Netherlands

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1873–1960 ○ Natural causes

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'.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1883–1942 ✕ Executed

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.