The Merchant Of Revolution: The Life Of Alexander Israel Helphand (Parvus) 1867-1924
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Foxing on block - does not extend internally.
A meticulously researched political biography, The Merchant of Revolution: The Life of Alexander Israel Helphand (Parvus) 1867-1924 chronicles the extraordinary and turbulent life of one of history's most enigmatic revolutionary figures. Born into poverty in the Russian Pale of Settlement, Helphand — known by his alias Parvus — reinvented himself as a Marxist theorist, arms dealer, war profiteer, and key architect of the scheme to transport Lenin back to Russia in the sealed train, making him a shadowy catalyst of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Zeman and Scharlau present a portrait of a man whose insatiable appetite for wealth and power placed him at the intersection of socialist ideology and ruthless capitalism, embodying a profound contradiction that fascinated and repelled his contemporaries in equal measure. Drawing on archival sources across multiple countries, the authors uncover the full scope of Parvus's influence on European socialist movements, German wartime strategy, and the revolutionary upheavals that reshaped the twentieth century. Written with scholarly authority yet propelled by the momentum of a political thriller, this biography stands as the definitive account of a man who profited from revolution while helping to ignite it.
Author: Z. A. B. Zeman And W. B. Scharlau
Format: Hardback
Published: 1965, Oxford University Press
Genre: Biography
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Foxing on block - does not extend internally.
A meticulously researched political biography, The Merchant of Revolution: The Life of Alexander Israel Helphand (Parvus) 1867-1924 chronicles the extraordinary and turbulent life of one of history's most enigmatic revolutionary figures. Born into poverty in the Russian Pale of Settlement, Helphand — known by his alias Parvus — reinvented himself as a Marxist theorist, arms dealer, war profiteer, and key architect of the scheme to transport Lenin back to Russia in the sealed train, making him a shadowy catalyst of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Zeman and Scharlau present a portrait of a man whose insatiable appetite for wealth and power placed him at the intersection of socialist ideology and ruthless capitalism, embodying a profound contradiction that fascinated and repelled his contemporaries in equal measure. Drawing on archival sources across multiple countries, the authors uncover the full scope of Parvus's influence on European socialist movements, German wartime strategy, and the revolutionary upheavals that reshaped the twentieth century. Written with scholarly authority yet propelled by the momentum of a political thriller, this biography stands as the definitive account of a man who profited from revolution while helping to ignite it.