Grimm, Robert

The son of a locksmith, Robert Grimm, in 1898, learned to become a typographer and mechanic, and entered the Social Democratic movement through trade union activity. In 1906 - 1909 he was the secretary of the Basel workers' union, at the same time in 1907 he founded the union of trade workers and movers, the secretary of which was also until 1909 ^[1] .

In 1909-1918 - Secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.

In 1909-1918 and 1928 - 1932 he was the chief editor of the newspaper Berner Tagwacht (Bernese Sentinel), an organ of the Swiss Social Democrats.

Since 1911 - Member of the Swiss Parliament.

Since the beginning of the First World War - internationalist and pacifist. Regarding the Zimmerwald Conference, Angelica Balabanova recalled: “The initiative ... came mainly from Robert Grimm, an energetic and intelligent Swiss journalist and socialist leader. The newspaper he edited, Berner Tagwacht, contained all that could be published, information about the confrontation of the war in various countries ” ^[2] . Grimm took over the organization of the conference, chaired its meetings, headed its "center" and was elected to the executive body of the new association - the International Socialist Commission (ISC); actually led the Zimmerald movement. He in 1916 organized a conference of the Zimmerwaldists in Kienthal.

In 1917

After the February Revolution, Grimm, as the head of ISK, tried to help Russian emigrants who were denied visas to return to their homeland. Subsequently it became clear, writes Sukhanov, that Grimm “went to this goal behind the scenes”, resorting to the mediation of the head of the political department of the Swiss government Arthur Hoffmann ^[3] . “According to Grimm, he preferred secret diplomacy over explicit, fearing reprisals from the Entente and violation of Swiss neutrality” ^[4] . The Bolsheviks knew about Grimm’s penchant for secret diplomacy and, preferring to act openly and officially, refused his services. The Mensheviks-internationalists led by Yu.O. Martov and P. B. Axelrod and the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were stuck in Switzerland, as N. N. Sukhanov testifies, did not suspect this “behind-the-scenes peacekeeping” and did not see anything reprehensible in the fact that the trip they were accompanied by Grimm ^[4] .

The Hoffmann-Grimm Scam

In May 1917 , setting off for Russia with a group of Russian emigrants, Grimm agreed at the request of Arthur Hoffman ^{[5] to} probe the ground for a separate peace between Russia and Germany . Having met in Petrograd with a number of ministers and politicians close to the government, Grimm on May 26, through the Swiss envoy, informed Hoffmann that a separate peace seemed to him quite possible, and asked for more accurate information about the goals of the warring countries “(if Hoffmann knows them)” ^[6] . Hoffmann’s return telegram, which, according to Sukhanov, reported that Germany would not take the offensive, until it seemed possible to agree with Russia, and expressed confidence that “if the allies of Russia wished, Germany and its allies would be ready to immediately begin negotiations on the world ” ^[3] , was intercepted by the French socialist A. Thoma , who was then in Russia. The incident caused an international scandal and called into question the neutrality of Switzerland ; Grimm himself was declared a German agent and was immediately expelled by the Provisional Government from Russia; however, the Government did not explain the true reasons for his expulsion ^[7] . “Strictly speaking,” writes I. Deutscher , “Grimm was not a German spy. As a simple-minded pacifist, he considered it quite natural to probe the soil on the subject of peace. Not very well versed in the intrigues of Russian revolutionary politics, he could not understand why the Russian socialists ... find something reprehensible in his actions ” ^[8] . Sukhanov agrees with Deutscher: “He turned out to be just a confused pacifist. He reasoned that for Russia, for the Russian revolution, a separate peace is better than continuing the war. And he tried to promote him with the crudely naive methods of the bourgeois pacifist ” ^[4] .

But, since Grimm came to Russia primarily as the leader of the Zimmerwald movement - to negotiate with the Russian socialists to convene a conference in Stockholm , the telegram scandal was immediately used against the left socialists. “Russia at that moment,” writes A. Balabanova, “was on the verge of a new offensive, and all those who opposed it, whether they were Mensheviks, Bolsheviks or socialist revolutionaries, were viciously accused by all the war elements as German agitators whom they brought in the country is German agent Grimm " ^[9] . And until now, many researchers use the name of Grimm as evidence of the connection of the Bolsheviks with the German General Staff ^[10] . But the incident, which went down in history as the “Hoffmann-Grimm Scam”, inflicted, according to A. Balabanova, a “nearly fatal blow” to the entire anti-war movement in Europe, and although no one doubted his good intentions from the leadership of the Zimmerwald movement Grimm was removed in the same year 1917.

After World War I

In November 1918 , following the example of the Russian revolutionaries, Grimm called on the Swiss workers to a general strike and himself led the strike committee ^[1] . While some protesters thus hoped to provoke a revolution, others chose to limit themselves to specific requirements for the government, including setting a minimum wage, an 8-hour work day, an old-age pension, and giving women political rights. The strike that took place from November 11 to 14 did not produce the expected results (many of the strikers' demands were met only after the Second World War); and Grimm himself was sentenced by a military court to 6 months in prison.

Grimm, who never shared the position of the Zimmerwald Left , opposed the accession of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland to the Third International in 1920 . In 1921, together with F. Adler , O. Bauer , Yu. O. Martov, and V. M. Chernov, Grimm was one of the initiators of the creation of the so-called “two-half” (or Vienna) International - an association of Zimmerwaldists who broke with the Second International, but who did not want to join the Comintern . The Vienna International did not exist for long, and in May 1923 it merged with the Second International; as a result of the merger, the Socialist Workers International was formed , the fate of which repeated the fate of the Second International: it fell apart during the Second World War ^[11] .

In 1945 - 1946, Grimm was chairman of the Swiss National Council.

• Geschichte der Schweiz in ihren Klassenkämpfen. Bern, 1920
• Geschichte der sozialistischen Ideen in der Schweiz, Z., 1931