Armand Hammer

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Lore & Background

Armand Hammer was born in New York City to Rose and Julius Hammer, Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, a communist activist, helped found the Communist Party USA and was sentenced to three and a half years in Sing Sing prison for first-degree manslaughter after a patient died following an abortion he performed. While his father was imprisoned, Hammer and his brother took over the family business, Allied Drug. In 1919, Hammer manufactured and sold a ginger extract legally high in alcohol, which was extremely popular during Prohibition, bringing in $1 million in sales that year. After graduating from Columbia College in 1919 and receiving his medical degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1921, Hammer traveled to the Soviet Union as his father's envoy. On his first trip, he took $60,000 in medical supplies to aid a typhus epidemic and made a deal with Lenin for furs, caviar, and jewelry in exchange for a million bushels of surplus American wheat. Lenin granted him a 25-year asbestos concession in the Urals. Hammer moved to the USSR in the 1920s to oversee operations, including a large business manufacturing and exporting pens and pencils. During his time in the Soviet Union, he perfected bribery and money-laundering techniques, which were later exposed in the 1960s and 1970s when he tape-recorded his payoffs.

Reader's Guide

Armand Hammer's significance lies in his role as a bridge between American capitalism and the Soviet Union. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, his "citizen diplomacy" and business interests worldwide helped him cultivate a wide network of friends and associates. However, his legacy is complicated. During Lenin's New Economic Policy, Hammer became the mediator for 38 international companies in their dealings with the USSR, and he negotiated the import of Fordson tractors into the country. After Stalin came to power, additional deals were negotiated with Hammer as an American–Soviet negotiator. The source notes a dispute: most historians state Julius performed the abortion that led to his imprisonment, but author Edward Jay Epstein claimed it was Armand, then a medical student, who performed it, with his father assuming the blame. This claim came from interview comments by Bettye Murphy, who had been Armand's mistress. A skeptical U.S. government, including J. Edgar Hoover, watched Hammer throughout his life, with Hoover ensuring foreign intelligence agencies were notified of Hammer's travels.

Did You Know?

• Hammer's father Julius was sentenced to three and a half years in Sing Sing prison for first-degree manslaughter after a patient died following an abortion he performed.
• In 1919, Hammer made $1 million in sales from a ginger extract that was legally high in alcohol and extremely popular during Prohibition.
• On his first trip to Soviet Russia, Hammer took $60,000 in medical supplies to aid a typhus epidemic and made a deal with Lenin for furs, caviar, and jewelry in exchange for a million bushels of American wheat.
• Hammer allowed the Cheka, the Soviet secret police, to take control of Allied Drug and Chemical during his first visit to Soviet Russia.
• J. Edgar Hoover, tipped off that Hammer was a courier for the COMINTERN, ensured foreign intelligence agencies were notified of Hammer's travels.