Bankers and Bolsheviks

The financial history of the Russian Revolution has been largely neglected for a century, despite the importance of banks and bondholders as targets, and indeed victims, of the Bolshevik Revolution. Hassan Malik's deeply researched and vividly written study shows the vital importance of foreign capital to the prerevolutionary Tsarist economy, the reluctance of Western bankers to face the seriousness of the threat posed to them by Lenin & Co., and the rationale behind the Bolsheviks' massive debt default. This is an original and illuminating contribution to a literature that has devoted far more attention to the revolutionaries than to the capitalist system they overthrew. --Niall Ferguson, Milbank Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford Russian history in the transition period of the early twentieth century is still in need of unbiased research, and I am convinced that the most interesting and unexpected discoveries lie at the intersection of various disciplines, such as history, political science, and finance. Hassan Malik's Bankers and Bolsheviks is an expansive, detailed work based on an extensive and painstaking research of a huge volume of materials. Yet, the work is also a fascinating read, offering a path to understanding what forces triggered the unstoppable chain of those tragic yet colossal events. --Ruben Vardanyan, social entrepreneur, impact investor, and venture philanthropist At a time when political risk has surged to the front of investors' minds, financial history offers valuable perspective. Hassan Malik's elegantly told story of the largest default in history is a must-read for macro investors navigating today's challenging global markets. --Steve Drobny, founder and CEO, Clocktower Group A highly readable tale of one of history's biggest booms and busts, with valuable perspective for contemporary investors. --Emmanuel Roman, CEO, PIMCO A fascinating study of an overlooked topic. ---Andrew Stuttaford, Wall Street Journal