The astrophysicist who mapped the Milky Way, and the council communist Lenin attacked in 'Left-Wing Communism'
One summer night in Bremen, 1908 — after teaching a workers' class — Pannekoek went out with his telescope. His verbal descriptions of the Milky Way clouds, notebook after notebook, would later become the evidence that let stellar statisticians first gauge the distance to our galaxy's spiral arms.
Dutch astronomer and founder of council communism. He won the RAS Gold Medal for his work on stellar atmospheres and galactic structure. In the Dutch and German left he built the theory of workers' council revolution, becoming the principal target of Lenin's 'Left-Wing Communism'.
Career timeline
- 1899Observer at Leiden Observatory; PhD on Algol variability
- 1901Joins the Dutch SDAP
- 1906–1914Active in the SPD left wing in Berlin and Bremen; party-school teacher
- 1909Co-founds the Social Democratic Party, forerunner of the Dutch CP
- 1918–1921Co-founds the Dutch CP; Comintern Amsterdam Bureau
- 1920Target of Lenin's pamphlet; replies with 'World Revolution and Communist Tactics'
- 1921–1927Expelled from CP; active in KAPN and the Communist Workers' International
- 1925–1942Professor at University of Amsterdam; founds the astronomical institute
- 1938Publishes 'Lenin as Philosopher' under pseudonym J. Harper
- 1946Publishes 'Workers' Councils' as P. Aartsz
The Dutch revolutionary who planted communist seeds in Indonesia and China, then fought both Stalinism and Nazism
On the night of 12 April 1942 at Amersfoort camp, bound and facing the firing squad, Sneevliet refused a blindfold and together with seven comrades sang 'The Internationale.' He asked the executioners to untie his hands; they refused.
Dutch revolutionary. In the East Indies he co-founded the ISDV, forerunner of the Indonesian Communist Party; as Comintern envoy he brokered the founding of the Chinese Communist Party and the First United Front. He fought both Stalinism and Nazism before his execution in 1942.
Career timeline
- 1902–1911Dutch railway & tram union (NV) officer; chairman in 1911
- 1912Joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP); wrote for De Nieuwe Tijd
- 1914–1918Dutch East Indies — co-founded ISDV, organized railway union, expelled
- 1920PKI delegate to 2nd Comintern Congress; elected to ECCI
- 1921–1923Comintern representative in China — CCP founding, Sun Yat-sen meeting, First United Front
- 1924–1927CPN Central Committee, NAS secretary; broke with Stalinism
- 1929–1938Founded and led RSAP; International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Unity
- 1933–1937Dutch MP — elected from prison for supporting naval mutiny
- 1940–1942Organized MLL-Front, published Spartakus, February 1941 strike, arrested & executed
Author of the “People’s Trilogy”, who used provincial party archives to put the Great Famine’s death toll at 45 million
A Dutch historian of modern China, author of The People's Trilogy, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize.
A Dutch historian who taught at SOAS in London before becoming a professor at the University of Hong Kong. Mao’s Great Famine (2010), drawing on provincial party archives opened in the 2000s, estimated that at least 45 million people died of hunger, violence and overwork during the Great Leap and argued that the famine was the result of state violence rather than natural disaster or planning error; it won the Samuel Johnson Prize. The Tragedy of Liberation (1949–1957) and The Cultural Revolution (1962–1976) completed the trilogy. His figures and interpretation are contested; other scholars put the famine’s toll between 15 and 36 million.
Career timeline
- 2006–Chair professor of humanities, University of Hong Kong
