The 19 year old Ekaterina Schmidt, and her 17 year old sister Elizaveta had just inherited a small fortune. Vladimir Lenin saw an opportunity and came up with a plan. Waging a revolution required vast amounts of money and Lenin would use any means necessary to acquire wealth, including bank robbery, in furtherance of his pursuit for power.
His plan, in this instance, was simple, he would use two party operatives to seduce and marry the girls and then have them donate all of the money to the party. He selected Nikolai Andrikanas and Victor Taratuta to run the scheme. Both successfully married their target. Ekaterina and Nikolai donated a small amount of money to the party before moving to France and keeping the vast majority of the inheritance.
Victor however successfully convinced Elizaveta to give a substantial amount of money to Lenin. Speaking of Taratuta Lenin remarked “There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.” Lenin knew what he needed in pursuit of power and he was willing to use whatever means necessary to get it.
“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”
Louis D. Brandeis
