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Book: History's Greatest Heist: The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks

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mike

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Jan 6, 2009, 4:55:57 PM1/6/09

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So be forewarned that the schemes described in Sean McMeekin's
History's Greatest Heist: The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks
(Yale University Press, $38, 302 pages), despite a short-time success,
ultimately ended in a national disaster for the USSR.

Mr. McMeekin demonstrates how the Bolsheviks, who seized control of
Russia 1917-1922, resorted to outright banditry to finance their
resistance to domestic and foreign enemies and become a European
power. The role of law, of course, was nonexistent; the Bolsheviks
ruled by revolutionary decree and force.

Thus, when employees of the state bank refused to open their vaults to
looters, officers were seized and held hostage until they handed over
the keys. Within a few months, banks were simply abolished and their
holdings declared to be the property of the new Bolshevik state.

One especially draconian decree directed that "all holders of safe
deposit boxes are under obligation to appear at the bank upon notice,
bringing the keys to their ... boxes." Anyone who did not appear
within three days "will be considered as having maliciously declined
to comply with the law of search."

The manager of the Russian and English Bank of Petrograd, reporting to
his London superiors about the various confiscatory decrees, wrote, "I
could continue this list of interesting financial experiments for some
time yet, but this may be sufficient to show you that we find
ourselves in a lunatic asylum..."

The confiscation soon was nationwide. As Mr. McMeekin writes, "...
armed detachments fanned out across Russia ... breaking open safe
deposit boxes in 'nationalized' banks, withdrawing hundreds of
millions of tsarist rubles from other people's saving accounts,
looting landed estates, churches and monasteries, and prying precious
stones and other valuables from the bloodied bodies of anyone who
dared resist Bolshevik confiscation."

Given that the Bolsheviks repudiated foreign debts, Western nations
initially were cool towards recognizing the new regime. But greed
prevailed. Some Western central banks initially balked at receiving
gold ingots bearing the stamp of Imperial Russia, not wishing to deal
in what one banker called "stolen property." No matter. Sweden agreed
to melt down the gold and recast it into ingots with a special stamp.

In Britain, the war minister, Winston Churchill, was perhaps the most
adamant foe of recognizing the communist government, declaring, "One
might as well legalize sodomy as recognize the Bolsheviks." But Prime
Minster David Lloyd George was more complacent, realizing that British
businessmen were eager to satisfy Soviet orders for steam locomotives
and other machinery and coal and wool valued in the billions of
dollars. Lloyd George even turned a blind eye to Soviet inflammatory
propaganda in Britain and elsewhere. He ultimately signed an accord
that "sealed the transformation of the Bolshevik regime from a
beleaguered conspiracy of political activists into a wealthy criminal
oligarchy which could draw on Western capital markets to fund its war
with its own people." In short order, the Soviets were ordering
military aircraft and other tools of war.

America was not blameless. The steel magnate (and treasury secretary)
Andrew Mellon alone paid millions of dollars for Old Masters paintings
looted from the Hermitage. This stolen property is now displayed for
tourists in the National Gallery in Washington.

Richard Pipes, the Soviet historian at Harvard, rightly terms Mr.
McMeekin's book "the financial history of the Bolshevik revolution."
An intricate read that requires some attention, but an important part
of the Soviet story.

That a book such as "History's Greatest Heist" exists is due in large
part to the Yale University Press, which negotiated rights to publish
long-secret Soviet documents in its Annals of Communism series. To
date, 25 volumes have been published (including Mr. McMeekin's work)
and many more are in the pipeline. How Yale gained access to these
files is the subject of Jonathan Brent's " (Atlas & Co./W. W. Norton,
304 pages). Mr. Brent founded the Annals project in 1991 and is the
editorial director of Yale University Press.

His book commences with his arrival in Moscow in 1992 to compete with
publishers from many nations eager to take advantage of Boris
Yeltsin's order that previously secret archives of the Soviet state
and party should be opened. Mr. Brent immediately whetted the interest
of archive bureaucrats by saying that Yale would pay equal sums to
Russians and Americans working on the project; his mention of the word
"royalties" was the key to his success. His patience in negotiating
with suspicious and lethargic officials is the heart of the story.
Volumes in the series are published in both English and Russian
language editions.

Of perhaps equal interest is his depiction of daily life in Moscow
after the collapse of communism. He begins with the "sour, sullen
stench" of the Moscow airport, where the ventilation system has not
worked for days, and the omnipresent aroma of gasoline and grease.
Overpowering all is the "smell of Moscow - flat, unwashed, sour - an
accumulation of fifty years without sunlight or cleansing breeze."

During repeat visits to Moscow in succeeding years, Mr. Brent noted
that the wealth of Putin-era plutocrats has not trickled down to the
masses. Property values are higher even than in New York but "outside
the center [of Moscow] one feels the oppressive weight of years of
destitution and neglect in the unkempt squares and shabby high-rises
whose inner courtyards are lined with graffiti-covered doorways, where
neglected children's play equipment rusts amid broken glass and
twisted wire..." Racism is rampant, especially anti-Semitism. Crude
images of the "international Jew" are common in publications.

And, even more sobering, many Russians retain fond memories of Stalin
and his era - seemingly oblivious to the documented evidence that he
bears responsibility for more than 20 million deaths. Mr. Yeltsin's
goal in opening the archives was to present the Russian people the
truth about his atrocities. Apparently the message has gone unheeded.
A book on white supremacy by David Duke, the Louisiana Klan figure, is
sold in the lobby of the Russian State Duma. None of the Russian-
language works in the Annals series are seen.

One note: The title is a trifle misleading, for Mr. Brent gives only a
cursory look at the "Stalin archives." The meat of the material from
his archives is found in various Annals volumes, which are listed on
the Yale University Press Web site.