People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Diplomacy and international organization 1
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 33 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 19 Soviet Unionstate 19 Left Opposition 17 Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries 10 Left Communists 5 Democratic Centralists (Decists) 5 Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR) 5 Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) 1

All 29 affiliations

France

French Communist Party (PCF) 2 General Confederation of Labour (CGT, France) 1 French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) 1

Georgia

Georgia state institutionsstate 1

Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 2

International organizations

Comintern 3

Netherlands

Netherlands state institutionsstate 1

Poland

Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) 1

Russia

Russian Empirestate 1 Kronstadt Provisional Revolutionary Committee 1 Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR) 5 Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries 10 Mensheviks (RSDLP) 1 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 19

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 33 ↳ Left Communists 5 ↳ Democratic Centralists (Decists) 5 ↳ Workers' Opposition 3 ↳ Workers' Group 1 ↳ Left Opposition 17 ↳ Union of Marxist-Leninists (Ryutin group) 1 Soviet Unionstate 19

Spain

Communist Party of Spain (PCE) 1 Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) 1 Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) 1

Ukraine

↳ Soviet Ukrainestate 4

United Kingdom

Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) 1

United States

Socialist Workers Party (United States) 3 Socialist Party of America 1
Position(set)
Any Left critics of Bolshevism 1 Marxism and communism 7
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 1
Background
Any Poland 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The revolutionary generation1917–1940 1
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) Left critics of Bolshevism Clear all
GlossarySocial Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL)

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