Background
Helfand, Aleksandr was born in 1867 in Berezino near Minsk.
Helfand, Aleksandr was born in 1867 in Berezino near Minsk.
Studied at Basel Univesity, 1887, where he met Plekhanov, Zasulich, and Akselrod and became a Marxist. Studied at Basel Univesity, 1887, where he met Plekhanov, Zasulich, and Akselrod and became a Marxist. Graduated in philosophy, 1891.
Moved to Stuttgart, collaborating with Kautskii and Klara Zetkin. Editor of Arbeiterzeitung in Dresden, 1897, collaborated with Marchlewski and Rosa Luxemburg. Moved to Munich where he edited Iskra with Lenin.
During the 1905 Revolution, moved to Petersburg, and with Trotsky became the real leader of the revolution in Russia. Invented the concept of Soviet power. Arrested, spent several months in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petersburg, exiled to Siberia, but escaped on the way and went to Germany.
Became Gorkii’s literary agent, collecting his royalties all over the world. Kept most of the money for himself, accused of embezzlement (Gorkii’s money was then one of the main incomes of the Bolshevik Party) condemned by a party court (including Bebel, Kautski and Deutsch), and had to leave Germany in 1907. Went to Vienna, and from there to Turkey.
Lived in Constantinople, 1910-1915, and became the middleman between the Germans and the Young Turks government, handling very large sums of German money. Became personally very rich in the process and soon turned to an even more profitable business, becoming the main German expert on subversion in Russia through revolutionary channels. Moved to neutral Denmark, making Copenhagen the capital of his growing business empire and founding the Institute for Research into the Causes and Results of the World War.
Members of the Institute were, among others, Ganetskii (Fuerstenberg), sent by Lenin (and later Radek), and Uritskii (later head of the Cheka). According to The Merchant of Revolution, by Zeman and Scharlau, OUP, 1965, he was instrumental in acquiring German help to transport Lenin and his group to Russia in spring of 1917, and in channeling to the Bolsheviks very large amounts of money from German government sources, which played a crucial role in the Bolshevik victory. Just before the German defeat in 1918, he moved to Switzerland, and then returned to Germany in November 1920.