The Red Millionaire

January 1, 2004
To his admirers, Willy Munzenberg was a hero, building bridges from the neophyte Socialist experiment in Soviet Russia to Western Socialists. In this, his first book, McMeekin (international relations, Bilkent Univ., Ankara, Turkey) has filled in pieces of the historical mosaic of the early days of Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution. Being friendly with Lenin, Munzenberg counted on him as a supporter of the propagandist work he did in Germany, competing with Hitler's fascist propaganda and rise to power. He moved into filmmaking in the early 1920s. "Whereas most early Soviet propaganda films killed audiences' interest with their ham-handed sloganeering," explains McMeekin, Munzenberg, with help from Soviet insider friends, landed a sweetheart deal from the Kremlin to oversee the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio (Battleship Potemkin). Munzenberg had made enough enemies in the Kremlin and in Hitler's Germany that, at the outbreak of World War II, he sought refuge in France. He had been expelled from the Communist Party and was now hunted by the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) and the Gestapo. When France fell to the Germans, Munzenberg was found hanged on his escape route between Lyons and Grenoble, just after his 50th birthday. Though the writing is somewhat labored, this book fills a gap in our knowledge and is recommended for academic and public libraries.-Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola

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