It is one of history's great ironies that the Communist Revolution in Russia was essentially financed by the salons of the super-wealthy on New York's upper east side and in London. Pyotr Kropotkin made a killing in Lenin's behalf, seeking the financial support of the third generation Astors, Morgans, Vanderbilts, etc.
That Kropotkin's name should become the genesis for the term "crackpot" was never quite understood by these wealthhy naifs.
Thanks for the bit of info on Kropotkin...interesting fact.
I recently read “The Myth of the Robber Barons” and it had a short bio of Cornelius Vanderbilt among others. His low-cost steamship lines opened travel to the masses. His competitors in the mid 1800s were all taking federal subsidies which they used to build floating palaces for the ultra-wealthy. His competitors went bankrupt and Vanderbilt became fabulously wealthy. History merely repeats itself with Solyndra, et al.
It is a tragedy of human nature that the children and grandchildren who inherited the wealth naively sponsored, championed, and financed communism to atone for their guilt. Of course, that was back when such people harbored childish utopian dreams and before the mass killings and subjugation of hundreds of millions in totalitarian nightmares.