1907 Tiflis bank robbery

Robbery of bank stagecoach by Bolsheviks in 1907 Yerevan Square, Tbilisi.jpg A picture of a city square with people walking about and people riding in carriages. Erivansky Square, scene of the robbery, taken in the 1870s yes 1907 06 26 10:30 a.m. estimated Erivansky Square, Tiflis, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire 41.6934 N 44.8015 E type:event inline,title Erivansky Square expropriation Joseph Stalin Vladimir Lenin Maxim Litvinov Leonid Krasin Alexander Bogdanov Kamo Bachua Kupriashvili Datiko Chibriashvili Other gang members of "the Outfit" Possibly Joseph Stalin 241,000 rubles (equivalent to US$US 124226.80 1907 in US) stolen 50 40 Conviction against Kamo in two separate trials The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Erivansky Square expropriation,Kun 2003 75 was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907Note 1 a a in the city of Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia) in the Tiflis Governorate in the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. A Bolshevik group stole a bank cash shipment to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach, and the surrounding police and soldiers, using bombs and guns while the stagecoach was transporting money through Erivansky Square (present-day Freedom Square) between the post office and the Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire. The attack killed forty people and injured fifty others, according to official archive documents. The robbers escaped with 241,000 rubles.(White, James D. Red Hamlet: The Life and Ideas of Alexander Bogdanov, 2018, p. 179). The robbery was organized by a number of top-level Bolsheviks, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Maxim Litvinov, Leonid Krasin, and Alexander Bogdanov; and committed by a party of revolutionaries led by Stalin's early associate Simon Ter-Petrosian, also known as "Kamo" and "The Caucasian Robin-Hood". Because such activities had been explicitly prohibited by the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) only weeks previously, the robbery and the killings caused outrage within the party against the Bolsheviks (a faction within the RSDLP). As a result, Lenin and Stalin tried to distance themselves from the robbery. The events surrounding the incident and similar robberies split the Bolshevik leadership, with Lenin against Bogdanov and Krasin. Despite the success of the robbery and the large sum involved, the Bolsheviks could not use most of the large banknotes obtained from the robbery because the police had records of the serial numbers. Lenin conceived a plan to have various individuals cash the large-value banknotes at once at various locations throughout Europe in January 1908, but this strategy failed, resulting in a number of arrests, worldwide publicity, and negative reaction from social democrats elsewhere in Europe. Kamo was caught in Germany shortly after the robbery, but successfully avoided a criminal trial by feigning insanity for more than three years. He managed to escape from his psychiatric ward, but was recaptured two years later while planning another robbery. Kamo was then sentenced to death for his crimes including the 1907 robbery, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was eventually released after the 1917 Russian Revolution. None of the other major participants or organizers of the robbery were ever brought to trial. After Kamo's death in 1922, a monument to him was erected near Erivansky Square in Pushkin Gardens, and Kamo was buried beneath it. The monument was later removed and Kamo's remains were moved elsewhere. Background thumb|upright|Police photograph of V. I. Lenin from December 1895|alt=A mugshot of a young balding man with a Van Dyke beard. The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), the predecessor of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was formed in 1898. The goal of the RSDLP was to carry out a proletarian revolution against the Russian Empire. As part of their revolutionary activity, the RSDLP and other revolutionary groups (such as anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries) practised a range of militant operations, including "expropriations", a euphemism for armed robberies of government or private funds to support revolutionary activities.Trotsky 1970 Chapter IV: The period of reactionGeifman 1993 4, 21–22 From 1903 onwards, the RSDLP were divided between two major groups: the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.Sebag Montefiore 2008 3–4 After the suppression of the 1905 Revolution, the RSDLP held its 5th Congress in May–June 1907 in London with the hopes of resolving differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.Nicolaevsky 1995Souvarine 2005 94 One issue that still separated the two groups was the divergence of their views on militant activities, and in particular, "expropriations".Souvarine 2005 94 The most militant Bolsheviks, led at the 5th Congress by Vladimir Lenin, supported continuation of the use of robberies, while Mensheviks advocated a more peaceful and gradual approach to revolution, and opposed militant operations. At the 5th Congress, a resolution was passed condemning participation in or assistance to all militant activity, including "expropriations" as "disorganizing and demoralizing", and called for all party militias to be disbanded.Nicolaevsky 1995Souvarine 2005 94 This resolution passed with 65 per cent supporting and 6 per cent opposing (others abstained or did not vote) with all Mensheviks and some Bolsheviks supporting the resolution.Nicolaevsky 1995 Despite the unified party's prohibition on separate committees, during the 5th Congress the Bolsheviks elected their own governing body, called the Bolshevik Centre, and kept it secret from the rest of the RSDLP.Sebag Montefiore 2008 3–4Nicolaevsky 1995 The Bolshevik Centre was headed by a "Finance Group" consisting of Lenin, Leonid Krasin and Alexander Bogdanov. Among other party activities, the Bolshevik leadership had already planned a number of robberies in different parts of Russia by the time of the 5th Congress, including the one in Tiflis.Nicolaevsky 1995Souvarine 2005 91–92, 94Ulam 1998 262–263 Preparation left|300px|thumb|Criminal file and mugshot of Joseph Stalin in 1910 By 1906, Georgia had already experienced major expropriations conducted by local political forces not affiliated with the Bolsheviks. In 1906, the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party, under the leadership of Leo Kereselidze and several of his associates, succeeded in robbing the state treasury in Dusheti, just outside of Tbilisi. They took 315,000 rubles, which was then distributed between the party's militant and moderate wings to finance their activities.Mamulia Giorgi The History of the Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party of Georgia https://gfsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/16-%E1%83%A1%E1%83%90%E1%83%A5%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%97%E1%83%95%E1%83%94%E1%83%9A%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A1-%E1%83%A1%E1%83%9D%E1%83%AA%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A2-%E1%83%A4%E1%83%94%E1%83%93%E1%83%94%E1%83%A0%E1%83%90%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A2%E1%83%97%E1%83%90-%E1%83%A1%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%94%E1%83%95%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9A%E1%83%A3%E1%83%AA%E1%83%98%E1%83%9D-%E1%83%9E%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%A2%E1%83%98%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1-%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A2%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%97%E1%83%95%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1-EN.pdf Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies February 17, 2025 May 9, 2026 4–6 Before the 5th Congress met, high-ranking Bolsheviks held a meeting in Berlin in April 1907 to discuss staging a robbery to obtain funds to purchase arms. Attendees included Lenin, Stalin, Krasin, Bogdanov and Litvinov. The group decided that Stalin, then known by his earlier nom de guerre Koba,Note 2 b b and the Armenian Ter-Petrosian, known as Kamo, should organize a bank robbery in the city of Tiflis.Brackman 2000 58 The 29-year-old Stalin was living in Tiflis with his wife Ekaterina and newborn son Yakov.Sebag Montefiore 2008 4–5 Stalin was experienced at organizing robberies and kidnappings, and these exploits had helped him gain a reputation as the centre's principal financier.Kun 2003 75Sebag Montefiore 2008 3–4 Kamo, four years younger than Stalin, had a reputation for ruthlessness; later in his life he cut a man's heart from his chest.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 At the time of the conspiracy, Kamo ran a criminal organization called "the Outfit".Sebag Montefiore 2008 4 Stalin said that Kamo was "a master of disguise",Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 and Lenin called Kamo his "Caucasian bandit".Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 Stalin and Kamo had grown up together, and Stalin had converted Kamo to Marxism.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 After the April meeting, Stalin and Litvinov travelled to Tiflis to inform Kamo of the plans and to organize the raid.Brackman 2000 58Sebag Montefiore 2008 165 According to Roman Brackman's The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life, while Stalin was working with the Bolsheviks to organize criminal activities, he was also acting as an informant for the Okhrana, the Russian secret police. Brackman alleges that once the group returned to Tiflis, Stalin informed his Okhrana contact, Officer Mukhtarov, about the bank robbery plans and promised to provide the Okhrana with more information at a later time (but did not keep that promise and probably never intended to).Brackman 2000 58 However, Geoffrey Roberts has termed Brackman's allegation as a "conspiracy theory" and has further opined that all the evidence that Brackman adduces in support of this hypothesis is circumstantial and speculative.Roberts 2022 37 In Tiflis, Stalin began planning for the robbery.Brackman 2000 58 He established contact with two individuals with inside information about the State Bank's operations: a bank clerk named Gigo Kasradze and an old school friend of Stalin's named Voznesensky who worked at the Tiflis banking mail office.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11Kun 2003 77–78 Voznesensky later stated that he had helped out in the theft out of admiration for Stalin's romantic poetry.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11Kun 2003 77–78 Voznesensky worked in the Tiflis banking mail office, giving him access to a secret schedule that showed the times that cash would be transferred by stagecoach to the Tiflis branch of the State Bank.Sebag Montefiore 2008 165 Voznesensky notified Stalin that the bank would be receiving a large shipment of money by horse-drawn carriage on 26 June 1907.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11Kun 2003 77–78 Krasin helped manufacture bombs to use in the attack on the stagecoach.Kun 2003 75 Kamo's gang smuggled bombs into Tiflis by hiding them inside a sofa.Sebag Montefiore 2008 8 Only weeks before the robbery, Kamo accidentally detonated one of Krasin's bombs while trying to set the fuse.Sebag Montefiore 2008 178 The blast severely injured him in the eye, leaving a permanent scar.Brackman 2000 60Shub 1960 231 Kamo was confined to his bed for a month owing to intense pain, and had not fully recovered by the time of the robbery.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7Shub 1960 231 Day of the robbery thumb|upright|A New York Times article, June 27, 1907 On the day of the robbery, 26 June 1907, the 20 organizers, including Stalin, met near Erivansky Square (just 2 minutes from the seminary, bank and viceroy's palace) to finalize their plans, and after the meeting, they went to their designated places in preparation for the attack.Sebag Montefiore 2008 5 The Russian authorities had become aware that some large action was being planned by revolutionaries in Tiflis, and had increased the security presence in the main square; just prior to the robbery, they had been tipped off and were guarding every street corner in Erivansky Square.Sebag Montefiore 2008 4 To deal with the increased security, gang members spotted patrolling gendarmes and police prior to the robbery and lookouts were posted looking down on the square from above.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7Sebag Montefiore 2008 4 The gang members mostly dressed themselves as peasants and waited on street corners with revolvers and grenades.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 In contrast to the others, Kamo was disguised as a cavalry captain and came to the square in a horse-drawn phaeton, a type of open carriage.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7Brackman 2000 59 The conspirators took over the Tilipuchuri tavern facing the square in preparation for the robbery. A witness, David Sagirashvili, later stated that he had been walking in Erivansky Square when a friend named Bachua Kupriashvili, who later turned out to be one of the robbers, invited him into a tavern and asked him to stay. Once inside the tavern, Sagirashvili realized that armed men were stopping people from leaving. When they received a signal that the bank stagecoach was nearing the square, the armed men quickly left the building with pistols drawn.Sebag Montefiore 2008 6–7 The Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire had arranged to transport funds between the post office and the State Bank by horse-drawn stagecoach.Brackman 2000 58–59Sebag Montefiore 2008 127 Inside the stagecoach was the money, two guards with rifles, a bank cashier, and a bank accountant.Kun 2003 75Sebag Montefiore 2008 8Brackman 2000 59 A phaeton filled with armed soldiers rode behind the stagecoach, and mounted cossacksBlack Night White Snow Salisbury, Harrison E. Da Capo Press 1981 978-0-306-80154-9 221 rode in front, next to, and behind the carriages.Sebag Montefiore 2008 8Brackman 2000 59 Attack thumb|left|A typical phaeton, as used in the robbery|alt=Drawing of a man holding a whip, sitting on top of an open carriage pulled by two horses. The stagecoach made its way through the crowded square at about 10:30 am. Kupriashvili gave the signal, and the robbers hit the carriage with grenades, killing many of the horses and guards, and began shooting security men guarding the stagecoach and the square.Kun 2003 75Sebag Montefiore 2008 8Kun 2003 76 Bombs were thrown from all directions.Sebag Montefiore 2008 8Bombs Kill Many The Georgian newspaper Isari reported: "No one could tell if the terrible shooting was the boom of cannons or explosion of bombs ... The sound caused panic everywhere ... almost across the whole city, people started running. Carriages and carts were galloping away".Sebag Montefiore 2008 8 The blasts were so strong that they knocked over nearby chimneys and broke every pane of glass for a mile around.Sebag Montefiore 2008 9Shub 1960 227 Ekaterina Svanidze, Stalin's wife, was standing on a balcony at their home near the square with her family and young child. When they heard the explosions, they rushed back into the house terrified.Sebag Montefiore 2008 9 One of the injured horses harnessed to the bank stagecoach bolted, pulling the stagecoach with it, chased by Kupriashvili, Kamo, and another robber, Datiko Chibriashvili.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 9 Kupriashvili threw a grenade that blew off the horse's legs, but he himself was caught in the explosion, landing stunned on the ground.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11 Kupriashvili regained consciousness and sneaked out of the square before police and military reinforcements arrived.Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 Chibriashvili snatched the sacks of money from the stagecoach while Kamo rode up firing his pistol,Sebag Montefiore 2008 11Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 and they and another robber threw the money into Kamo's phaeton.Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 Pressed for time, they inadvertently left twenty thousand rubles behind,Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 some of which was pocketed by one of the stagecoach drivers who was later arrested for the theft.Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 Escape and aftermath thumb|A fragment of the 1913 map of Tiflis, highlighting Erivansky Square and adjacent streets After securing the money, Kamo quickly rode out of the square; encountering a police carriage, he pretended to be a captain of the cavalry, shouting, "The money's safe. Run to the square."Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 The deputy in the carriage obeyed, realizing only later that he had been fooled by an escaping robber.Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 Kamo then rode to the gang's headquarters where he changed out of his uniform.Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 All of the robbers quickly scattered, and none were caught.Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 One of the robbers, Eliso Lominadze, stole a teacher's uniform to disguise himself and came back to the square, gazing at the carnage.Sebag Montefiore 2008 13Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 Fifty casualties lay wounded in the square along with the dead people and horses.Brackman 2000 59Bombs Kill ManySebag Montefiore 2008 14 The authorities stated that only three people had died, but documents in the Okhrana archives reveal that the true number was around forty.Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 The State Bank was not sure how much it actually lost from the robbery, but the best estimates were around 341,000 rubles, worth around 3.4 million US dollars as of 2008.Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 About 91,000 rubles were in small untraceable bills, with the rest in large 500-ruble notes that were difficult to exchange because their serial numbers were known to the police.Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 Stalin's role left|thumb|The information card on "I. V. Stalin", from the files of the Tsarist secret police in Saint Petersburg, 1911|alt=Set of three photographs and a filled form, all profiling a man with a thick mustache and dark hair, dressed in a hat, black overcoat, white shirt, black pants and black shoes. Stalin's exact actions on the day of the robbery are unknown and disputed.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11 One source, P. A. Pavlenko, claimed that Stalin attacked the carriage itself and had been wounded by a bomb fragment.Sebag Montefiore 2008 11 Kamo later stated that Stalin took no active part in the robbery and had watched it from a distance.Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 Another source stated in a police report that Stalin "observed the ruthless bloodshed, smoking a cigarette, from the courtyard of a mansion."Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 Another source claims that Stalin was actually at the railway station during the robbery and not at the square.Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 Stalin's sister-in-law stated that Stalin came home the night of the robbery and told his family about its success.Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 Stalin's role was later questioned by fellow revolutionaries Boris Nicolaevsky and Leon Trotsky. The latter, Stalin's rival, was later assassinated on orders from Stalin. In his book Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, Trotsky analyzed many publications describing the Tiflis robbery and other Bolshevik militant activities of that time, and concluded, "Others did the fighting; Stalin supervised them from afar".Trotsky 1970 Chapter IV: The period of reaction In general, according to Nicolaevsky, "The role played by Stalin in the activities of the Kamo group was subsequently exaggerated".Nicolaevsky 1995 Kun later discovered official archive documents however clearly showing that "from late 1904 or early 1905 Stalin took part in drawing up plans for expropriations", adding, "It is now certain that [Stalin] controlled from the wings the initial plans of the group" that carried out the Tiflis robbery.Kun 2003 73–75 Security response and investigation thumb|"Necessary equipment for money transfer", a caricature by Oscar Schmerling from the Georgian press, 1906|alt=A cartoon of a man dressed in an iron suit, wearing a black top hat with a lockbox chained to his neck, getting into a horse-drawn carriage made out of metal and covered with spikes and cannons. The robbery featured in headlines worldwide: "Rain of Bombs: Revolutionaries Hurl Destruction among Large Crowds of People" in the London Daily Mirror, "Tiflis Bomb Outrage" in The Times of London, "Catastrophe!" in Le Temps in Paris, and "Bomb Kills Many; $170,000 Captured" in The New York Times.Brackman 2000 59Bombs Kill ManySebag Montefiore 2008 13 Authorities mobilized the army, closed roads, and surrounded the square hoping to secure the money and capture the criminals.Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 A special detective unit was brought in to lead the police investigation.Brackman 2000 59Bombs Kill ManySebag Montefiore 2008 13 Unfortunately for the investigators, witness testimony was confusing and conflicting,Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 and the authorities did not know which group was responsible for the robbery. Polish socialists, Armenians, anarchists, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and even the Russian State itself were blamed.Sebag Montefiore 2008 13 According to Brackman, several days after the robbery the Okhrana agent Mukhtarov questioned Stalin in a secret apartment. The agents had heard rumors that Stalin had been seen watching passively during the robbery. Mukhtarov asked Stalin why he had not informed them about it, and Stalin stated that he had provided adequate information to the authorities to prevent the theft. The questioning escalated into a heated argument; Mukhtarov hit Stalin in the face and had to be restrained by other Okhrana officers. After this incident, Mukhtarov was suspended from the Okhrana, and Stalin was ordered to leave Tiflis and go to Baku to await a decision in the case. Stalin left Baku with 20,000 rubles in stolen money in July 1907.Brackman 2000 59 While Brackman claims to have found evidence of this incident, whether Stalin cooperated with the Okhrana during his early life has been a subject of debate among historians for many decades and has yet to be resolved.Felshtinsky-Okhrana Moving the money and Kamo's arrest The funds from the robbery were originally kept at the house of Stalin's friends in Tiflis, Mikha and Maro Bochoridze.Sebag Montefiore 2008 12 The money was sewn into a mattress so that it could be moved and stored easily without arousing suspicion.Sebag Montefiore 2008 14, 87 The mattress was moved to another safe house, then later put on the director's couch at the Tiflis Meteorological Observatory,Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 possibly because Stalin had worked there.Brackman 2000 59Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 Some sources claim that Stalin himself helped put the money in the observatory.Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 The director stated that he never knew that the stolen money had been stored under his roof.Sebag Montefiore 2008 14 A large portion of the stolen money was eventually moved by Kamo, who took the money to Lenin in Finland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Kamo spent the remaining summer months staying with Lenin at his dacha. That autumn, Kamo traveled to Paris, to Belgium to buy arms and ammunition, and to Bulgaria to buy 200 detonators.Brackman 2000 60 He next traveled to Berlin and delivered a letter from Lenin to a prominent Bolshevik physician, Yakov Zhitomirsky, asking him to treat Kamo's eye, which had not completely healed from the bomb blast.Brackman 2000 60 Unknown to Lenin, Zhitomirsky had been secretly working as an agent of the Russian government and quickly informed the Okhrana,Brackman 2000 60 who asked the Berlin police to arrest Kamo.Brackman 2000 60 When they did so, they found a forged Austrian passport and a suitcase with the detonators, which he was planning to use in another large bank robbery.Brackman 2000 61 Cashing the marked notes thumb|upright|Maxim Litvinov in 1902 After hearing of Kamo's arrest, Lenin feared that he too might be arrested and fled from Finland with his wife.Brackman 2000 62 To avoid being followed, Lenin walked 3 mi 0 flip across a frozen lake at night to catch a steamer at a nearby island.Krupskaya, Again Abroad On his trek across the ice, Lenin and his two companions nearly drowned when the ice started to give way underneath them; Lenin later admitted it seemed like it would have been a "stupid way to die".Krupskaya, Again Abroad Lenin and his wife escaped and headed to Switzerland.Brackman 2000 62Krupskaya, Again Abroad The unmarked bills from the robbery were easy to exchange, but the serial numbers of the 500-ruble notes were known to the authorities, making them impossible to exchange in Russian banks.Brackman 2000 59 By the end of 1907, Lenin decided to exchange the remaining 500-ruble notes abroad.Brackman 2000 62 Krasin had his forger try to change some of the serial numbers.Sebag Montefiore 2008 181 Two hundred of these notes were transported abroad by Martyn Lyadov (they were sewn into his vest by the wives of Lenin and Bogdanov at Lenin's headquarters in Kuokkala).Nicolaevsky 1995 Lenin's plan was to have various individuals exchange the stolen 500-ruble notes simultaneously at a number of banks throughout Europe.Brackman 2000 62 Zhitomirsky heard of the plan and reported it to the Okhrana,Brackman 2000 62 who contacted police departments throughout Europe asking them to arrest anyone who tried to cash the notes.Brackman 2000 62 In January 1908, a number of individuals were arrested while attempting to exchange the notes.Ulam 1998 279–280Brackman 2000 64Held as Tiflis Robbers The New York Times reported that one woman who had tried to cash a marked 500-ruble note later tried to swallow a paper with the names of her accomplices, but the police grabbed her by the throat, forcibly pulled the damp paper out of her mouth, and were able to take the accomplices into custody at a train station.Held as Tiflis Robbers Most prominent among those arrested was Maxim Litvinov, caught while boarding a train with his mistress at Paris's Gare du Nord with twelve of the 500-ruble notes he intended to cash in London.Brackman 2000 63–64Nihilists The French Minister of Justice expelled Litvinov and his mistress from French territory, outraging the Russian government, which had requested his extradition.Brackman 2000 63–64 Officially the French government stated that Russia's request for extradition had been submitted too late, but by some accounts, they denied the extradition because French socialists had applied political pressure to secure his release.Brackman 2000 63–64 Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's wife, discussed these events in her memoirs: The money obtained in the Tiflis raid was handed over to the Bolsheviks for revolutionary purposes. But the money could not be used. It was all in 500-ruble notes, which had to be changed. This could not be done in Russia, as the banks always had lists of the note numbers in such cases ...The money was badly needed. And so a group of comrades made an attempt to change the 500-ruble notes simultaneously in various towns abroad, just a few days after our arrival ... Zhitomirsky had warned the police about the attempt to change the ruble notes, and those involved in it were arrested. A member of the Zurich group, a Lett, was arrested in Stockholm, and Olga Ravich, a member of the Geneva group, who had recently returned from Russia, was arrested in Munich with Bogdassarian and Khojamirian. Nikolai Semashko was arrested in Geneva after a postcard addressed to one of the arrested men was delivered to his house.Krupskaya, Years of Reaction Brackman claims that despite the arrests, Lenin continued his attempts to exchange the 500-ruble notes and did manage to trade some of them for 10,000 rubles from an unknown woman in Moscow.Brackman 2000 64 According to Nicolaevsky, however, Lenin abandoned attempts to exchange the notes after the arrests,Nicolaevsky 1995 but Bogdanov tried (and failed) to exchange some notes in North America, while Krasin succeeded in forging new serial numbers and managed to exchange several more notes.Nicolaevsky 1995 Soon after, Lenin's associates burned all the 500-ruble notes remaining in their possession.Nicolaevsky 1995Paris – 1909–1910 Trials of Kamo [R]esigned to death, absolutely calm. On my grave there should already be grass growing six feet high. One can't escape death forever. One must die some day. But I will try my luck again. Try any way of escape. Perhaps we shall once more have the laugh over our enemies ... I am in irons. Do what you like. I am ready for anything. Note from Kamo to a fellow prisoner in 1912 while awaiting the death penalty.Souvarine 2005 103left|thumb|197x197px|Leonid Krasin around 1903After Kamo was arrested in Berlin and awaiting trial, he received a note from Krasin through his lawyer Oscar Kohn telling him to feign insanity so that he would be declared unfit to stand trial.Souvarine 2005 101 To demonstrate his insanity, he refused food, tore his clothes, tore out his hair, attempted to hang himself, slashed his wrists, and ate his own excrement.Brackman 2000 55Souvarine 2005 101–102Shub 1960 234 To make sure that he was not faking his condition, German doctors stuck pins under his nails, struck him in the back with a long needle, and burned him with hot irons, but he did not break his act.Souvarine 2005 101–102Shub 1960 236–237 After all of these tests, the chief doctor of the Berlin asylum wrote in June 1909 that "there is no foundation to the belief that [Kamo] is feigning insanity. He is without doubt mentally ill, is incapable of appearing before a court, or of serving sentence. It is extremely doubtful that he can completely recover."Shub 1960 237 In 1909 Kamo was extradited to a Russian prison, where he continued to feign insanity.Ulam 1998 279–280Souvarine 2005 102 In April 1910, he was put on trial for his role in the Tiflis robbery,Shub 1960 238 where he ignored the proceedings and openly fed a pet bird that he had hidden in his shirt.Shub 1960 238 The trial was suspended while officials determined his sanity.Shub 1960 238Brackman 2000 57–58 The court eventually found that he had been sane when he committed the Tiflis robbery, but was presently mentally ill and should be confined until he recovered.Shub 1960 239 In August 1911, after feigning insanity for more than three years, Kamo escaped from the psychiatric ward of a prison in Tiflis by sawing through his window bars and climbing down a homemade rope.Ulam 1998 279–280Souvarine 2005 102Brackman 2000 67 Kamo later discussed these experiences: What can I tell you? They threw me about, hit me over the legs and the like. One of the men forced me to look into the mirror. There I saw−not the reflection of myself, but rather of some thin, ape-like man, gruesome and horrible looking, grinding his teeth. I thought to myself, "Maybe I've really gone mad!" It was a terrible moment, but I regained my bearings and spat upon the mirror. You know I think they liked that ... I thought a great deal: "Will I survive or will I really go mad?" That was not good. I did not have faith in myself, see? ... [The authorities], of course, know their business, their science. But they do not know the Caucasians. Maybe every Caucasian is insane, as far as they are concerned. Well, who will drive whom mad? Nothing developed. They stuck to their guns and I to mine. In Tiflis, they didn't torture me. Apparently they thought that the Germans can make no mistakes.Shub 1960 246–247 After escaping, Kamo met up with Lenin in Paris, and was distressed to hear that a "rupture had occurred" between Lenin, Bogdanov, and Krasin.Paris – 1909–1910 Kamo told Lenin about his arrest and how he had simulated insanity while in prison.Paris – 1909–1910 After leaving Paris, Kamo eventually met up with Krasin and planned another armed robbery.Ulam 1998 279–280 Kamo was caught before the robbery took place and was put on trial in Tiflis in 1913 for his exploits including the Tiflis bank robbery.Souvarine 2005 103Ulam 1998 279–280Shub 1960 244 This time, Kamo did not feign insanity while imprisoned, but he did pretend that he had forgotten all that happened to him when he was previously "insane".Shub 1960 244 The trial was brief and Kamo was given four death sentences.Shub 1960 244–245 Seemingly doomed to death, Kamo then had the good luck along with other prisoners to have his sentence commuted to a long prison term as part of the celebrations of the Romanov dynasty tricentennial in 1913.Ulam 1998 279–280Shub 1960 245 Kamo was released from prison after the February Revolution in 1917.Ulam 1998 279–280Shub 1960 246 Aftermath Effect on Bolsheviks Apart from Kamo, none of the organizers of the robbery were ever brought to trial,Sebag Montefiore 2008 15 and initially it was not clear who was behind the raid, but after the arrest of Kamo, Litvinov and others, the Bolshevik involvement became obvious.Nicolaevsky 1995 The Mensheviks felt betrayed and angry; the robbery proved that the Bolshevik Centre operated independently from the unified Central Committee and was taking actions explicitly prohibited by the party congress.Nicolaevsky 1995 The leader of the Mensheviks, Georgi Plekhanov, called for separation from the Bolsheviks. Plekhanov's colleague, Julius Martov, said the Bolshevik Centre was something between a secret factional central committee and a criminal gang.Nicolaevsky 1995 The Tiflis Committee of the party expelled Stalin and several members for the robbery.Sebag Montefiore 2008 15Souvarine 2005 99 The party's investigations into Lenin's conduct were thwarted by the Bolsheviks.Nicolaevsky 1995 The robbery made the Bolsheviks even less popular in Georgia and left the Bolsheviks in Tiflis without effective leadership. After the death by natural causes of his wife Ekaterina Svanidze in November 1907, Stalin rarely returned to Tiflis. Other leading Bolsheviks in Georgia, such as Mikhail Tskhakaya and Filipp Makharadze, were largely absent from Georgia after 1907. Another prominent Tiflis Bolshevik, Stepan Shahumyan, moved to Baku. The Bolsheviks' popularity in Tiflis continued to fall, and by 1911, there were only about 100 Bolsheviks left in the city.Jones 2005 220–221 The robbery also made the Bolshevik Centre unpopular more widely among European social democrat groups.Nicolaevsky 1995 Lenin's desire to distance himself from the legacy of the robbery may have been one of the sources of the rift between him and Bogdanov and Krasin.Nicolaevsky 1995 Stalin distanced himself from Kamo's gang and never publicized his role in the robbery.Sebag Montefiore 2008 15Kun 2003 77 Later careers After the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, many of those who had been involved in the robbery became high ranking Soviet officials. Lenin went on to become the first Soviet Premier, the post he held until his death in 1924, followed by Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union until his own death in 1953. Maxim Litvinov became a Soviet diplomat, serving as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (1930–1939). Leonid Krasin initially quit politics after the split from Lenin in 1909, but rejoined the Bolsheviks after the 1917 Revolution and served as the Soviet trade representative in London and as People's Commissar for Foreign Trade until his death in 1926.Nicolaevsky 1995 After Kamo's release from prison, he worked in the Soviet customs office, by some accounts because he was too unstable to work for the secret police.Ulam 1998 279–280 He died in 1922 when a truck hit him while he was cycling.Ulam 1998 279–280 Although there is no proof of foul play, some have theorized that Stalin ordered his death to keep him quiet.Brackman 2000 33Sebag Montefiore 2008 370 Monument Erivansky Square, where the robbery took place, was renamed Beria Square by the Soviet authorities in 1921. In 1953 the square was renamed as Lenin Square and a large statue of Lenin was erected in his honour in 1956.Burford 2008 113Sydney Kamo was originally buried and had a monument erected in his honour in Pushkin Gardens, near Erivansky Square.Sebag Montefiore 2008 15Shavishvili Created by the sculptor Iakob Nikoladze, it was removed during Stalin's rule, and Kamo's remains were moved to another location.Sebag Montefiore 2008 370 The statue of Lenin was torn down in August 1991—one of the final moments of the Soviet Union—and replaced by the Liberty Monument in 2006. The name of the square was changed from Lenin Square to Freedom Square in 1991.Burford 2008 113Fell See also Banks Dusheti treasury heist 1906 Helsinki bank robbery Bezdany raid, a train robbery in 1908 Notes Note 1 a a Sources give the date of the robbery as either 13 June 1907Brackman 2000 58Shub 1960 227 or 26 June 1907,Bombs Kill ManySebag Montefiore 2008 3 depending on whether Old Style and New Style dates are used. The Russian government used the Julian calendar until February 1918 when it switched to the Gregorian calendar by skipping thirteen days in that year so that 31 January 1918 was followed by 14 February 1918.Christian 1997 6 For purposes of this article, dates are provided according to Gregorian calendar dates. Note 2 b b Joseph Stalin used a variety of names during his lifetime. His original Georgian name was "Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili", but his friends and family called him "Soso".Sebag Montefiore 2008 xxxiSebag Montefiore 2008 23 During his early revolutionary years, which would include the years of the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, he mostly went by the revolutionary nom de guerre "Koba", which he obtained from a character in Alexander Kazbegi's novel The Patricide.Sebag Montefiore 2008 xxxiSebag Montefiore 2008 63 He published poetry under the name "Soselo".Sebag Montefiore 2008 xxxi In 1912, he began to use the name Stalin and later adopted this as his surname after October 1917.Sebag Montefiore 2008 xxxi The name Stalin is translated to mean "Man of Steel".Sebag Montefiore 2008 xxxiSebag Montefiore 2008 268 This article uses the name by which he is most commonly known to the world, "Joseph Stalin", for clarity. References 20em Bomb Kills Many; $170,000 Captured 1907-06-27 https://www.nytimes.com/1907/06/27/archives/bomb-kills-many-170000-captured-missile-thrown-by-terrorists-at-a.html?sq=Tiflis+Bombs&scp=5&st=p The New York Times 2010-11-30 Yuri Felshtinsky Был ли Сталин агентом охранки? (Was Stalin an Okhrana agent?) ru Teppa 1999 https://archive.org/details/byllistalinagent00fels 2010-12-19 978-5-300-02417-8 registration Krupskaya 1970 Chapter:Again Abroad – End of 1907 Held As Tiflis Robbers 1908-01-19 https://www.nytimes.com/1908/01/19/archives/held-as-tiflis-robbers-russian-woman-and-two-men-caught-314000.html The New York Times 2018-08-10 Alleged Nihilists Arrested In Paris; Russian Students, Man and Woman, Suspected of Many Political Crimes. Lived in Latin Quarter, Their Rooms Rendezvous for Revolutionists – Believed That They Planned Assassinations 1908-02-08 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/02/02/104716897.pdf The New York Times 2010-12-02 Krupskaya 1970 Chapter:Years of Reaction – Geneva – 1908 Krupskaya 1970 Chapter:Paris – 1909–1910 AAP Communist Purge of Security Chiefs Continues 1953-07-17 The Sydney Morning Herald Fairfax Media https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=26sTAAAAIBAJ&pg=4606,2178922 1 2010-12-02June 2023 InternetArchiveBot yes Tblisi, Capital of Georgia USSR Information Bulletin August 14, 1946 6 56 15 https://books.google.com/books?id=j0PTAAAAMAAJ&q=kamo+%22pushkin+square%22 2010-12-03 Shavishvili Mikhail David Remnick The Day Lenin Fell On His Face; In Moscow, the Icons Of Communism Are Toppling 1990-07-05 https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72613246.html?dids=72613246:72613246&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+05%2C+1990&author=David+Remnick&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=The+Day+Lenin+Fell+On+His+Face%3B+In+Moscow%2C+the+Icons+Of+Communism+Are+Toppling&pqatl=google The Washington Post 2010-12-02 2012-07-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20120725094014/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/72613246.html?dids=72613246:72613246&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+05%2C+1990&author=David+Remnick&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=The+Day+Lenin+Fell+On+His+Face%3B+In+Moscow%2C+the+Icons+Of+Communism+Are+Toppling&pqatl=google dead Bibliography Brackman Roman The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life Chapter 7: The Great Tiflis Bank Robbery Psychology Press 2000 Portland, Oregon https://books.google.com/books?id=zQL8POkFGIQC&pg=PA58 978-0-7146-5050-0 Burford Tim Georgia Bradt Travel Guides Bradt Travel Guides Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire 2008 https://books.google.com/books?id=qQ6R4Fg6rh4C&pg=PA113 978-1-84162-261-3 Christian David Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege, and the Challenge of Modernity Introduction Palgrave Macmillan New York 1997 https://books.google.com/books?id=U8QG2BnQORkC&pg=PA6 978-0-312-17352-4 Geifman Anna Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917 1993 Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey https://books.google.com/books?id=U_SU7fxj9BMC 978-0-691-08778-8 Jones Stephen F. Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883–1917 Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005 https://books.google.com/books?id=srEzMdMN-z0C&pg=PA169 978-0-674-01902-7 Krupskaya Nadezhda Nadezhda Krupskaya Reminiscences of Lenin 1970 http://www.marxists.org/archive/krupskaya/works/rol/index.htm 2010-12-10 Marxists Internet Archive Kun Miklós Stalin: An Unknown Portrait Chapter 5: Why Stalin Was Called a 'Mail-Coach Robber' Central European University Press New York 2003 https://books.google.com/books?id=cnGQl1fWE-wC&pg=PA75 978-963-9241-19-0 Nicolaevsky Boris On the History of the Bolshevist Center Secret Pages of History Yu. G. Felshtinsky 1995 Humanities Publishing Moscow ru http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FELSHTINSKY/tajnye_stranicy.txt 978-5-87121-007-9 Roberts Geoffrey 2022 https://books.google.com/books?id=zYpaEAAAQBAJ Stalin's Library: A Dictator and his Books Yale University Press 9780300265590 Sebag Montefiore Simon Simon Sebag Montefiore Young Stalin Prologue: The Bank Robbery Random House New York 2008 https://books.google.com/books?id=WnPKRK0zNVcC&pg=PT36 978-1-4000-9613-8 Kamo—the Legendary Old Bolshevik of the Caucasus The Russian Review 1960 David Shub 19 3 126539 227–247 10.2307/126539 Souvarine Boris Boris Souvarine Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism Chapter IV – A Professional Revolutionary Kessinger Publishing New York 2005 978-1-4191-1307-9 Trotsky Leon Leon Trotsky Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence Chapter IV: The Period of Reaction Stein and Day New York 1970 http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/stalin/ch04.htm 26 June 2012 67028713 Ulam Adam Adam Ulam The Bolsheviks: The Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia The Years of Waiting: 1908–1917 Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 1998 https://books.google.com/books?id=TdCK1WkconkC&pg=PA279 978-0-674-07830-7 External links 1907 Tiflis bank robbery Category:1907 crimes in Europe Category:1907 in the Russian Empire Category:Bank robberies Category:Bolshevik finance Category:Crime in Georgia (country) Category:History of Tbilisi Category:Joseph Stalin Category:Vladimir Lenin Category:20th century in Tbilisi Category:Crime in Tbilisi Category:June 1907 in Europe