The polemicist who survived trial only to die in prison
"Do you know the difference between Stalin and Moses? Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, but Comrade Stalin led them out of the Politburo." — Radek to Boris Bazhanov, after Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Politburo.
A Polish-born Jewish journalist and diplomat who moved between the international social-democratic and communist movements. A close associate of Lenin, he participated in the Brest-Litovsk negotiations and the founding of the Comintern, serving on the Bolshevik Central Committee and as Comintern secretary. Renowned for his sharp polemics and biting wit, he led the Left Opposition before recanting publicly in 1930 and rejoining the Party. During the Great Purge he became the central defendant at the Second Moscow Trial, delivering theatrical confessions that earned him a 10-year sentence; in 1939 he was killed in prison on Stalin's orders.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1917–1923International communist and diplomatic work
- 1923–1927Left Opposition leadership
- 1937–1939Trial, imprisonment and killing
Related historical events
- 1907–1919The collapse of the Second InternationalDrafted the Zimmerwald Left manifestoWrote the left’s draft manifesto and joined its bureau.
- 1917.12–1918.11Brest-Litovsk and Germany’s eastern occupationBrest-Litovsk negotiatorAs a close associate of Lenin, he participated in the Brest-Litovsk negotiations.
- 1918.10–1919.08The German Revolution of 1918–1919Bolshevik envoy at the KPD founding congressAttended the founding congress, opposed the January rising and was arrested in February 1919.
- 1919–1921The Soviet-Polish WarThe Comintern's Poland expert, sceptical of a Polish risingThe Comintern's Poland expert, he warned of the force of Polish nationalism before the advance and doubted that Polish workers would rise.
- 1919–1921The founding of the CominternSecretary of the ExecutiveWas in a German prison during the founding congress and after his release served as secretary of the Executive in 1920.
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)part of the Left Opposition leadership, participated in the NEP policy debate
- 1923–1927The Succession Struggle and the Left OppositionLeft Opposition leaderHe served in the leadership of the Left Opposition.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeLeft Opposition targetImprisoned after the 1937 trial, he was killed in prison in 1939.
The Second Moscow Trial and Death in Prison
Arrested in September 1936, Radek became the central defendant in the 'Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center' trial, the Second Moscow Trial, in January 1937. In court he delivered detailed confessions with theatrical flair. The German writer Lion Feuchtwanger, who attended, recorded how Radek pushed Pyatakov away from the microphone, sipped tea with lemon, and calmly recounted 'monstrous deeds.' On 30 January 1937, to general surprise, he received 10 years rather than the death penalty, an outcome widely interpreted as a bid to extract further testimony against Bukharin for the forthcoming Third Trial. Radek was transferred to the Verkhneuralsk political isolator, where on 19 May 1939 he was strangled by a fellow inmate. A 1956–61 KGB investigation established that the murder was carried out on Stalin's direct orders, organised by Beria and Kobulov, and executed under the supervision of NKVD operative Kubatkin; the killer, 'Varezhnikov,' was in fact NKVD agent I.I. Stepanov. Radek was posthumously rehabilitated in 1988.