The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 [Hardcover]

Sean McMeekin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300098472 | ISBN-13: 978-0300098471 | Publication Date: January 1, 2004

A committed communist and a tireless con man, Lenin's friend and the Soviet Union's most persuasive myth-maker, Willy Munzenberg changed the course of European history. Willy Munzenberg - an Old Bolshevik who was also a self-promoting tycoon - became one of the most influential communist operatives in Europe between the World Wars. He created a variety of front groups that recruited well-known political and cultural figures to work on behalf of the Soviet Union and its causes, and he ran an international media empire that churned out enormous amounts of propaganda and raised money for Communist concerns. Sean McMeekin tells Munzenberg's story, arguing that his financial chicanery and cynical propaganda efforts weakened the non-communist left, enraged the right and helped feed a cycle that culminated in Nazism. Drawing extensively on recently opened Moscow archives, McMeekin describes how Munzenberg parlayed his friendship with Lenin into a personal fortune and how Munzenberg's mysterious financial manipulations outraged social democrats and lent rhetorical ammunition to the Nazis. His book sheds light on comintern finances, propaganda strategy, the use of front organizations to infiltrate non-communist circles and the breakdown of democracy in the Weimar republic.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] splendid new book." -- R.J. Stove, The American Conservative

From the Back Cover

"An impressive piece of work, clearly the most detailed and thorough account of the life and machinations of an important Communist functionary."-Harvey Klehr, coauthor of The Secret World of American Communism and The Soviet World of American Communism

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300098472
• ISBN-13: 978-0300098471
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Biography About a Forgotten Propagandist, June 28, 2004

By 

Charles J. Rector (Woodstock, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 (Hardcover)

Although he has been largely forgotten, Willy Munzenberg was an important figure during the years between the two world wars. He was a leading propagandist for the Soviet Union in both Europe and North America. However, he was not particularly skillful at propaganda, with the result that his efforts constituted a waste of precious Communist funds. He also lacked political acumen as shown by the fact that he believed that Adolf Hitler had no chance for victory in the Weimar Republic.

However, he was able to persuade several major European business leaders to donate money to the Communist cause. The book did not adequately explain just why these businessmen would contribute to a cause dedicated to their demise.

After spending about a decade and a half wasting the money supplied to him by the Soviet Union, Munzenberg came to something of a break with Moscow. The book really did not explain this break very well.

During the last four years of his life, 1936-1940, Munzenberg increasingly distanced himself from Moscow and his rhetoric and writings took a decidedly more anti-Soviet nature. He even engaged in a correspondence with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's chief rival, Leon Trotsky. In 1940, following the conquest of France by the Nazis, Munzenberg was found hanging from a tree. It is still not known if it was a suicide or a murder.

This is a decent biography of a forgotten propagandist for a now dead cause. It is very well-written and is very well-sourced. However, there are some major flaws to it. For example, the book fails to explain why Munzenberg consistently made western Europe his main focus even though he had much greater success in fund raising and in converting writers and others to the Communist cause in North America. Also, the book does not explain why Munzenberg stayed in France even when it became clear that country was doomed to a Nazi takeover. Finally, the book does not explain why the Soviets continued provide Munzenberg with major funding for Munzenberg's continual failures in both promoting Communism and in opposing the rise of Fascism.

With all this in mind, The Red Millionaire rates a rating of 4 out of 5.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging portrait of a colorful Red, October 20, 2004

By 

N. Watson (La Jolla, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 (Hardcover)

After reading this book, I was surprised I hadn't previously taken notice of the "Red Millionaire," Willi Munzenberg. Sean McMeekin brings to light one of the most colorful characters of the International Communist movement, and the most successful member of Lenin's circle of old Bolshevik friends to remain independent of Moscow's direct control.

Willi Munzenberg (1889-1940), according to McMeekin, was a man of many opposing virtues and vices, and his rollercoaster career in the Party reflected these contrary impulses. His initial Communist ideals were unquestionable; he related intimately with the worker class and was trusted by nearly all those around him; he was creative, articulate, undeniably intelligent. At the same time, he was an egotist, spendthrift, confidence man, and publicity hound. Munzenberg never questioned his own ability or ideas, and failure after failure in his career failed to change this. In retrospect, many of his projects glorified their author rather than the Party he represented to the West. By the time of his untoward death in 1940, the reader feels that the international Communist cause may have been better off had they found a less interesting and more pedestrian spokesperson.

Overall, the Red Millionaire is an excellent read, engagingly written and filled with detailed psychological portraits of many of the important Communists after WWI. This book is a breath of fresh air compared to the many impenetrable texts describing the same period. I highly recommend this book for anyone else interested in Communist history and the interwar period in which Munzenberg operated. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars.

11 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile reading, although annoying at times., April 17, 2004

By 

Raymond Jensen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940 (Hardcover)

This book is a biography of Willy Minzenberg, who was a famous German propagandist for the communist cause in the years between the two great wars of the previous century. Although the man shilled for a cause which led to the deaths of millions of people, in reality he was not as successful as he or Moscow had hoped. In fact, Munzenberg and his projects were essentially a "money pit" for the Bolsheviks. Had there been a more effective means for them to espouse their collectivist cause, the Bolsheviks may have been more successful in Germany and the rest of Europe, perhaps even successfully establishing a Soviet German state before Hitler was given power in 1933, as they wanted. This is the most important point you should get from the Soviet-Munzenberg relationship, and McMeekin illustrates this point well.

On the other hand, McMeekin writes from a somewhat American elitist, naive point of view. You know the type, every other word out of said naive American elitist's mouth is "democracy" or "justice" when they have no idea that their own nation is not even a democracy, but rather a republic (democracy means "mob rule") and neither would they know what justice was, even if it bit them on the leg. A leftist might read this book thinking that McMeekin is an arrogant capitalist since throughout the book, McMeekin denounces communist principles and practices. On the other hand, he quite often, especially with regard to American communists and sympathizers, apologizes for leftists by calling their efforts to support Munzenberg and other Bolsheviks as "naive." At one point, he even calls oil baron Armand Hammer "naive" for his collaboration with communists. This, in spite of the fact that Hammer was the son of a communist, and most likely was educated by his father in sympathy to collectivism. Throughout the book, McMeekin documents one Eupoean capitalist after another funding communist causes, however in these cases he does not call them naive. Of course they are not naive, and neither are the American capitalists when they support collectivism. Collectivism is a great benefit to the capitalist, especially when it helps him establish a monopoly; eliminating his competitors. And what is any bigger monopolization of wealth and power than communism, moreover a global soviet state?

Another thing in this book which got on my nerves was in chapter 15, where McMeekin makes the claim: "The production crisis [during the depression] was exacerbated further by the doctrinal commitment of Western Governments to the gold standard which left central bank officials with little room to maneuver and keep credit tight." What McMeekin is saying here, whether he is aware of it or not, is that the central planners should have been given more freedom to undermine the worth of their respective nations' currency for the purpose of funding large government projects to bail their respective governments out of situations that they themselves created in the first place. When a government or bank "goes off a standard" (e.g. gold or silver) it is given the ability to print as much money as it likes. The worth of that nation's currency declines as an immediate result. So when a dollar in your bank account becomes worth only $0.97 in one year, keep in mind that it's worth is not just disappearing in to thin air, it is being transferred into the coffers of your government and the private banking monopoly known as the "Federal Reserve." Yes, in a manner of speaking, inflation is the effect of a hidden form of taxation.

Another aspect of the author's writing which makes me label it naive is his branding of the communists "leftists" and the nazis "rightists." McMeekin is by no means the only author "guilty" of this habit, nevertheless it is naive to call the nazis "right wing" when in fact the full name of the Nazi party is NSDAP, meaning "National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeits-Partei" or in English, "National Socialist German Worker's Party." I don't know about you, but this name does not sound terribly "right wing" to me. Considering how the communists and nazis were competing against one another over the same rabble before 1933, and how even some nazis like Gregor Strasser were communistic in idealogy, the distinctions "left" and "right" become even more meaningless in this scenario. Don't forget also the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact between Hitler and Stalin and their cooperation in dividing up Poland. These bedfellows were not so strange.

It was the Molotov-Ribbentropp pact which finally caused the usually cowardly (shrewd, if you prefer) Munzenberg to publicly sever his diminishing relationship with the Soviets in 1938. Shortly after the Nazis invaded France, where Munzenberg was exiled, he was found dead in a forest in Vichy France and authorities dubiously labeled it as "suicide." McMeekin correctly points out that it probably was neither suicide, nor the nazis who killed Munzenberg since they would want him alive, to furnish them with information about the German commmunist underground. On the other hand, McMeekin again points out, if Stalin could have Trotsky killed in Mexico, then there is no reason to suspect he could not cause Munzenberg to suffer a similar fate in France, which seems to have been a territory not unfamiliar to the NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB). Unfortunately the chapters documenting the end of Munzenberg's life are short; however I don't blame the author considering the likely shortage of information available.

If you can stand the annoying things in this book, including the out of-place verbs such as "punt" where McMeekin uses American football analogies to describe activites of European communists, you will find much interesting information in this book. And for his contribution to knowledge, McMeekin certainly deserves much credit.