Russian Revolution as a student in Tartu. Sentenced but amnestied
after three months, he remained illegally in Estonia as a key Bolshe-
vik organizer for two years. His university studies resumed in Berlin
and Leipzig in 1908, followed by Zurich and Bern two years later. At
the outbreak of World War I, he offered his services to the German
ambassador in Bern, stressing his contacts with a broad spectrum of
revolutionary figures, and had his first and only meeting with V. I.
Lenin. Kesküla’s overriding aim involved securing Estonia’s inde-
pendence from tsarist rule, which entailed limited collaboration with
both the Germans and the Bolsheviks. He repeatedly emphasized
Lenin’s pivotal position in the revolutionary movement as well as
the compatibility of Bolshevik foreign policy objectives with Ger-
man war planning.
In spring 1915, the German government issued Kesküla a passport
in the name of Alexander Stein and—with a generous stipend—
instructed him to establish an intelligence network based in Scandi-
navia. According to the arrangement, Kesküla obtained information
from Lenin’s circle via a fellow Estonian, Arthur Siefeldt, who in-
filtrated small sums into the Bolshevik organization in Switzerland.
Kesküla also helped finance the publication of writings by Lenin and
Nikolai Bukharin in Sweden. A further line of communication for
intelligence about Russia was established with revolutionary Finnish
underground groups, which also received large German subsidies.
Kesküla’s relationship with the Germans—a completely separate
enterprise from that of Alexander Helphand (whom he regarded as
a charlatan)—ended in late 1916. To the astonishment of the postwar
German Foreign Office, Kesküla regarded the moneys he had re-
ceived as a type of loan and decided to repay the full amount, albeit
at the height of the 1923 inflation. He also was deeply disappointed
in the independent Estonia that emerged and never set foot in the
country.KIESSLING AFFAIR. An attempt to dismiss a Bundeswehr general
because of alleged homosexuality, the Kiessling Affair originated in
the Militärischer Abschirmdienst (MAD; Military Counterintel-
ligence Service) in fall 1983. On 15 September, after receiving a
report from MAD chief Helmut Berendt regarding Günter Kiessling,
a four-star general and deputy commander of the European forces
230 • KIESSLING AFFAIR