People's commissar of the Hungarian Soviet Republic turned "John Pepper", the Comintern's man in the American party
Born to a Jewish family in Budapest, he worked as a journalist for the Social Democratic paper. In 1918 he became chairman of the Budapest Soldiers' Council, and in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 he served as people's commissar for war and for education. In exile he became a Comintern functionary, took part in the German March Action of 1921 and in 1922 was sent to the United States, where as "John Pepper" he became a power in the American Communist Party. Siding with Bukharin alongside the Lovestone faction, he was removed from all Comintern functions in 1929. Arrested in 1937, he was executed in 1938.
Also known as: John Pepper · Joseph Pogany · József Schwartz
Activities and affiliations
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1919
Hungary state institutionsPeople's Commissar of War and of Education, Hungarian Soviet Republic
Government and administration -
1919
Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP)
Ideology and propaganda -
1919–1922
Party of Communists in Hungary (KMP)
Political and party leadership -
1921–1929
CominternMember of the ECCI Presidium; Comintern envoy to the USMain
Diplomacy and international organization -
1922–1929
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1918.11Head of the Budapest Soldiers' Council.
- 1919.03.21People's Commissar of War of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
- 1919.04Moved to deputy foreign affairs, then education commissar.
- 1921.03Took part in the German March Action with Béla Kun.
- 1922.07Sent to the US by the Comintern; took the name John Pepper.
- 1925Recalled to Moscow; head of the Comintern Information Department.
- 1927.07Elected to the ECCI Presidium.
- 1929.09Removed from all Comintern functions.
- 1937.07.27Arrested by the NKVD.
- 1938.02.08Executed the day of his summary trial.
- 1956.05.30Rehabilitated by the Soviet Supreme Court Military Collegium.
"John Pepper": the Comintern's man in the American party (1922–1929)
After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic Pogány fled via Austria to Soviet Russia, where he worked in the Comintern apparatus, allied with Béla Kun's émigré faction. In July 1922 the Comintern sent him to the United States to assist the Hungarian Federation of the Communist Party of America. There he took the name "John Pepper", learned English, narrowly escaped the police raid on the Bridgman convention, and became the most forceful advocate of abandoning underground isolation and building a mass Labor Party. Allied with Ruthenberg, he headed one of the two main factions of the American party in the later 1920s; the rival James P. Cannon recalled that he ran the party "with the arbitrary authority of a receiver appointed by the court to take over a bankrupt concern".
Recalled to Moscow in 1925 at the demand of the Foster–Cannon faction, Pepper headed the Comintern Information Department while continuing to back the Ruthenberg–Lovestone faction, and in July 1927 he was elected to the ECCI Presidium. When Stalin and Bukharin parted in 1928, however, his views came under fire at the Ninth Plenum of the ECCI and the Sixth World Congress. In May 1929 the Comintern informed the American party in an open letter that the "Pepper case" would go to the International Control Commission, and in September he was removed from all Comintern functions. The Tenth Plenum's theses that year welcomed the liquidation of the influence of "opportunist factional leaders (Lovestone, Pepper)".
After his dismissal he worked as head of publicity at the People's Commissariat of the Food Industry. Arrested in July 1937, he was tried summarily for "participation in a counter-revolutionary organization" on 8 February 1938 and executed the same day; he was rehabilitated in 1956.