People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Diplomacy and international organization 1
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 208 Soviet Union state institutions 167 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 106 Left Opposition 16 Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries 15 Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR) 13 Comintern 8 Soviet Ukraine state institutions 6 Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1

All 26 affiliations

France

French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) 1

Georgia

Georgia state institutions 1

Germany

Communist Party of Germany (KPD) 1 Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1

International organizations

Comintern 8

Poland

Communist Party of Poland (KPP) 2 Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) 4

Russia

Russian Empire state institutions 6 Kronstadt Provisional Revolutionary Committee 1 Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR) 13 Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries 15 Mensheviks (RSDLP) 3 Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) 1 Russian Orthodox Church 1 General Jewish Labour Bund 1 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 106

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 208 ↳ Left Communists 5 ↳ Democratic Centralists (Decists) 5 ↳ Workers' Opposition 3 ↳ Workers' Group 1 ↳ Left Opposition 16 ↳ Union of Marxist-Leninists (Ryutin group) 1 Soviet Union state institutions 167

Ukraine

Ukrainian People's Republic state institutions 2 ↳ Soviet Ukraine state institutions 6
Position
Any Left critics of Bolshevism 1
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 1
Background
Any Poland 1
Era(set)
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The revolutionary generation1917–1940 1

People of the wider world

The age of the Internationals and empires1820–1917 7 The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 16 The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 12
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) The revolutionary generation 1917–1940 Clear all
GlossarySocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

Karl Berngardovich Radek

Karol Radek
Comintern Left critics of Bolshevism Soviet Union Poland 1885–1939 ✕ Killed in prison

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.

Career timeline
  • 1917–1923International communist and diplomatic work
  • 1923–1927Left Opposition leadership
  • 1937–1939Trial, imprisonment and killing