Founder of the Icarian movement who coined the term 'communism'
On February 3, 1848, sixty-nine of Cabet's followers boarded a ship at Le Havre. 'To Icaria!' They set sail to build a communist paradise in the New World.
French utopian socialist and founder of the Icarian movement. In 1840 he published Voyage en Icarie, laying out a blueprint for a communist society based on workers' cooperatives, and was the first to establish 'communism' (communisme) as a political term. The most popular socialist advocate of his day, with some 400,000 adherents in France, he fused Christianity and communism in Le Vrai Christianisme, recasting Jesus's teachings as a gospel of social equality. In 1848 he led followers to America, founding Icarian communities in Texas and Illinois that lasted until 1898, the longest-running non-religious communal experiment in U.S. history. A bridge between Enlightenment utopianism and the workers' movement.
Career timeline
1788Born in Dijon. Qualified as a lawyer.
1830–1831July Revolution participant. Attorney-general in Corsica, then elected deputy for Côte-d'Or.
1833–1834Founded Le Populaire. Convicted of treason; exiled to England.
1834–1839Developed communist ideas in England under Robert Owen's influence.
1840Published Voyage en Icarie. First to call himself a 'communist'.
1841–1847Revived Le Populaire (~400,000 readers). Published Le Vrai Christianisme.
1848Emigrated to U.S. Founded Icarian communities in Texas and Illinois.
1849–1856Led Nauvoo Icarian community. Died 1856 in St. Louis, Missouri, after internal rift.
Insurrectionary strategist who spent 37 years in prison; Blanquism paved the road to Leninism
"I am accused of having told thirty million French people, proletarians like me, that they had the right to live." — defence speech at the 'Trial of the Fifteen', 12 January 1832
French revolutionary socialist. He systematised Blanquism (armed insurrection by a disciplined vanguard followed by revolutionary dictatorship) which influenced Marxist theory and the Bolshevik party concept. He spent 37 years in prison and was known as L'Enfermé ('The Prisoner').
Career timeline
1824Joins the Carbonari, a secret society dedicated to overthrowing the monarchy
1827Participates in street protests against Charles X; wounded three times, including a near-fatal bullet wound to the neck
1830Fights in the July Revolution; disillusioned by the Orléanist monarchy, turns to republicanism
1832Founds the 'Amis du peuple' society; arrested — declares his profession 'proletarian' at trial
1837Co-founds the secret 'Société des Saisons' with Armand Barbès and Martin Bernard
1839.05Leads armed insurrection in Paris; crushed, sentenced to death commuted to life imprisonment
1848Released by the February Revolution; founds the Central Republican Society, demands the red flag and postponement of elections
1849–1859Sentenced to ten years for the failed May 15 uprising; imprisoned in multiple facilities
1865–1870Exile in Brussels; writes key theoretical works including 'Instructions for an Armed Uprising'
1870Leads the La Villette insurrection; founds the newspaper and club 'La Patrie en Danger'
1871.03.17Arrested on the eve of the Paris Commune; elected in absentia; Versailles refuses to swap the Archbishop for him
1872Writes the cosmological meditation 'Eternity by the Stars' in Clairvaux prison
1879Elected deputy for Bordeaux (invalidated); released under a general amnesty
1880Launches 'Ni Dieu ni maître' newspaper; tours France for amnesty and abolition of standing armies
Marx's greatest rival: founder of collectivist anarchism, at the center of the First International's great split
At the 1869 Basel Congress: 'Take the most fervent revolutionary and give him absolute power — within a year he'll be worse than the Tsar' — cited in Statism and Anarchy
A Tver nobleman, founder of collectivist anarchism. He opposed Marx's statism in the First International, was expelled at the 1872 Hague Congress, and codified stateless federalism in Statism and Anarchy (1873).
Career timeline
1829–1835St. Petersburg Artillery School — commissioned ensign, dismissed for insubordination; joined Stankevich Circle, Moscow
1840–1842Berlin University — joined Left Hegelians, published 'Reaction in Germany' as Jules Elizard
1843–1847Paris and Brussels — befriended Proudon and Marx, expelled from France after pro-Polish speech
1848–1849Pan-Slav Congress, led Prague and Dresden uprisings — death sentences in Saxony and Austria, commuted to life
1851–1861Extradited to Russia — 6 years in fortresses, Siberian exile, escaped via Japan and the United States
1861–1864London exile — joined Herzen's Kolokol, failed expedition for the 1863 Polish uprising
1864–1868Italy — built revolutionary socialist organizations, wrote 'Revolutionary Catechism', founded International Brotherhood
1868–1872Joined First International, formed Alliance of Socialist Democracy — fought Marx, expelled at 1872 Hague Congress
1872–1876Lugano and Locarno — Statism and Anarchy (1873), unfinished God and the State; died in Bern
French bookbinder and activist in the Women's Union of the Paris Commune
Born in Brest in Brittany, Le Mel worked as a bookbinder in Paris and joined the workers' movement. In 1865 she helped win equal pay for women and men in bookbinding, joined the International Workingmen's Association, and ran the cooperative restaurant La Marmite with Eugène Varlin. During the 1871 Paris Commune she was a leading activist in the Women's Union and fought on the barricades. Arrested after the Commune's defeat, she was deported to New Caledonia with Louise Michel and returned to Paris under the 1880 amnesty.
Career timeline
1865Helped win equal pay for women and men in bookbinding; joined the International Workingmen's Association.
1860s–1871Ran the cooperative restaurant La Marmite with Eugène Varlin.
1871Worked in the Women's Union of the Paris Commune and fought on the barricades.
1871–1880Arrested and deported to New Caledonia; returned to Paris under the 1880 amnesty.
Montmartre teacher who fought on the Commune’s barricades, was deported to New Caledonia and became the anarchist “Red Virgin”
Louise Michel led Montmartre’s Women’s Vigilance Committee and fought in the Paris Commune. Deported to New Caledonia after its defeat, she returned to France in 1880 and devoted herself to workers’ meetings and anarchist activism.
Born in a château in Haute-Marne to a servant, she became a teacher, opened a school in Montmartre in the 1850s and frequented republican and socialist clubs. On 18 March 1871 she turned out to defend the cannon on Montmartre, and during the Commune she served on the vigilance committee, in ambulance work and with a Guard battalion. After Bloody Week she surrendered in place of her mother, demanded death in court and was sentenced to deportation to New Caledonia, where she supported the Kanak revolt of 1878. Amnestied in 1880, she spoke and was jailed again and again as an anarchist, dying on a lecture tour in Marseille in 1905.
Career timeline
1850s–1860sAfter teaching in villages, she moved to Paris in 1856. She opened a school there in 1865, published poetry, associated with Blanquist revolutionaries, and joined efforts for women’s civil rights and girls’ education.
1871During the Paris Commune, she headed the Montmartre Women’s Vigilance Committee, fought with the 61st Montmartre Battalion and organized ambulance stations. During Bloody Week she surrendered to protect her mother. At her military trial she demanded death, but was sentenced to penal transportation to the French colony of New Caledonia.
1873–1880Deported to New Caledonia, she befriended Kanak people, taught French, and supported the 1878 Kanak revolt. She returned to France in 1880 under the amnesty for participants in the Commune.
1880–1905After returning, she spoke at workers’ meetings and demonstrations and continued activism in France and Europe despite repeated imprisonment as an anarchist. She led an unemployed workers’ demonstration in 1883 and co-founded the anarchist periodical Le Libertaire with Sébastien Faure in 1895. She died in Marseille in 1905.
Bookbinder who led the Paris International, ran the Commune’s finances and was shot on the last day of Bloody Week
He linked the bookbinders’ union to the First International and helped build a Paris federation of workers’ associations, then organised the Commune’s finances and labour relations. Captured by Versailles forces, he was shot with other prisoners at Montmartre on 28 May 1871.
A peasant’s son who became a bookbinder in Paris, he led the bookbinders’ strike of 1864 and founded mutual-aid societies and the cooperative restaurant La Marmite. The central figure of the International’s Paris section, he was tried twice in 1868 and organised a federation of trade unions. In 1871 he joined the Central Committee of the National Guard and, as a member of the Commune, handled finance and supplies; he belonged to the minority that opposed the Commune's Committee of Public Safety. Captured on 28 May, he was dragged to Montmartre, beaten by a crowd and shot.
Career timeline
1857Helped found a bookbinders’ mutual-aid society.
1864Was a principal organiser of the first Paris bookbinders’ strike.
1869Helped found the Parisian Federation of Workers’ Associations.
1871Elected to the Paris Commune, he became commissioner of finance and handled labour relations.
Jeweller who headed the Commune’s Labour and Exchange Commission and later founded Hungary’s workers’ party
He voted to create the Commune's Committee of Public Safety on 1 May 1871, then signed the minority declaration criticizing it on 15 May.
Born to a Jewish family in Óbuda, he trained as a jeweller, came to Paris via Germany in 1867 and worked in the International’s German-speaking section, being convicted in the International trial of 1870. The only foreigner elected to the Commune, he headed its Labour and Exchange Commission, pressed the ban on night work in bakeries and the abandoned-workshops decree, and sided with the minority against the Commune's Committee of Public Safety. Wounded in Bloody Week, he escaped to London and joined the General Council. Returning to Hungary in 1876, he founded the General Workers’ Party of Hungary in 1880 and spent his last years in Paris.
Career timeline
1870Arrested and imprisoned for his International Workingmen’s Association activity, he was released after the Empire fell and resumed work in its Paris Federal Council.
1871Elected to the Paris Commune for the 13th arrondissement and appointed delegate for Labour and Exchange, he advanced the bakery night-work ban and plans to survey and run abandoned workshops cooperatively. He voted for creating the Committee of Public Safety on 1 May, then signed the minority declaration on 15 May.
1871–1872Wounded twice at a barricade during Bloody Week, he escaped and went to London, where he was elected to the General Council of the International Workingmen’s Association.
1878–1880He took part in the founding congress of a workers’ party in Hungary and helped found the General Workers’ Party of Hungary in 1880.
1889–1896He returned to Paris in 1889 and died of pneumonia in 1896.
Russian revolutionary who organized the Paris Commune's Women's Union
She organized cooperative workshops to give women control over their labor.
Born Elizaveta Kusheleva, she later used the married name Tomanovskaya. She took part in the Geneva section of the First International and met Marx in London in 1870. Sent to Paris in 1871 as the International's representative, she founded the Women's Union and organized cooperative workshops for women workers. Wounded while fighting on the barricades during the suppression of the Commune, she escaped to Geneva, returned to Russia, and later followed her second husband, Ivan Davydovski, into Siberian exile. Her date of death is unknown; it has been placed probably between 1916 and 1918.
Career timeline
1867Married Mikhail Tomanovski to gain access to her inheritance and funded revolutionary organizations.
1868–1869Financed and co-edited the Russian-language journal Narodnoye delo and helped found the First International's Russian section in Geneva.
1870Went to London as an envoy of the Geneva section and met Karl Marx.
1871Founded the Women's Union during the Paris Commune and promoted cooperative workshops and labor rights for women.
1871–1877Returned to Russia after the Commune's defeat, then married Ivan Davydovski and followed him into Siberian exile.
Five-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and pioneer of industrial railroad unionism
At his 1918 sentencing he declared: "While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
The most iconic figure of American socialism and a pioneer of industrial unionism. After leading the American Railway Union through the Pullman Strike of 1894, he embraced Marxism in prison and helped found the Socialist Party of America (1901) and the IWW (1905). He ran for president five times, winning 6.0% in 1912, and from an Atlanta prison cell in 1920 he won over 914,000 votes, the high-water mark of American socialist electoral politics.
Career timeline
1875Joined Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen
1880–1893BLF Grand Secretary-Treasurer & magazine editor
1885Indiana State Representative (Democrat)
1893–1897Founder & president, American Railway Union
1901Co-founder, Socialist Party of America
1905Founding member, Industrial Workers of the World
1900–1920Socialist Party presidential candidate (5 campaigns)
Creator of International Women's Day, she set women's liberation at the heart of class struggle
Six months before Hitler took power, she opened the Reichstag as its oldest member with a call for a united front against Nazism (1932)
Founder of Marxist feminism, she saw women's liberation as inseparable from class struggle and proposed International Women's Day in 1910. From anti-war resistance to co-founding the KPD, she opened the Reichstag at seventy-five with a call for a united front against Nazism.
Career timeline
1878–1917Leads the SPD women's movement; edits Die Gleichheit (1892–1917)
1910Proposes International Women's Day at Copenhagen
1915–1919Anti-war work; in at the founding of the Spartacus League and the KPD
1920–1933Reichstag deputy; Comintern executive
1925Published the memoir Lenin on the Women’s Question
1932Opens the Reichstag as its oldest member, calling for a united front against Nazism
1933Exile to the USSR; dies in June, buried in the Kremlin Wall
He raised the workers' flag and the republic's on a single staff
Too wounded to stand, he was shot tied to a chair — Kilmainham Gaol, 12 May 1916
A socialist revolutionary who fused Marxism with Irish national liberation. He founded the Irish Citizen Army, commanded the Dublin Brigade in the 1916 Easter Rising, and was executed by the British after its suppression.
Career timeline
1896Founds the Irish Socialist Republican Party
1903–1910IWW organizer in America
1910–1914Leads the ITGWU through the 1913 Dublin Lockout
1910Published Labour in Irish History
1913Founds the Irish Citizen Army
1915Published The Re-Conquest of Ireland
1916.04Easter Rising — Dublin commandant, signatory of the Proclamation
Anarchist writer who served 14 years for the Frick assassination attempt, then broke with the Soviet state
At his farewell banquet in Chicago, told of Frick's death, Berkman remarked: 'Frick had been deported by God.'
Russian-born anarchist revolutionary and writer who emigrated to the United States in 1888. Outraged by the repression of striking Homestead steelworkers, he attempted to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1892, served 14 years in prison, and chronicled the experience in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912). After his release he became editor of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth and a central figure in the American anarchist movement; in 1919 he was deported to Soviet Russia for anti-war activism. Initially enthusiastic about the Bolshevik Revolution, he became disillusioned after witnessing the Kronstadt rebellion's suppression and documented the early Soviet state's authoritarianism in The Bolshevik Myth (1925); in French exile he wrote the anarcho-communist primer Now and After (1929).
Career timeline
1888Immigrates to US, joins anarchist movement as typesetter for Johann Most's Freiheit
1892Attempts to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during Homestead strike; serves 14 of 22 years
1907–1915Editor of Mother Earth, builds it into the leading US anarchist journal
1916Launches his own journal The Blast in San Francisco
1917Imprisoned for anti-draft organizing; deported to Soviet Russia in 1919
1921Witnesses Kronstadt suppression, breaks with Bolsheviks, leaves Russia
1925Publishes The Bolshevik Myth, a diary-based critique of early Soviet rule
1929Publishes Now and After, classic introduction to anarcho-communism
"East Side Joan of Arc": from the IWW's Rebel Girl to first woman chair of the CPUSA
"We are Communist leaders, proudly and avowedly. We will prove to you that we are not a criminal conspiracy but a 33-year-old working-class political party, devoted to the immediate needs and aspirations of the American people." — Summation to the jury, Smith Act trial, April 24, 1952
American labor organizer and communist. Known as the IWW's "Rebel Girl" from age 15, she led the Lawrence strike and co-founded the ACLU. Elected CPUSA's first woman chair in 1961; died in Moscow and was given a Red Square state funeral.
Career timeline
1906First socialist speech, Harlem Socialist Club — arrested; joins IWW
1907–1916Full-time IWW organizer — Lawrence and Paterson strikes, Missoula and Spokane free-speech fights
1918Founds Workers' Defense Union to defend Espionage Act arrestees
1920Co-founds ACLU; leads Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaign
1936Joins CPUSA; writes weekly column for the Daily Worker
1940Expelled from ACLU board for Communist Party membership
1951–1955Convicted under Smith Act; serves 2 years at Alderson prison, writes The Alderson Story
1961–1964Chair of CPUSA National Committee; dies in Moscow — Red Square state funeral
Independent activity
Nationalism
1894–1918
○ Died of tuberculosis in prison
Young Bosnia member who shot dead Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in 1914
Born to a poor Serb farming family in western Bosnia, he studied in Sarajevo and in 1911 joined Young Bosnia, a secret society seeking to free Bosnia from Austrian rule and unite the South Slavs. Expelled from school after anti-Austrian demonstrations, he went to Belgrade. Armed and trained through the Serbian secret society the Black Hand, on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo he shot dead the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie. The assassination set off the July Crisis and the First World War. At his trial he declared himself a Yugoslav nationalist; too young for the death penalty, he received twenty years. He died of tuberculosis in the prison of the Theresienstadt fortress in 1918.
Career timeline
1911Joined Young Bosnia
1914.06.28Assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo
