Julian Leszczyński (; 8 January 1889 in

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to the ...

– 20 August 1939), also known by

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Leński, was a Polish

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

political activist, publicist, and leader of the

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

faction in the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland a ...

(KPP). He led the party in the 1930s, and himself fell victim to the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

Life and career

Leszczyński was born in to a working-class family. Brought up in the Russian-occupied sector of Poland, Lenski was arrested and expelled from school for leading a student strike during the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, and in that same year joined the

Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL), , LKLSD), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 and ...

(SPDKiL) in Warsaw. In 1909-12, he studied philosophy at

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

university, after which he lived illegally, working as a full time party organiser. When the SDPKiL split, he supported the ''rozlamovist'' opposition, led by

Jacob Hanecki Yakov Hanecki (known in Russia as Yakov Stanislavovich Ganetsky - Яков Станиславович Ганецкий), real name Jakub Fürstenberg (Fuerstenberg) also known as Kuba (15 March 1879 — 26 November 1937) was a prominent Polish comm ...

and

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (russian: Карл Бернгардович Радек; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a C ...

, who were closer to the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

than the old SDPKiL leaders,

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...

and

Leo Jogiches Leon "Leo" Jogiches (Russian: Лев "Лео" Йогихес; 17 July 1867 – 10 March 1919), also commonly known by the party name Jan Tyszka, was a Polish Marxist revolutionary and politician, active in Poland, Lithuania, and Germany. Jogiche ...

. He represented the group at a Bolshevik conference that in Poronino, near Krakow, in September 1913, organised by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

. Arrested in October 1913, he was released after three months for lack of evidence, but was arrested again in 1914, and was one of a batch of Polish prisoners transferred to

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fed ...

fortress at the start of the war with Germany. Later he was exiled to

Mtsensk Mtsensk (russian: Мценск) is a town in Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Zusha River (a tributary of the Oka) northeast of Oryol, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 28,000 (1970). History It was first mentioned in ...

, then was released on parole. Lenski was in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(St Petersburg) during the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

, and represented the reunited SDPKiL at the Bolshevik conference in April, where Lenin called for a second revolution. During the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, he took part in seizing the main post office. In the new Soviet government, he was appointed chief commissar for Polish Affairs in the People's Commissariat for Nationalities, which was headed by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

. In February-April 1919, he was People's Commissar for Education in the short-lived Lit-Bel (Lithuania and Belarus) republic. In 1919-20, he was head of the Polish bureau of the Ukraine communist party. He was one of a minority of Polish exiles in soviet Russia who backed the decision to pursue the Polish-soviet war in 1920. In autumn 1923, Lenski rose to prominence in the Polish communist party (KPP) by attacking the triumvirate known as the 'Three W's', whose most senior member was

Adolf Warski Adolf Warski (born Adolf Jerzy Warszawski; 20 April 1868 – 21 August 1937), was a Polish communist leader, journalist and theoretician of the communist movement in Poland. Warski was born in Warsaw into an assimilated Polish Jewish family ...

, for their alleged weakness during the political crisis in Poland that year. During 1924, he worked for

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

, in Berlin, Paris, and Warsaw. He was arrested in Warsaw on 14 October, but made a daring escape when he was brought to court five days later, and hid out in Warsaw until he could be smuggled back via Danzig (Gdansk), to Warsaw. The 'three W's' had been ousted from the leadership as part of the power struggle that began during Lenin's terminal illness because of their links with

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

. The new KPP leader

Henryk Domski Henryk Stein-Domski (real name: Stein; pseud Kamiensky) (5 September 1883 – 26 October 1937) was a Polish communist politician and activist, who led the Communist Party of Poland in 1925, before being ousted and repressed as a suspected Trotskyis ...

was an ally of the head of Comintern,

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...

. When a rift opened up between Stalin and Zinoviev late in 1925, Lenski broke with Domski and backed Stalin, and for the next dozen years, he was the leading Stalinist in the KPP, though he had few supporters in the party, and took three years to establish his supremacy. He was elected to the Central Committee of the KPP in November 1925, and to the Politburo in 1926. He was General Secretary from June 1929 to June 1937, and a member of the Executive Committee of Comintern. In 1929-33, he was based in Berlin, directing the outlawed Polish Communist Party from there. When the Nazis seized power, he escaped to Copenhagen. Three years later, he settled in Paris. Though he completely subordinated the KPP to the Comintern, he was summoned by the Comintern from Paris to Moscow in June 1937, arriving on 17 June. and was arrested three days later by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. There is some doubt about whether he was executed immediately or not. According to one version of events, he was imprisoned and died on 20 August 1939.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leszczynski, Julian 1889 births 1939 deaths Politicians from Płock People from Płock Governorate Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Old Bolsheviks Communist Party of Poland politicians Russian Constituent Assembly members Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic people All-Russian Central Executive Committee members Executive Committee of the Communist International Soviet people of Polish descent Polish Operation of the NKVD Great Purge victims from Poland Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship Soviet rehabilitations