Review of Antony Sutton’s Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
As an American libertarian, Sutton believes in individualism, competition, and laissez-faire economics unfettered by governmental meddling. These values seem very American, and one might presume that those who prospered most under these conditions would be champions of these same values. But though lip service may be paid to the ideal of an economy unfettered by government intervention, it seems the tycoons of Wall Street see the world very differently.
“…it may be observed that both the extreme right and the extreme left of the conventional political spectrum are absolutely collectivist. The national socialist (for example, the fascist) and the international socialist (for example, the Communist) both recommend totalitarian politico-economic systems based on naked, unfettered political power and individual coercion. Both systems require monopoly control of society. While monopoly control of industries was once the objectives of J P Morgan and J D Rockefeller, by the late nineteenth century the inner sanctums of Wall Street understood that the most efficient way to gain an unchallenged monopoly was to ‘go political’ and make society go to work for the monopolists – under the name of the public good and the public interest.” P. 16
Whether it was in railroads or oil, the big tycoons learned that the surest way to maximize profits was through monopoly, and so they did their best to do away with competition. But an essential element to establishing and maintaining a monopoly was through influence of government. (In 1913 a private banking cartel was able to influence congress enough to establish the Federal Reserve, a privately held money monopoly.) Competition and democratic processes were obstacles to be overcome. The elite class, then, viewed economics and politics differently than the rest of us – and their perspective was not one they cared to be honest about.
“Consequently, one barrier to mature understanding of recent history is the notion that all capitalists are the bitter and unswerving enemies of Marxists and socialists…. In fact, the idea is nonsense. There has been a continuing, albeit concealed, alliance between international political capitalists and international revolutionary socialists – to their mutual benefit. This alliance has gone unobserved largely because historians – with a few notable exceptions – have an unconscious Marxian bias and are thus locked into the impossibility of any such alliance existing. The open-minded reader should bear two clues in mind: monopoly capitalists are the bitter enemies of laissez-faire entrepreneurs; and, given the weaknesses of socialist central planning, the totalitarian socialist state is a perfect captive market for monopoly capitalists, if an alliance can be made with the socialist pawnbrokers. Suppose – and it is only hypothesis at this point – that American monopoly capitalists were able to reduce a planned socialist Russia to the status of a captive technical colony? Would not this be the logical twentieth-century internationalist extension of the Morgan railroad monopolies and the Rockefeller petroleum trust on the late nineteenth century?” P. 17
This is the context Sutton provides for understanding the underwriting of the Bolshevik Revolution by Wall Street financiers in 1917. He presents astounding assertions, but with strong evidence. And his evidence is very detailed. He doesn’t just summarize his findings in a historical narrative, but often has you reading original cables, letters, committee transcripts, and the like. Because of the sensitive nature of much of the evidence, it is amazing he has been able to uncover what he has. There were people in high places who would want to see these sorts of things suppressed, after all.
What was it that motivated Wall Street financiers to become involved in the Russian revolution? Sutton examines the role of William Boyce Thompson, Federal Reserve Bank director who went to Russia in 1917.
“From the total picture we can deduce that Thompson’s motives were primarily financial and commercial. Specifically, Thompson was interested in the Russian market, and how this market could be influenced, diverted, and captured for postwar exploitation by a Wall Street syndicate, or syndicates. Certainly Thompson viewed Germany as an enemy, but less a political enemy than an economic or a commercial enemy. German industry and German banking were the real enemy. To outwit Germany, Thompson was willing to place seed money on any political power vehicle that would achieve his objective. In other words, Thompson was an American imperialist fighting against German imperialism…” P. 97
Germany, at war with Russia at the time, also tried to influence the revolution. It is well established that the German government financed and organized “the return to Russia of Lenin and his party of exiled Bolsheviks, followed a few weeks later by a party of Mensheviks…” The dual German objectives were “(a) removal of Russia from the war, and (b) control of the postwar Russian market.” P. 169
Wall Street’s motivation for involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution had less to do than Germany’s as to the outcome of the world war, and more to do with the postwar Russian market.
“Russia was then – and is today – the largest untapped market in the world. Moreover, Russia, then and now, constituted the greatest potential competitive threat to American industrial and financial supremacy.” P. 172
“In the late nineteenth century, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim had demonstrated their monopolistic proclivities. In Railroads and Regulation 1877-1916 Gabriel Kolko has demonstrated how the railroad owners, not the farmers, wanted state control of railroads in order to preserve their monopoly and abolish competition. So the simplest explanation of our evidence is that a syndicate of Wall Street financiers enlarged their monopoly ambitions and broadened horizons on a global scale.”
“In other words, we are suggesting that the Bolshevik Revolution was an alliance of statists; statist revolutionaries and statist financiers aligned against the genuine revolutionary libertarian elements in Russia.” P. 173
“The question now in the readers’ mind must be, were these bankers also secret Bolsheviks? No, of course not. The financiers were without ideology. It would be a gross misinterpretation to assume that assistance for the Bolsheviks was ideologically motivated in any narrow sense. The financiers were power-motivated and therefore assisted any political vehicle that would give them an entrée to power: Trotsky, Lenin, the tsar, Kolchak, Denikin – all received aid, more or less. All, that is, but those who wanted a truly free individualistic society.” P. 173-4
Money is power, and power corrupts. In reading this volume, as well as the other two books in the trilogy, Wall Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, the reader obtains a view of the profound influence big money has had on modern history. The big money players are without ideology, and without morals. The influence of big money continues to this day, and Sutton is the rare author who shows it to us for what it is.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Frequently bought together
This item: Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution: The Remarkable True Story of the American Capitalists Who Financed the Russian Communists
$20.75
Get it Jan 7 - 23
Only 10 left in stock - order soon.
+
$15.00
Get it as soon as Thursday, Dec 26
In Stock
+
$14.68
Get it Jan 2 - 10
In stock
Usually ships within 3 to 4 days.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Products related to this item
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Products related to this item
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
- K Roy ChowdhuryReviewed in India on September 20, 2024
Very good book to understand global deep state
-
- The Establishment Fears InvestigationReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2012
One of many books, Wall Street doesn't want you to read
-
