Oscar Blum

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Oscar Blum (born 1886 ; died after 1938), actually Nikolai Rachmetow , was a Russian writer, philosopher, theater director and alleged secret agent, but relatively little is known about his life. Lenin is said to have personally thrown him off the train at the beginning of his journey from Switzerland .

Life

According to the information in the catalog of the German National Library (DNB), he was:

"Menshevik, allegedly a secret agent of the tsarist security service, before 1917 stay in Switzerland, 1917 return to Russia, 1922 artistic director in the studio theater» Scholem-Alejchem «in Moscow, 1922 emigration, 1923–27 employee» Weltbühne «(13 articles)."

His book Russian Heads , published in Berlin and Leipzig in 1923, contains biographies of the head of the transitional government after the deposition of the Tsar , Alexander F. Kerensky, as well as of Georgi W. Plekhanov and the most important leaders of the October Revolution , such as Vladimir I Lenin , Leon Trotsky and Karl Radek , Anatoli W. Lunacharsky , Felix Dzerzhinsky , Georgi W. Tschitscherin , Grigori J. Zinoviev , Lev B. Kamenew , with whom the author deals critically.

After 1938 his traces of life disappear.

Possibly the Lithuanian-French chess master of the same name Dr. Oscar Blum, who celebrated success in the 1930s, is identical to him. His chess successes included winning the Paris chess championship ( Championnat d'échecs de Paris ) in 1932 before Nicolas Rossolimo and Vitali Halberstadt .

Publications (selection)

  • K filosofīi marksizma: dvi͡e statʹi o russkikh ėmpirīo-kritikakh . Geneva: Tip. rue de la Coulouvrenière, 1906.
  • Iz zapisnoĭ knizhki marksista . Geneva: Imp. Fr. Weber, 1906.
  • Marksizm i estestvoznanīe: chistyĭ ėmpirizm, ėnergetika, monizm , Riga: Nauchn. myslʹ, 1908.
  • Russian heads: Kerensky , Plekhanov , Martov , Chernov , Savinkov-Ropschin , Lenin , Trotsky , Radek , Lunacharsky , Dzerzhinsky , Chicherin , Zinoviev , Kamenev . With 9 portrait reproductions . Franz Schneider, Berlin a. a. 1923.
  • Debris field Europe. A breviary for everyone Berlin: Franz Schneider, 1924
  • OB, "La vida teatral. Santa Rusia en el Principal", en Nosotros (3-VIII-1937), p. 7 ff. (According to Manuel Aznar Soler: República literaria y revolución (1920-1939). 2010 p . 501 )
  • Oscar Blum, "Teatro de la Revolución y Revolución del Teatro", en Nosotros (Valencia), 1-XII-1937 (According to: Francisco Javier Navarro Navarro: A la revolución por la cultura: Prácticas culturales y sociabilidad libertarias en el País Valenciano , 1931-1939. Universitat de València , 2004, p.285 )
  • Oscar Blum: Hombres y hechos: apuntes sobre la política internacional. Ediciones del Comité Regional de la CNT , 1938

literature

Web links

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ He must not be confused with the painter Oscar Bluhm (1867-1912).
  2. ↑ For his pseudonyms and their spellings see DNB and worldcat.org .
  3. ^ Victor Sebestyen: Lenin: the man, the dictator, and the master of terror . New York: Pantheon, 2017 ( worldcat.org ):

    "At the platform for the local train heading to the Swiss-German border at Schaffhausen Lenin stood alone for a while, looking nervous and awkward, checking his watch every few seconds. Lunacharsky was famous for his tendency to exaggerate and romanticize, but he could at times be perceptive. He said at that moment Lenin looked like a man who was thinking, 'At last, at last the thing for which I was created is happening.' Lenin climbed up into the carriage, and as he was finding his seat Radek asked him how he was feeling. Lenin whistled and said, 'In six months' time we shall either be swinging from gallows, or we shall be in power.' There was a scuffle when the German revolutionary journalist Oscar Blum broke through the crowd and tried to get on the train to join the Russians. He was physically thrown off it by Lenin personally, who was convinced the interloper was a police spy. "

  4. ↑ DNB - accessed on July 31, 2019
  5. ↑ cf. lexikus.de
  6. ↑ cf. The Mysterious Oscar Blum (English Chess Forum) & Oscar Blum (chessgames.com)
  7. ^ Championnat de Paris 1932
personal data
SURNAME Blum, Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rachmetov, Nikolai (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer, philosopher, theater director and alleged secret agent
DATE OF BIRTH 1886
DATE OF DEATH after 1938