Sunday, November 18, 2012

Katkov, Germany money and Lenin, in Rabinowitch

Despite Rabinowitch's claim that "Lenin seems to have known of the German money [surreptitiously expended by the German government during WWI to foment internal instability within Russia by funding dissident groups, such as the Bolsheviks, among others]," there is absolutely zero evidence to substantiate this claim. Rabinowitch cites the work of Katkov on this score. Katkov presents zero evidence that Lenin was ever aware of money from the German government being funneled to the Bolsheviks, nor that he willingly accepted money from the German government. See comment from Alexander Dallin on Katkov piece, as well as links below. At most, the Bolsheviks openly accepted monetary donations from the German SPD, which was a part of the German government, but never from the Kaiser, the German secret police, or any other such nonsense. Also, while it is possible that the Bolsheviks may have received money from opaque sources that were in fact, unbeknownst to them, agents of the German government, there is no evidence documenting either (a) how much money this amounted to and whether it was a significant sum or not, or (b) that the Bolsheviks were aware of this source.   

http://books.google.com/books?id=HzRiDJnTTG4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false 
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2Zdv5hwi_o6b0h6UFUtekhUdFk
http://www.yamaguchy.com/library/pearson/katkov.html
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/11.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/1976/lenin2/ch15.htm#s4
https://www.solidarity-us.org/node/2360
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisson_Documents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Parvus
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch27.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/7thconf/27b.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/05b.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/06a.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/07c.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/08a.htm#fwV25E076
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jul/19a.htm#bkV25E071
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/aug/01.htm