning to Switzerland, in the autumn of 1888 Gelfand enrolled at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

, where he studied

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

. Gelfand would remain at the university for the next three years, graduating with a doctorate degree in July 1891.Zeman and Scharlau, ''The Merchant of Revolution,'' pg. 18. Gelfand's professors were largely hostile to his

approach to economics, however, and difficulty in his oral examination resulted in a rider being attached to the degree which rendered it the equivalent of a third class degree. Gelfand chose not to pursue an academic career but rather sought to begin a political career which would both provide him financial support and serve the cause of

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

.Zeman and Scharlau, ''The Merchant of Revolution,'' pg. 19. Alienated from the backwardness of agrarian Russia and the limited political horizons there, Gelfand moved to

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

and took over the editorship of the socialist newspaper ''Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung''. He enlisted the German revolutionary

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

as a contributor. From 28 January to 6 March 1898, Parvus used his newspaper to run a series of polemical articles attacking the German Marxist

Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he has been both condemned and praised as a "Revisionism (Marxism), revisi ...

, who had queried Marx's prediction that the collapse of capitalism was inevitable, and advocated a non-violent reforms as the route to socialism. Giving his series the title 'Bernstein's Overthrow of Socialism', he attacked Bernstein in personal terms, as someone who had deserted Marxism. He was in a minority within the SDP, most of whose leaders were shocked by his intemperate language, but he was backed by Rosa Luxemburg, and the leading Russian Marxist,

Georgi Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov ( rus, Георгий Валентинович Плеханов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, ...

. On 25 September 1898, Parvus and his assistant editor, Julian Marchlewski were expelled from

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, and settled in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, handing control of ''Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung'' to Rosa Luxemburg. In Munich, he founded the publishing house that introduced the work of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

to Germany. In 1900, Parvus met

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

for the first time, in Munich, each admiring the other's theoretical works. Parvus encouraged Lenin to begin publishing his revolutionary paper ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

''.Александр Парвус (Израиль Гельфанд)
" Khronos, Accessed 27 September 2009. Parvus' attempts to become a German citizen proved fruitless. He once commented in a letter to his German friend

Wilhelm Liebknecht Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Russian Revolution of 1905

After the outbreak of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

, Parvus wrote a series of articles for ''Iskra'', beginning in February 1904, in which he forecast the decline of the nation state as capitalist competition made states more interdependent, that there would be a series of wars as states fought, and that there would be a political upheaval in Russia that would 'shake the bourgeois world.' for survival. Shortly after Bloody Sunday, when troops fired on a peaceful crowd in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, setting off the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...

, the young

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

came with his

wife A wife (: wives) is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment; or until death, depending on the kind of marriage. On t ...

to stay at Parvus's home in Munich, and showed him the manuscript of a pamphlet, to which Parvus added a preface, in which Trotsky developed Parvus's ideas, adding the possibility that revolution in Russia could bring a "workers' government" to power, contrary to the standard Marxist view that Russia would need to go through a phase after the overthrow of the monarchy in which was exercised by a government controlled by the

Bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

. This was known as the theory of permanent revolution. Trotsky later acknowledged Parvus's influence over him. He wrote: There were broad discussions on the questions of " permanent revolution" within the social democratic movement in the period leading up to 1917. In October 1905, Parvus returned to St Petersburg, where he helped Trotsky take control of the daily paper, ''Russkaya Gazeta'', and cofounded with Trotsky and

Julius Martov Yuliy Osipovich Tsederbaum (24 November 1873 – 4 April 1923), better known as Julius Martov, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and a leader of the Mensheviks, a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). A close ...

the daily ''Nachalo'' (The Start). Arrested in April 1906, he was visited by Rosa Luxemburg in the

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress () is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early ...

Sentenced to three years' exile in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, Parvus escaped and emigrated to Germany, where he published a book about his experiences called ''In the Russian Bastille during the Revolution''. ParvusTrotskiDeich

Maxim Gorky affair

Before he left for Russia, Parvus struck a deal with Maxim Gorky to produce his play ''

The Lower Depths ''The Lower Depths'' (, literally: ''At the bottom'') is a play by Russian dramatist Maxim Gorky written in 1902 and produced by the Moscow Arts Theatre on December 18, 1902, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski. It became his first ma ...

''. According to the agreement, the majority of the play's proceeds were to go to the Russian Social Democratic Party (and approximately 25% to Gorky himself). Parvus' failure to pay (despite the fact that the play had over 500 showings) caused him to be accused of stealing 130,000

German gold mark The German mark ( ; sign: ℳ︁) was the currency of the German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the pfennig (₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the gold stand ...

s. Gorky threatened to sue, but

convinced Gorky to keep the quarrel inside the party's own court. Eventually, Parvus paid back Gorky, but his reputation in party circles was damaged.

Istanbul period

Soon afterwards Parvus moved to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, where he lived for five years, from 1910 until 1914. There he set up an arms trading company which profited handsomely during the

Balkan War The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the ...

. He became the financial and political advisor of the

Committee of Union and Progress The Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, also translated as the Society of Union and Progress; , French language, French: ''Union et Progrès'') was a revolutionary group, secret society, and political party, active between 1889 and 1926 ...

. In 1912 he was made editor of '' Türk Yurdu'', their daily newspaper. He worked closely with Enver, Talât,

Cemal Pasha Ahmed Djemal (; ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha or Cemâl Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As an officer of the II Corps, he was ...

—and Finance Minister Cavid Bey. His firm dealt with the deliveries of foodstuffs for the Ottoman army and he was a business partner of the

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

concern, of

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

, and of the famous arms dealer Basil Zaharov. Arms dealings with

at war time gave basis to the theory that Alexander Parvus was also a British intelligence asset. During his Istanbul period, Parvus also cooperated with the pro-

CUP A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

newspaper '' Le Jeune Turc'', whose editor-in-chief was

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky; 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940) was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in O ...

Soviet relations

Russian Revolution

While in the Ottoman Empire, Parvus became close with German ambassador Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim who was known to be partial to establishing revolutionary fifth columns among the allies. Consequently, Parvus offered his plan via Baron von Wangenheim to the

German General Staff The German General Staff, originally the Prussian General Staff and officially the Great General Staff (), was a full-time body at the head of the Prussian Army and later, the Imperial German Army, German Army, responsible for the continuous stu ...

: the paralyzing of Russia via general strike, financed by the German government (which, at the time, was at war with Russia and its allies). Von Wangenheim sent Parvus to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

where the latter arrived on the 6 March 1915 and presented a 20-page plan titled ''A preparation of massive political strikes in Russia'' to the German government.

Copenhagen operation

Some accuse Parvus of having funded Lenin while in Switzerland. Other authors, however, are skeptical. Scharlau and Zeman conclude in their biography of Parvus that there was no cooperation between the two, declaring that "Lenin refused the German offer of aid." Parvus's bank account shows that he only paid out a total of 25,600 francs in the period between his arrival in Switzerland in May 1915 and the February Revolution of 1917. Parvus did little in Switzerland, Alfred Erich Senn concludes. Austrian intelligence thought Parvus gave money to Russian emigres' newspapers in Paris. However, in the beginning of 1915 the sources of funding became clearer to Lenin and the other Paris emigrés, whereupon they rejected further support. Harold Shukman concluded, "funds were plainly not flowing into Lenin's hands" Parvus placed his bets on Lenin, as the latter was not only a radical but willing to accept the sponsorship of the Tsar's wartime enemy, Germany. The two met in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

in May 1915 and agreed to collaboration through their organizations, though Lenin remained very careful never to get associated with Parvus in public. There is no certain proof that they ever met face to face again, although there are indications that such a meeting may well have occurred on 13 April 1917, during Lenin's stop-over in Stockholm. Parvus assiduously worked at keeping Lenin's confidence. However, Lenin kept him at arm's length to disguise the changing roles of both men, Parvus' involvement with German intelligence and his own liaisons with his old ally, who was not respected any more among the socialists after his years in Turkey and after becoming a millionaire entrepreneur. German intelligence set up Parvus' financial network via offshore operations in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, setting up relays for German money to get to Russia via fake financial transactions between front organizations. A large part of the transactions of these companies were genuine, but those served to bury the transfer of money to the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

, a strategy made feasible by the weak and overburdened fiscal and customs offices in Scandinavia, which were inadequate for the booming black market in these countries during the war. It is still debated whether the money with which this financial network operated was actually of German origin. The evidence published by

Alexander Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early November 1917 ( N.S.). After th ...

's Government in preparation for a trial scheduled for October (November) 1917 was recently reexamined and found to be either inconclusive or outright forgery.Semion Lyandres
''The Bolsheviks' "German Gold" Revisited: An Inquiry into the 1917 Accusations'' (''See also Sisson Documents'')

responded to allegations that Lenin had colluded with Parvus or German intelligence in his return to St PetersburgPößneck, Ehrenfried ''Lenin als Kontrahent von Parvus im Jahr 1917.'' Schkeuditz : GNN-Verlag, 1997. ; D. Stove
The question about Parvus
(1991). in his '' History of the Russian Revolution''.

Letter by Lenin

In a 1922 letter to

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

, Lenin referred to Parvus as a "scoundrel": "To Comrade Molotov (for members of the Politbureau) I propose that an inquiry be made as to who was responsible for publishing in our newspapers the other day a telegram giving a summary of Parvus’s writings. When the guilty party has been ascertained, I propose that the ROSTA manager of that department be severely reprimanded and the journalist directly responsible should be dismissed, for only a perfect fool or a whiteguard could use our newspapers for advertising such a scoundrel as Parvus."

Death

Alexander Parvus died in

on 12 December 1924, from a cerebrovascular accident, also known as a stroke. His body was cremated and interred in a Berlin cemetery. After his death, Konrad Haenisch wrote in his memoir: "This man possessed the ablest brains of the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

". Haenisch, Konrad: ''Parvus: Ein Blatt der Erinnerung.'' Berlin, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, 1925 . During his lifetime, Alexander Parvus' reputation among his revolutionary peers suffered as a result of the Maxim Gorky affair (see above) and the fact that he was in effect a German government agent. At the same time both his business skills and revolutionary ideas were appreciated and relied upon by Russian and German revolutionaries and Ottoman's Young Turks. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in Russia for obvious political reasons his role was denied and he himself vilified. This continued during

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's era and sometimes had anti-semitic overtones to it. In Germany however he was considered favorably. His name is often used in modern political debates in Russia.

Family

Parvus left no documents after his death and all of his savings disappeared. He was married at least three times. In 1906, Rosa Luxemburg wrote

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian Marxism, Marxist theorist. A leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International, Kautsky advocated orthodox Marxism, a ...

saying: "Wife number three is here in St Petersburg" - just after his second wife had fled an anti-semitic

Pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

, and had arrived in Warsaw, destitute. One of his wives, Tatiana Berman, was born in Odessa in 1868 and died there in 1917, aged 49. Their son, Yevgeny (Gnedin), was born in Dresden in 1898. Although the Soviet authorities refused to allow Parvus to return to Russia, both his surviving sons, Yevgeny Gnedin and Leon Helfand, were allowed to settle in the USSR, and became Soviet diplomats. Yevgeny Gnedin was head of the press department at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, at the time of his arrest on 11 May 1939, which coincided with the dismissal of the foreign minister,

Maxim Litvinov Maxim Maximovich Litvinov (; born Meir Henoch Wallach-Finkelstein; 17 July 1876 – 31 December 1951) was a Russian Empire, Russian revolutionary and prominent Soviet Union, Soviet statesman and diplomat who served as Ministry of Foreign Aff ...

. He refused to confess, despite being tortured by the police chief,

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...

and his deputy, Bogdan Kobulov. He survived years in the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

, and wrote memoirs "Catastrophe and Rebirth" and in "Exit from the Labyrinth" describing his experience. He died in 1983.

In popular culture

He was portrayed by English actor Michael Gough in the 1974 BBC mini-series ''

Fall of Eagles Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March (Southern Hemisphere ...

'', covering the history of the pre-

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

period. Günter Lamprecht played the title role in the West German television film ''Ein Mann namens Parvus'' (1984). In 1988 Parvus was portrayed by English actor

Timothy West Timothy Lancaster West (20 October 1934 – 12 November 2024) was an English actor with a long and varied career across theatre, film, and television. He began acting in repertory theatres in the 1950s before making his London stage debut in 19 ...

in the film '' Lenin...The Train''. A fictionalized version of him as a German

mastermind behind the new world order is portrayed by the Armenian Actor Kevork Malikyan in the 2017 Turkish television series '' Payitaht: Abdülhamid'' about the struggles and intelligence of the Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

in keeping the declining empire together.

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parvus 1867 births 1924 deaths People from Byerazino People from Igumensky Uyezd Belarusian Jews Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Mensheviks 19th-century people from the Russian Empire Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Jewish socialists Marxist theorists People of the Russian Revolution Arms traders World War I spies for Germany Bolshevik finance Expatriates from the Russian Empire in the Ottoman Empire Young Turks