I’ve often heard it claimed, generally by my more reactionary friends, that the bolshevik revolution was largely brought about by and in the interest of wealthy bankers in the West.
Now, given that the kinds of people spreading this information tend to be of a neoreactionary or conspiritorial sort, I’m somewhat skeptical about the authenticity of these events or their interpretation. I’m curious as to what the mainstream historiography is.
It's nonsense.
First, the Whole Point of Communism and Bolshevism is complete disdain for capitalism and private ownership. Indeed. One of the very first things the Bolsheviks did was to seize all Banks and more importantly, cancel all Czarist debts.
Banks fundamentally work by loaning and borrowing money. They issue loans, then make money when the loans are paid along with interest. If this is insufficient, they borrow money from other Banks. In other words, by cancelling Czarist debts, the Bolsheviks denied the so called Bankers their income. The idea that the Bolsheviks would borrow money from hated Capitalists, or that Capitalists would lend money to people who've openly stated their intent to destroy them, is idiotic.
Second, the US State Department Documents tell the whole story. So called "Wealthy Bankers" in London And New York (some of whom were Jewish, which is the real reason behind the conspiracy theory), refused to fund the Bolsheviks. On the contrary, when Boris Kamenka, one of the main bankers of the Provisional Government (more on this later) was forced to flee Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution (where, as mentioned above, the Bolsheviks seized or shut down all Banks), the US based Banker Jacob Schiff (who happened to be Jewish) asked the US to provide him and the Anti Bolshevik Russian Czarists/Whites (who were also Antisemitic) all possible financial support "to prevent Bolshevik Devastation"
The thing is, the people who peddle the conspiracy Don't know a thing about Russian history. They don't understand the simple concept that there were multiple Russian Revolutions. One in 1905 after the Russo Japanese war, the 1917 February Revolution that overthrew the Czar and installed the Russian Provisional Government, and the October Bolshevik Revolution of that same year.
It was the FEBRUARY 1917 revolution that enjoyed support from US based Bankers, Including Jacob Schiff. And even then, it was limited. The US State Department records show that when Schiff was asked, he refused to provide any loans because all focus was on American War loans, as it was WWI at the time. If any US based Bankers did support the FEBRUARY Revolution, it was because the Czar was deeply unpopular and many segments of the Population were turning against them. They saw the winds of change, and more importantly that the Provisional Government was willing to continue the War (something that the Bolsheviks opposed). That's it. Any so called Bankers who supported the February Revolution did NOT support the Bolshevik Revolution of October, because the reasons stated above (Hatred if Capital and Banks, and cancelling Czarist or Provisional Government loans) made them prima facie incompatible, ideologically.
Source: Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, by Anthony Sutton.