Leo Jogiches
Leo Jogiches
1867–1919
✕ Murdered
The revolution's underground organizer, always behind the scenes, until he had to lead
On 10 March 1919, still investigating the killings of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Jogiches was arrested and shot in the back of the head in Berlin's Moabit prison within hours. His last words to an interrogator: 'You will never find these murderers.'
Polish-Jewish Marxist revolutionary. Co-founded the SDKPiL with Rosa Luxemburg in 1893, the main forerunner of the Communist Party of Poland. During the First World War he was the key behind-the-scenes organizer of the underground Spartacus League in Germany. For decades Luxemburg's closest political comrade and personal companion, a brilliant organizer who struggled to write for himself. After Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered in January 1919, Jogiches took over KPD leadership and investigated their killings, only to be assassinated by the same Freikorps milieu two months later.
Career timeline
- 1885Founded one of Vilnius's first underground socialist study circles
- 1890Fled conscription to Zürich; met Rosa Luxemburg
- 1892Founded the Social-Democratic Library publishing house
- 1893Co-founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP, later SDKPiL) with Luxemburg
- 1905–1906Led SDKPiL Central Committee in Warsaw; arrested, sentenced to 8 years' hard labor, escaped
- 1907Elected candidate member of the RSDLP Central Committee at the London Congress
- 1916–1918Directed the underground Spartacus League; oversaw the Spartacus newsletter
- 1919.1–1919.3Took over KPD leadership; led the investigation into the murders of Luxemburg and Liebknecht