Japanese communist founder who shook Plekhanov's hand and shaped Comintern East Asia strategy
Amsterdam, 1904. When the chair announced that the vice-chairs were the delegates of the two warring powers — Plekhanov and Katayama — the two rose and clasped hands in silence. The hall answered with a standing ovation.
Father of Japanese communism. Born in Okayama, he studied in the United States and founded Japan's first trade union and Social Democratic Party. As a Comintern Executive Committee member he shaped anti-imperialist strategy for East Asia, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall.
Career timeline
1884–1896Studied in US; Grinnell College and Yale Divinity; became Christian and socialist
1896–1901Returned; founded Iron Workers' Union, Labour World, Social Democratic Party
1904Amsterdam Second International; anti-war handshake with Plekhanov
1911–1912Led Tokyo streetcar strike; 9 months imprisonment
1914–1921Exiled to US; joined CPUSA; communist groups among Japanese workers
1921–1922Via Mexico to Soviet Russia; led founding of Japanese Communist Party
1922–1933ECCI member and Presidium; anti-imperialist and anti-war congresses
The Comintern's first secretary, who taught Mussolini and branded him traitor
"I had never seen a more wretched human being" — on first meeting Mussolini in Lausanne
Russian-born Italian socialist. First secretary of the Comintern, she taught Mussolini Marxism and publicly denounced him as a traitor when he embraced fascism. She broke with Bolshevism in 1922 and led Italy's maximalist socialist faction.
Career timeline
1897Left Russia for Brussels; earned a doctorate in philosophy and literature at the New University
1900Joined the Italian Socialist Party (PSI); organised immigrant textile workers
1912–1914PSI Central Committee member and Avanti! editor; worked alongside Mussolini
1915–1916Participated in the Zimmerwald and Kienthal anti-war conferences
1917Returned to Russia and joined the Bolshevik Party
1919–1920First secretary of the Comintern; organised the 1st and 2nd Congresses
1922–1930Broke with Bolshevism; returned to Italy to lead the PSI maximalist faction
1930–1945Led the PSIm (Maximalist Socialist Party); anti-fascist work in Swiss, French, and US exile
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
The Indian Marxist who debated Lenin on colonial revolution
"You are so young! I expected a grey-bearded wise man from the East." — Lenin's first words to the 27-year-old Indian revolutionary upon meeting him at the Kremlin, 1920.
Bengali Marxist. He debated Lenin on the colonial question at the 1920 Comintern Congress and founded the Mexican Communist Party (the first outside Russia) as well as the CPI. Expelled from the Comintern, he served six years in British prisons before turning to Radical Humanism.
Career timeline
1917Co-founded the Socialist Party of Mexico, soon transformed into the Mexican Communist Party
1919Founded the Mexican Communist Party, the first communist party outside Russia
1920Presented supplementary theses on the colonial question at the 2nd Comintern Congress, debated Lenin
1920Founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) in exile
1922–1929Member of the Comintern Executive Committee and Presidium; secretary of the Chinese Commission
1929Expelled from the Comintern for siding with Bukharin's Right Opposition
1931–1936Arrested by British colonial authorities, imprisoned for 6 years on conspiracy charges
1940–1948Founded the Radical Democratic Party; supported the anti-fascist war effort
1947Published the New Humanism manifesto, articulating his Radical Humanist philosophy
