The transition went in accordance with plans – lots of “Blah, blah, blah” and no violence. Nobody from the communist side was hurt, arrested or in any way suffered. Actually, many became rich. If you look deeply into the past of the Eastern European financial elite you will find only high rank party members, agents of secret services, and military officers. Earlier, writing about the October Revolution, my comment was: “Slaves remained slaves, only the ownership changed.” This time the owners remained the same. Let me use one quite anecdotal illustration of what happened. In 1991 Poles were joking about it. Under communism, on every level of administration, one could see the evidence of dual power. The building of let's say, county offices was usually overshadowed by bigger building called HOUSE OF THE PARTY. There, local Party apparatchicks had their offices. During the transition, the Communist Party practically disappeared and all Party buildings became.....banks! Poles were joking that buildings did not change and people working inside did not change. What do you think happened with the majestic building of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party (K.C. PZPR) in Warsaw? You guessed it – became the Polish Stock Exchange! (Note #42)
When the transition was successfully finished the time came to make the “sheeple” forget and forgive the previous regime. All cases regarding communist atrocities were re-opened (supposedly to “serve justice” this time) but nothing came out of it. The horrible case of Stefan Michnik brought some progress only...to be blocked by the Swedish branch of conspirators. Adam Michnik with his propaganda arm Gazeta Wyborcza started a campaign to clean the image (Note #25) of General Jaruzelski and everybody else guilty of murdering Polish patriots. Polish secret services, so experienced with torturing and murdering their own citizens, did not lose employment. Now the same criminals in the same facilities torture innocent people in the name of the “War on Terror”(Notes #17, #18 and #19). I would risk to say, Adam Michnik is not too upset about it....
How should I finish this essay? It would be easy if the historical subject about which I was writing came to its end one day but the conspiracy of the Cold War did not really die, just went through a metamorphosis.
As they say in America: “same cake, different day.”
Who is guilty of this situation? I am and you are – we, normal people, are responsible for this and we all pay one way or another. There is so much wisdom in the following quote:
“The world is a dangerous place to live - not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”
Albert Einstein
…........................................................................................................................
Notes
1. Josef Stalin
From Wikipedia: While photographs and portraits portray Stalin as physically massive and majestic (he had several painters shot who did not depict him "right"), he was only five feet four inches tall(160 cm). President Harry S. Truman, who stood only five feet nine inches himself, described Stalin as "a little squirt".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
2. Napoleon
From Wikipedia: The British Tory press sometimes depicted Napoleon as much smaller than average height, and this image persists. Confusion about his height also results from the difference between the French pouce and British inch—2.71 and 2.54 cm respectively; he was about 1.7 meters (5 ft 7 in) tall, average height for the period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I
3. Kudirka incident
From Wikipedia: On November 23, 1970, Simonas "Simas" Kudirka, a Soviet seaman of Lithuanian origin, leapt from the 400-foot (120 m) mother ship Sovetskaya Litva, anchored in U.S waters near Aquinnah, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard Island, aboard the Coast Guard ship Vigilant, sailing from New Bedford. The Soviets accused Kudirka of theft of 3,000 rubles from the ship's safe. Ten hours passed. After attempts to get the U.S. State Department to provide guidance failed, Rear Admiral William B. Ellis, commander of the First Coast Guard District, ordered Commander Ralph E. Eustis to permit a detachment of Soviet seamen to board the Vigilant to return Kudirka to the Soviet ship. This led to a change in asylum policy by the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Ellis and his chief of staff were given administrative punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. Commander Eustis was given a non-punitive letter of reprimand and assigned to shore duty. Kudirka was tried for treason by the Soviet Union and given a ten-year sentence in the Gulag. Subsequent investigations revealed that Kudirka could claim American citizenship through his mother and was allowed to come to the United States in 1974. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kudirka_incident#The_Kudirka_incident
4. Lech Walesa was a Communist spy
In a new book, two Polish historians publish what they say is proof that Solidarity hero Lech Walesa collaborated with the Communist-era secret police -- and tried to cover it up decades later. The accusations have set off a new storm over Poland's past.
Yet the authors of "The Secret Police and Lech Walesa," both of whom work as historians at the government-affiliated Institute for National Remembrance, or IPN, say they have uncovered compelling new evidence that Walesa collaborated with Communist officials under the code name "Bolek."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,561414,00.html
5. Stefan Michnik – communist judge, Stalinist criminal wanted by Polish courts, responsible for torture and death of many Polish patriots. Michnik personally took part in executions.
From Wikipedia:
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Michnik (only available in Polish)
6. Adam Michnik - ”Gray Eminence” of the Solidarity movement, brother of Stefan
From Wikipedia: Adam Michnik is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej Jagodziński. In 1966-1989 he was one of the leading organizers of the illegal, democratic opposition in Poland. A historian, essayist, and political commentator, he is the recipient of laureate of many awards, including a Knight of the Legion of Honour and European of the Year. He was born to Ozjasz (Uzziah) Szechter, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine and his wife Helena (née Michnik), a historian, children's book writer and Communist. Michnik's parents were Jews. Michnik describes himself as a Pole of Jewish origins. His half-brother, Stefan Michnik, was a judge in the 1950s, during the period of Stalinism and currently resides in Sweden. He publicly admitted passing death sentences on Polish anti-communist resistance fighters, such as major Zefiryn Machalla. He is a member of the Association of Polish Writers and the Council on Foreign Relations. On the anniversary of the introduction of martial law, on 13 December 2005, Michnik delivered exposition at the University of Warsaw (article published in "Gazeta Wyborcza") in which he appealed to president Lech Kaczyński for statutory abolition for those who were responsible for the martial law. The article was a response to information about instituting an inquiry by Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) against General Jaruzelski. Michnik appealed about abolition even earlier- in 1991 (during the exposition on Faculty of Law at University of Maria Curie- Skłodowska in Lublin (UMCS), "Gazeta w Lublinie" 11-12-1991) and also in 2001 in the article "Stan wojenny 20 lat później" ("Gazeta Wyborcza" 12 December 2001).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Michnik
7. Alexander Kerensky
From Wikipedia: Kerensky's father was the headmaster of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) at a secondary school for boys in Simbirsk, and members of the Kerensky and Ulyanov families were friends, Kerensky adopted a policy that isolated the right-wing conservatives, both democratic and monarchist-oriented. His philosophy of "no enemies to the left" greatly empowered the Bolsheviks and gave them a free hand, allowing them to take over the military arm or "voyenka" of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets. His arrest of Kornilov and other officers left him without strong allies against the Bolsheviks, who ended up being Kerensky's strongest and most determined adversaries, as opposed to the right wing, which evolved into the White movement. During the Kornilov Affair, Kerensky had distributed arms to the Petrograd workers, and by November most of these armed workers had gone over to the Bolsheviks. On 6–7 November [O.S. 25–26 October] 1917 the Bolsheviks launched the second Russian revolution of the year. Kerensky's government in Petrograd had almost no support in the city. Only one small force, the First Petrograd Women's Battalion, also known as The Women's Death Battalion, was willing to fight for the government against the Bolsheviks, but this force, too, crossed over to the revolution without firing a single shot. It took less than 20 hours before the Bolsheviks had taken over the government. Kerensky eventually settled in New York City, but spent much of his time at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California, where he both used and contributed to the Institution's huge archive on Russian history, and where he taught graduate courses. He wrote and broadcast extensively on Russian politics and history. His last public speech was delivered at Kalamazoo College, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kerensky died at his home in New York City in 1970, one of the last surviving major participants in the turbulent events of 1917. The local Russian Orthodox Churches in New York refused to grant Kerensky burial, seeing him as being a freemason and being largely responsible for Russia falling to the Bolsheviks. A Serbian Orthodox Church also refused so Kerensky's body was flown to London where he was buried at Putney Vale's non-denominational cemetery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kerensky
8. Just a quote: “Communism is not [and never was] a creation of the masses to overthrow the Banking establishment, but rather a creation of the Banking establishment to overthrow and enslave the people.” Anthony J. Hilder
9. Just a quote: In 1949, Jacob Schiff’s grandson, John Schiff, was quoted as stating that Jacob Schiff invested “about $20,000,000” in the Russian Revolution. (Cholly Knickerbocker column, New York Journal American, February 3, 1949.) That $20,000,000 would easily equal $400,000,000 in today’s dollars. Please read also Notes #29, 30, 31, 32, and 33.
10. Revolution of 1905
From Wikipedia: The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included terrorism, worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies. It led to the establishment of limited constitutional monarchy, the State Duma of the Russian Empire, the multi-party system, and the Russian Constitution of 1906. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_Russian_Revolution
11. February Revolution of 1917
From Wikipedia: The February Revolution (Russian: Февральская революция) of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd (modern day St. Petersburg) in March (late February in the Julian calendar). Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the collapse of Imperial Russia and the end of the Romanov dynasty. Tsarism was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov, an alliance between liberals and socialists who wanted to instigate political reform, creating a democratically-elected executive and constituent assembly. Socialists also formed the Petrograd Soviet, and the two ruled together in a system known as Dual Power.
This revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, which were compounded by the impact of the First World War. Bread rioters and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected elements of the city's garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops trapped at the Front, the city moved into a state of anarchy, prompting a revolution the Tsarist regime did not survive.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_Revolution
12. October Revolution of 1917
From Wikipedia: It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year. The October Revolution in Petrograd overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and gave the power to the local soviets dominated by Bolsheviks. As the revolution was not universally recognized outside of Petrograd there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. Bolsheviks led their forces in the uprising in Petrograd (modern day Saint Petersburg), the capital of Russia, against the Kerensky Provisional Government. For the most part, the revolt in Petrograd was bloodless, with the Red Guards led by Bolsheviks taking over major government facilities with little opposition before finally launching an assault on the poorly defended Winter Palace. The official Soviet version of events follows: An assault led by Vladmir Lenin was launched at 9:45 p.m. signaled by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora. (The Aurora was placed in Petrograd and still stands there now.) The Winter Palace was guarded by Cossacks, cadets (military students), and a Women's Battalion. It was taken at about 2 a.m. The earlier date was made the official date of the Revolution, when all offices except the Winter Palace had been taken. More contemporary research with access to government archives significantly corrects accepted Soviet edited and embellished history. The archival version shows that parties of Bolshevik operatives sent out from the Smolny by Lenin took over all critical centers of power in Petrograd in the early hours of the night without a shot being fired. In actual fact the effectively unoccupied Winter Palace also was taken bloodlessly by a small group which broke in, got lost in the cavernous interior, and accidentally happened upon the remnants of Kerensky's provisional government in the imperial family's breakfast room. The illiterate revolutionaries then compelled those arrested to write up their own arrest papers. The stories of the "defense of the Winter Palace" and the heroic "Storming of the Winter Palace" came later as the creative propaganda product of Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo stills taken from Sergei Eisenstein's staged film depicting the "politically correct" version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth.
Later official accounts of the revolution from the Soviet Union would depict the events in October as being far more dramatic than they actually had been. (See firsthand account by British General Knox.) This was helped by the historical reenactment, entitled The Storming of the Winter Palace, which was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided the model for official films made much later, which showed a huge storming of the Winter Palace and fierce fighting (See Sergei Eisenstein's October: Ten Days That Shook the World). In reality the Bolshevik insurgents faced little or no opposition. The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which began on 25 October. After a single day of revolution eighteen people had been arrested and two had been killed. In modern times, the case for seeing the October Revolution as "a classic modern coup d'état without mass support" has been proposed by historian Richard Pipes.
In 1911 General Knox was appointed the British Military Attaché in Russia. As a fluent speaker of Russian, he became a liaison officer to the Russian Army during First World War. During October Revolution in Russia Alfred Knox observed the Bolsheviks taking the Winter Palace on 25 October (7 November) 1917:
"The garrison of the Winter Palace originally consisted of about 2,000 all told, including detachments from yunker and ensign schools, three squadrons of Cossacks, a company of volunteers and a company from the Women's Battalion.
The garrison had dwindled owing to desertions, for there were no provisions and it had been practically starved for two days. There was no strong man to take command and to enforce discipline. No one had any stomach for fighting; and some of the ensigns even borrowed great coats of soldier pattern from the women to enable them to escape unobserved.
The greater part of the yunkers of the Mikhail Artillery School returned to their school, taking with them four out of their six guns. Then the Cossacks left, declaring themselves opposed to bloodshed! At 10 p.m. a large part of the ensigns left, leaving few defenders except the ensigns of the Engineering School and the company of women."
In 1921 Knox published his memoirs, With the Russian Army: 1914-1917. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution
13. Alexander Parvus, the “agent extraordinaire”
From Wikipedia: Israel Lazarevich Gelfand (Russian: Изра́иль Ла́заревич Ге́льфанд) best remembered by his pseudonym, Alexander Parvus, was born of ethnic Jewish parents on September 8 [O.S. August 27] 1867 in the shtetl of Berazino, now part of Belarus. He was raised in Odessa (in today's Ukraine), where he began associating with the Jewish revolutionary (The Bund) circles. At age nineteen he left for Basel, where he continued his studies, becoming a doctor of economy in 1891 (his dissertation dealing with "work recovery"). By this time he openly became a Marxist. He moved to Germany, joined the Social Democratic Party and befriended German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. In 1900, he met Vladimir Lenin for the first time, in Munich, each admiring the other's theoretical works. Parvus encouraged Lenin to begin publishing his revolutionary paper Iskra. During this time he developed the concept of using a foreign war to provoke an internal revolt within a country. It was at this time that Parvus revived, from Marx, the concept-strategy of "permanent revolution." He communicated this philosophy to Trotsky who then further expanded and developed it. Some accuse Parvus of having funded Lenin while in Switzerland. A biography of Parvus by the authors Scharlau and Zeman have concluded that there was absolute cooperation between the two. In March 1917, in a plan strategized together with Parvus, German intelligence sent Vladimir Lenin and a group of 30 of his revolutionary associates from Switzerland through Germany in a train car under supervision of Swiss socialist Fritz Platten. As his political activity waned, the war ground to a halt, and he refused to help the new German authorities smash the Spartacist uprising, he retreated to a German island near Berlin. Despite his failure to help the new Weimar Republic regime he was well provided for, living in a well-appointed 32-room mansion in Berlin's Peacock Island. He later published his memoirs from this residence. Parvus died in Berlin on December 12, 1924. His body was cremated and interred in a Berlin cemetery. After his death Konrad Haenisch wrote in his memoir "This man possessed the ablest brains of the Second International."
During his lifetime Alexander Parvus' reputation among his revolutionary peers suffered as a result of the Maxim Gorky affair and the fact that he was in effect a German government agent. At the same time both his business skills and revolutionary ideas were appreciated and relied upon by Russian and German revolutionaries and Ottoman's Young Turks. After the October Revolution in Russia for obvious political reasons his role was denied and he himself vilified. This continued during Stalin's era and sometimes had anti-Semitic overtones to it. In Germany however he was considered favorably. His name is often used in modern political debates in Russia.
Surprisingly, Parvus has left no documents after his death and all of his savings disappeared. Both of his surviving sons became great Soviet diplomats, although one died in the gulag and the other disappeared.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Parvus
14. Anthony C. Sutton
From Wikipedia: Sutton studied at the universities of London, Goettingen, and California and received his D.Sc. degree from University of Southampton, England. He was an economics professor at California State University Los Angeles and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution from 1968 to 1973. During his time at the Hoover Institute he wrote the major study Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (in three volumes), arguing that the West played a major role in developing the Soviet Union from its very beginnings up until the present time (1970). Sutton argued that the Soviet Union's technological and manufacturing base—which was then engaged in supplying the Viet Cong -- was built by United States corporations and largely funded by US taxpayers. Steel and iron plants, the GAZ automobile factory - a Ford subsidiary, located in eastern Russia - and many other Soviet industrial enterprises were, according to Sutton, built with the help or technical assistance of the United States or U.S. corporations. He argued further that the Soviet Union's acquisition of MIRV technology was made possible by receiving (from U.S. sources) machining equipment for the manufacture of precision ball bearings, necessary to mass-produce MIRV-enabled missiles. In 1973 Sutton published a popularized, condensed version of the three volumes called National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, and was thereby forced out of the Hoover Institution.
In his book, Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era (New York: Viking Press; 1970), Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: For impressive evidence of Western participation in the early phase of Soviet economic growth, see Antony C. Sutton's “Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development: 1917-1930,” which argues that Soviet economic development for 1917-1930 was essentially dependent on Western technological aid (p.283), and that at least 95 per cent of the industrial structure received this assistance. (p. 348).
Professor Richard Pipes, of Harvard, said in his book, Survival Is Not Enough: Soviet Realities and America's Future (Simon & Schuster; 1984): “In his three-volume detailed account of Soviet Purchases of Western Equipment and Technology ...Sutton comes to conclusions that are uncomfortable for many businessmen and economists. For this reason his work tends to be either dismissed out of hand as 'extreme' or, more often, simply ignored.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_C._Sutton
15. Andreas von Bülow
From Wikipedia: He served as state-secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Defence (1976-1980) and Minister for Research and Technology (1980-1982), both during the Chancellor Helmut Schmidt administration, and was regarded as a "rising star" of German politics at the time. He served for 25 years as an SPD member of the German parliament (1969-1994). In the late eighties and early nineties, he served on the parliamentary committee on intelligence services ("Parlamentarischer Kontrollausschuss"). This committee supervises German intelligence agencies and has access to classified information. In the early nineties, von Bülow also served as SPD ranking member of the Schalck-Golodkowski investigation committee, a task that first led him to inquire into white collar crime in connection with Eastern intelligence services, and later also into what he labels "criminal activities" of Western intelligence services. His first major publication dealing with this realm, In the Name of the State (German: Im Namen des Staates) is a heavily referenced and extensive study focusing mostly on the CIA. Since leaving the Bundestag, he has largely left the SPD's political loop.
He has written a book called The CIA and September 11 (German: Die CIA und der 11. September), in which he implies US government complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Planning the attacks was a master deed, in technical and organizational terms. To hijack four big airliners within a few minutes and fly them into targets within a single hour and doing so on complicated flight routes! That is unthinkable, without backing from the secret apparatuses of state and industry." Tagesspiegel,13. Jan. 2002
He told The Daily Telegraph at his home in Bonn.
"If what I say is right, the whole US government should end up behind bars" and "They have hidden behind a veil of secrecy and destroyed the evidence - that they invented the story of 19 Muslims working within Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda - in order to hide the truth of their own covert operation"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_von_B%C3%BClow
16. Adam Pearlman A.K.A. Adam Yahiye Gadahn
From Wikipedia: born Adam Pearlman, September 1, 1978) is an American senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman and media advisor for the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Since 2004, he appeared in a number of videos produced by Al-Qaeda as "Azzam the American" ('Azzām al-Amrīki, عزام الأمريكي, sometimes transcribed as Ezzam Al-Amerikee). Gadahn converted to Sunni Islam in 1995, at the age of 17, at a California mosque and is described as a "homegrown," meaning that he has converted to an ideology so firmly that he is now willing to harm his country of origin. He is believed to have inspired the 2007 Osama bin Laden video. Gadahn's Jewish paternal grandfather, Carl Pearlman, was a prominent urologist; and on the Board of Directors of the Anti-Defamation League. According to Gadahn, he was a "zealous supporter" of Israel. Gadahn's paternal grandmother, Agnes Branch, a Christian, was an editor for The Chronicle Christian Newspaper. Gadahn's father, originally Phil Pearlman, grew up in Orange County, California. He was involved in the counterculture movement at the University of California at Irvine, and before Adam's birth became a Christian. Gadahn described his father as having been "raised agnostic or atheist, but he became a believer in One God when he picked up a Bible left on the beach.” His father's religious perspective was flexible and based upon his own spiritual needs and as a new convert to Islam, Gadahn portrayed his father in manner sympathetic to his religion of conversion. Phil and his wife Jennifer changed their name to Gadahn, after the Biblical warrior Gideon. In a short period of time, Gadahn became a senior commander to Bin Laden and is assumed to be playing the role of "translator, video producer, and cultural interpreter." Gadahn declared his animosity towards the US by declaring it "enemy soil" and praising the individuals responsible for the September 11 attacks. The first production of al-Qaeda's media division, As-Sahab, was believed to have been in 2001 with the involvement of Adam Yahiye Gadahn. US and British intelligence officials believe it to be run by Gadahn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn
17. Poland probes 'secret CIA jail'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7581143.stm
In “good tradition” of Stefan Michnik!
18. Polish probe urged of CIA 'black site,' 'torture'
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/22/polish-probe-urged-of-cia-black-site-torture/
19. Definition of “Black Site”
From Wikipedia In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States (U.S.) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It can refer to the facilities that are controlled by the CIA used by the U.S. government in its War on Terror to detain alleged unlawful enemy combatants.
U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006. A claim that the black sites existed was made by The Washington Post in November 2005 and before this by human rights NGOs (non-governmental organizations).
Many European countries have officially denied they are hosting black sites to imprison terrorists or cooperating in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program. Not one country has confirmed that it is hosting black sites. However, a European Union (EU) report adopted on February 14, 2007, by a majority of the European Parliament (382 MEPs voting in favour, 256 against and 74 abstaining) stated the CIA operated 1,245 flights and that it was not possible to contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centres were operated in Poland and Romania.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site
20. Where on Earth is Osama bin Laden?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8274713/Where-on-Earth-is-Osama-bin-Laden.html
Editor's note: The above link is not operational any longer.
21. Armand Hammer
From Wikipedia: Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American business tycoon most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran for decades, though he was known as well as for his art collection, his philanthropy, and for his close ties to the Soviet Union.
Hammer was born in Manhattan, New York to Russian-born Jewish immigrants Julius and Rose (Lipshitz) Hammer. His father came to the United States from Odessa in 1875, and settled in The Bronx, where he ran a general medical practice and five drugstores.
In fact, according to multiple biographers, Hammer was named after the "Arm and Hammer" symbol of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), in which his father, a committed socialist, had a leadership role at one time. (After the Russian Revolution, a part of the SLP under Julius' leadership split off to become a founding element of the Communist Party USA.) Later in his life, Hammer would admit the communist tie himself.
According to Hammer, he scored his first business triumph in 1919, manufacturing and selling a ginger extract which legally contained high levels of alcohol. This was extremely popular during prohibition, and the company had $1 million in sales that year. In 1921, while waiting for his internship to begin at Bellevue Hospital, Hammer went to the Soviet Union for a trip that ended up lasting until late 1930.
Hammer's intentions in the 1921 trip have been debated since. He has claimed that he originally intended to recoup $150,000 in debts for drugs shipped during the Allied intervention, but was soon moved by a capitalistic and philanthropic interest in selling wheat to the then-starving Russians. In his passport application, Hammer stated that he intended to visit only western Europe. J. Edgar Hoover in the Justice Department knew this was false, but Hammer was allowed to travel anyway.
Politically, Hammer was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He boosted Richard Nixon's presidential campaign with $54,000 in campaign contributions. He was convicted on charges that one of these donations had been made illegally, but was later pardoned by Republican U.S. President George H. W. Bush.