History's Greatest Heist The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks

Yale University Press

History's Greatest Heist: The Looting of Russia by the Bolsheviks is a Hardcover book by Sean McMeekin, published by Yale University Press in 2008.\nHistorians have never resolved a central mystery of the Russian Revolution: How did the Bolsheviks, despite facing a world of enemies and leaving nothing but economic ruin in their path, manage to stay in power through five long years of civil war? In this book, Sean McMeekin draws on previously undiscovered materials from the Soviet Ministry of Finance and other European and American archives to expose some of the darkest secrets of Russia's early days of communism. Building on one archival revelation after another, the author reveals how the Bolsheviks financed their aggression through astonishingly extensive thievery. Their looting included everything from the cash savings of private citizens to gold, silver, diamonds, jewelry, icons, antiques, and artwork.\nBy tracking illicit Soviet financial transactions across Europe, McMeekin sho.