Aleksander Kesküla

Who was Aleksander Kesküla?

Aleksander Eduard Kesküla was an Estonian politician and revolutionary.

Kesküla studied politics and economics in the universities of Tartu, Berlin, Zürich, Leipzig and Bern.

In 1905, as a Bolshevik intended to create strife inside of the Russian empire and, as Elisabeth Heresch tried to prove, did it in Japanese spy's, Motojiro Akashi's interest.

In 1913. he became an Estonian nationalist and wanted to play a role in the world's political arena. In 1914-1915, he informed the German government about Lenin´s plans and intended to use Bolshevik agitation to replace the Russian empire with a number of national states. While earlier scholarship has expressed skepticism, Estonian research indicates that 500,000 German Reichsmark was paid to Lenin by Germany using Kesküla as a conduit. It is concluded that Kesküla exerted no visile influence on Lenin and that he had minimal contact with Lenin. Kesküla had given the Germans little of substance and he did not deliver any significant sums to the Bolshevisk.

In 1918, he founded the Estonian Office in Stockholm to seek the support of the Entente states for Estonian independence.