a device to cover
employment in the Russian Secret Service as a spy and informer, for which
the prestige he had gained in Socialist circles was a valuable aid. When
the Revolution of 1905 broke out Helfandt returned to Russia under the
terms of the amnesty declared at that time. He at once joined the Leninist
section of the Social Democratic party, the Bolsheviki. A scandal occurred
some time later, when the connection of "Parvus" with the Russian
Government was freely charged against him. Among those who attacked him and
accused him of being an agent-provocateur were Tseretelli, the
Socialist-Revolutionist, and Miliukov, the leader of the Cadets.

Some years later, at the time of the uprisings in connection with the Young
Turk movement, "Parvus" turned up in Constantinople, where he was
presumably engaged in work for the German Government. This was commonly
believed in European political circles, though denied at the time by
"Parvus" himself. One thing is certain, namely, that although he was
notoriously poor when he went there--his financial condition was well known
to his Socialist associates--he returned at the beginning of 1915 a very
rich man. He explained his riches by saying that he had, while at
Constantinople, Bucharest, and Sofia, successfully speculated in war wheat.
He wrote this explanation in the German Socialist paper, _Die Glocke_, and
drew from Hugo Hasse the following observation: "I blame nobody for being
wealthy; I only ask if it is the role of a Social Democrat to become a
profiteer of the war."[85] Very soon we find this precious gentleman
settled in Copenhagen, where he established a "Society for Studying the
Social Consequences of the War," which was, of course, entirely pro-German.
This society is said to have exercised considerable influence among the
Russians in Copenhagen and to have greatly influenced many Danish
Socialists to take Germany's side. According to _Pravda_, the Bolshevik
organ, the German Government, through the intermediary of German Social
Democrats, established a working relation with Danish trade-unions and the
Danish Social Democratic party, whereby the Danish unions got the coal
needed in Copenhagen at a figure below the market price. Then the Danish
party sent its leader, Borgdjerg, to Petrograd as an emissary to place
before the Petrograd Soviet the terms of peace of the German Majority
Socialists, which were, of course, the terms of the German Government. We
find "Parv