efforts were valuable not only for the practical help they offered in terms of famine relief, but also due to their propaganda value for the communist movement in Germany and around the world. IAH also owned the Moscow-based film studio Mezhrabpomfilm, which employed 400 members of staff and produced films by Soviet directors including Vsevolod Pudovkin and Nikolai Ekk. Their films, as well as other Soviet productions, were distributed in Germany by its subsidiary Prometheus-Filmgesellschaft, including Battleship Potemkin, which became a major hit in Germany after receiving a poor reception in the Soviet Union. Prometheus also produced films in Germany, such as Kuhle Wampe, whose script was co-written by Bertolt Brecht. In 1924 he launched Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, an illustrated weekly which became the most widely read socialist pictorial newspaper in Germany, achieving a circulation of almost half a million.<ref>Brasken, Kasper. "Willi Münzenberg und die Internationale Arbeiterhilfe (IAH) 1921 bis 1933: eine neue Geschichte". In: Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, No.III/2012, p. 74</ref> AIZ was the most popular of a range of publications produced by Münzenberg, some of which were aimed at the Communist Party membership, but most of which were intended for a broader audience. After directing the Comintern's handling of the Sacco and Vanzetti case in 1925, Münzenberg took charge of the League against Imperialism, created in Brussels in 1927. In addition, Münzenberg worked closely with the Comintern and the Soviet secret police (known as the Cheka in 1917–22 and as the OGPU in 1922–34) to advance the Communist cause internationally. To broaden the Comintern's influence, Münzenberg created numerous front organizations, which he termed "Innocents' Clubs".Wilford, Hugh, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America, Harvard University Press, 2008; pp. 12–13 These front groups, such the Friends of Soviet Russia, the League Against Imperialism and Workers International Relief were superficially devoted to an undeniably benign cause such as famine relief, anti-imperialism or peace, but Münzenberg created them to enlist the support of liberals and moderate socialists in defending the Bolshevik revolution. As he told a fellow Comintern member, "These people have the belief they are actually doing this themselves. This belief must be preserved at any price." The front organizations, in turn, helped fund the acquisition of the Münzenberg Trust, a collection of small newspapers, publishing houses, movie houses, and theatres in locations around the world. Münzenberg, referred to by some as the "Red Millionaire", used the businesses