Juliet Stuart Poyntz (originally 'Points') (25 November 1886 – 1937) was an American
suffragist
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
,
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
ist and
communist spy. As a student and university teacher, Poyntz espoused many radical causes and went on to become a co-founder of the
Communist Party of the United States
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
(CPUSA). Later she began working as an intelligence agent for the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, travelling secretly to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
just as some of her comrades were being executed in
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 Secretar ...
's
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 Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
, after which she resigned from the party. This is widely assumed to have led to her unexplained
disappearance in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in June 1937 as the likely victim of an assassination squad, possibly because she had been associating with
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
s.
Early life and education
Juliet Poyntz was born on November 25, 1886, in
Omaha,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
. Her family moved to
Jersey City,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, not long before she entered
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
.
[
][
][
] She was a member of the
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Poyntz moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
as a young adult, where she earned degrees at Barnard College in 1907.
She was class treasurer as a freshman, class president as a sophomore, secretary of the Barnard Union, and finally, president of the Undergraduate Association and chair of the student council as a senior. She served as editor-in-chief of Barnard's ''Mortarboard'' yearbook, and was a member of the
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, the Philosophy Club, the Classical Club, the Athletic Association, the Christian Association, and the Sophomore Dance Committee. In 1904, she acted "Casting the Boomerang," at the Brinckerhoff Theatre (now Minor Latham Playhouse). In 1905, Poyntz took part in Barnard's third annual Greek Games, where she recited the "Invocation to the Gods" and tied first place in
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
. She partook in the Interclass Debate (class of 1906 versus class of 1907). In her senior year, she was voted most popular both in the college and for 1907. She was valedictorian of her class and was inducted into
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
. By graduation in June 1907, her interests had expanded from
suffragism
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
and
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
to
trade unionism
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...
,
labor rights, and
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
.
She received her A.M. degree from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Political career
From 1907 to 1909, Poyntz was "Special Agent for the U.S. Immigration Commission," working in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Utica (New York),
Lawrence (Massachusetts), and other cities. She joined the
Socialist Party of America in 1909.
She taught at Barnard College for the 1909–1910 academic year, when she was an assistant to history professor
James T. Shotwell, who was well known for his liberal and pacifist views.
In 1912, she wrote Barnard's Class Book, "I am still a woman's suffragist or worse still a Feminist and also a Socialist (also of the worst brand)." She began working in the labor reform movement in 1913. She was instrumental in labor-Left reform organizations such as the US Immigration Commission, the
American Association for Labor Legislation
The American Association for Labor Legislation, (AALL) (1906–1945) was an early advocacy group for national health insurance in the United States of America, conceived in 1905, established in 1906, active to 1943, and disbanded in 1945. John Ber ...
, and the
Rand School of Social Science
The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...
.
During the 1910s, Poyntz worked with the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). At Local 25, she met
Elias Lieberman), later her attorney. When Poyntz became education director of the ILGWU's Worker's University, she reported to Lieberman as chair of Local 25's Educational Committee.
[
][
] In 1918, she left the ILGWU.
She continued to work within the Socialist Party-oriented ILGWU after siding with the fledgling
Communist Party USA. During the 1920s, Poyntz was on the staff of the
Friends of the Soviet Union The International Association of Friends of the Soviet Union was an organization formed on the initiative of the Communist International in 1927, with the purpose of coordinating solidarity efforts with the Soviet Union around the world. It grew out ...
and
International Labor Defense
The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...
.
In
November 1926, she ran for
New York State Comptroller
The New York State Comptroller is an elected constitutional officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the New York state government's Department of Audit and Control. The New York State Comptroller is the highest-paid state auditor or ...
and in
November 1928 for
New York State Attorney General
The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...
, both times on the
Workers Party ticket.
She later quit her outside work in favor of intelligence activities for the Soviet
OGPU during the "
Third Period
The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933.
The Comint ...
".
According to a book by
Benjamin Gitlow
Benjamin Gitlow (December 22, 1891 – July 19, 1965) was a prominent American socialist politician of the early 20th century and a founding member of the Communist Party USA. During the end of the 1930s, Gitlow turned to conservatism and wrote t ...
, a founding member of the CPUSA, Poyntz was a delegate to several consecutive American Communist Party conventions, and was a member of the Party's Central Executive Committee, besides being on New York's District Executive Committee. She had gone to China on a
Comintern (Communist International) mission, and had dropped out of the CPUSA in 1934 in order to work for the OGPU (Soviet military secret police) in gathering scientific information for the Soviet Union. In 1936, Poyntz secretly travelled to Moscow to receive further instructions from Soviet authorities, and was seen there in the company of George Mink (alias Minkoff), an American later implicated in the disappearance of several
Trotkskyists during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
. While there, Poyntz witnessed 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 Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
instigated by Stalin, in which people she had known and worked with were killed. She returned to the US disillusioned and unwilling to continue spying for the OGPU (later 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.
...
).
Disappearance
Poyntz disappeared after leaving the American Woman's Association Clubhouse at 353 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City on the evening of June 3, 1937. A police investigation turned up no clues to her fate, and her belongings, all of her clothing, and hand luggage in her room appeared to be untouched which suggested that she had not intended to leave the building for very long.
[Gitlow, Benjamin, ''The Whole of Their Lives; Communism in America--a Personal History and Intimate Portrayal of its Leaders'', New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1948)]
In early 1938,
Carlo Tresca
Carlo Tresca (March 9, 1879 – January 11, 1943) was an Italian-American newspaper editor, orator, and labor organizer who was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1910s. He is remembered as a leading public opponent of fas ...
, a leading Italian-American
anarchist, publicly accused the Soviets of kidnapping Poyntz in order to prevent her defection. He said that before she disappeared, she had come to him to talk over her disgust at what she had seen in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
in 1936 in the early stages of
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 Secretar ...
's
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 Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
.
Testimony by former Soviet agent
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938) ...
tied Poyntz' disappearance to the shadowy Soviet Comintern agent
Josef Peters. As an inside member of the Soviet
Comintern and
OGPU espionage network, Peters is believed to have participated in the planning of the kidnapping and alleged murder of fellow CPUSA member Poyntz by a Soviet assassination squad.
Chambers later stated that he heard Poyntz had been killed for attempted desertion, and this rumor contributed to his caution when he defected in 1938.
Elizabeth Bentley stated she was told by
Jacob Golos
Jacob Golos (born Yakov Naumovich Reizen, Russian: Яков Наумович Рейзен; April 24, 1889 - November 27, 1943) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the U ...
in the late 1930s, and later by
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
officer
Anatoli Gromov in 1945 that Poyntz had been a traitor and was now dead. Both Chambers' and Bentley's defections were probably in part motivated by fear of the example set in the Poyntz case.
Author Benjamin Gitlow wrote that Poyntz was disillusioned by Stalin's purges and was unwilling to continue as an espionage agent for the USSR. Gitlow relates that the OGPU/NKVD used Poyntz's former lover, a man named
Shakne EpshteinShachno Epstein (1881-1945), the associate editor of the Communist Yiddish daily
Morgen Freiheit
Morgen Freiheit (original title: ; English: ''Morning Freedom'') was a New York City-based daily Yiddish language newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, USA, founded by Moissaye Olgin in 1922. After the end of World War II the paper's pro- ...
(and an OGPU/NKVD agent himself), to lure Poyntz out for a walk in Central Park. "They met at Columbus Circle and proceeded to walk through Central Park...Shachno took her by the arm and led her up a side path, where a large black limousine hugged the edge of the walk ... Two men jumped out, grabbed Miss Poyntz, shoved her into the car and sped away." Gitlow relates that the assassins took Poyntz to the woods near the Roosevelt estate in Dutchess County, and killed and buried her there. "The body was covered with lime and dirt. On top were placed dead leaves and branches which the three killers trampled down with their feet."
Before his own mysterious death, the
GRU
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
defector
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
suggested another motive for the NKVD kidnapping of Poyntz. During one of her sojourns in Moscow, Poyntz had become a lover of Red Army Corps Commander
Vitovt Putna
Vitovt Kazimirovich Putna (russian: Ви́товт Казими́рович Пу́тна, lt, Vytautas Putna; 1893–1937) was a Soviet Red Army officer of Lithuanian origin.
A World War I veteran of the Imperial Russian Army and Bolshevik s ...
. In August 1936, the NKVD arrested Putna and accused him of maintaining contacts 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 ...
, from whom he had allegedly received "terrorist directives." Under torture, Putna testified to the existence of a "nation-wide" center of Trotskyists, and to his involvement in a "parallel" military organization. On June 11, 1937, a military tribunal, ''in camera'', condemned Putna and other high-ranking officers to death in the judicial frame-up known as the
Moscow Trial of the
Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization. The NKVD, according to Krivitsky, may have abducted Poyntz one week before the trial out of fear that she would defect once the execution of Putna became known, or simply because she was a known friend of the "enemy" Putna.
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact after he defected to ...
FBI FOIA File 100-11146-84
Personal life
In 1913, Poyntz married Dr. Friedrich Franz Ludwig Glaser, a communist and attache at the German consulate in New York. She kept her maiden name, although she changed the spelling from "Points" to "Poyntz".
See also
*
List of people who disappeared
Lists of people who disappeared include those whose current whereabouts are unknown, or whose deaths are unsubstantiated. Many people who disappear are eventually declared dead ''in absentia''. Some of these people were possibly subjected to enfo ...
References
Further reading
* Denise M. Lynn, ''Where is Juliet Stuart Poyntz?.'' University of Massachusetts Press, 2021.
* Nancy Maclean, "Juliet Stuart Poyntz," ''Encyclopedia of the American Left.''
Paul Buhle
Paul Merlyn Buhle (born September 27, 1944) is a (retired) Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series ...
,
Mari Jo Buhle
Mari Jo Buhle (born 1943) is an American historian and William J. Kenan Jr. University Professor Emerita at Brown University.
Early life and education
Buhle was born in 1943 as Mari Jo Kupski. She graduated from North Chicago Community High S ...
, and
Dan Georgakas
Dan Georgakas ( el, Νταν Γεωργακάς; 1938–2021) was an American anarchist poet and historian, who specialized in oral history and the American labor movement, best known for the publication ''Detroit: I do mind dying: A study in u ...
, eds. 2nd Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 631–632.
* Kathryn S. Olmsted, ''Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley.'' Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
* Robert J. Schaefer, "Educational Activities of the Garment Unions, 1890-1948: A Study in Workers' Education in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in New York City.'' PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1951.
* Richard C.S. Trahair and Robert Miller, ''Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations.'' New York: Enigma Books, 2008.
* Allen Weinstein, ''
Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case.'' New York: Random House, 1997.
* Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era.'' New York: Modern Library, 1999
External links
* Nancy MacLean
"The Culture of Resistance: Female Institution Building in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, 1905-1925,"''Michigan Occasional Papers in Women's Studies,'' vol. 21 (Winter 1982).
* Carlo Tresca,
Where is Juliet Stuart Poyntz? ''Modern Monthly,'' Vol. 10 (March 1938).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poyntz, Juliet
1886 births
1937 deaths
1930s missing person cases
1937 in New York City
Barnard College alumni
Members of the Communist Party USA
Members of the Socialist Party of America
Missing person cases in New York City
People from Omaha, Nebraska
Columbia University alumni