Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willy Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917-1940
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.
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