John Pepper, also known as József Pogány and Joseph Pogany (born József Schwartz; November 8, 1886 – February 8, 1938), was a
Hungarian Communist politician. He later served as a functionary in the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern) in Moscow, before being
cashiered
Cashiering (or degradation ceremony), generally within military forces, is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline.
Etymology
From the Flemish (to dismiss from service; to discard ro ...
in 1929. Later as an official in the Soviet government, Pepper ran afoul of the
secret police
Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
and was executed during the
Great Terror
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 ...
of 1937–38.
Biography
Early years
József Pogány was born József Schwartz in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
. He was the first of three children. His family were ethnic
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, but he himself adopted the
Hungarian name ''Pogány'' to de-emphasize his Jewish origins. His father, Vilmos Schwarz, was a tradesman who became a minor civil servant; he also served Chevra Kadisa synagogue in Pest. His mother Hermina Weinberger was a hairdresser.
[
] He was not related to artist
Willy Pogany
William Andrew Pogany (born Vilmos András Pogány; August 24, 1882 – July 30, 1955) was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's and other books. His contemporaries include C. Coles Phillips, Joseph Clement Coll, Edmund Dulac, Harvey Du ...
, as was once claimed by
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), ...
.
[
]
Hungary
Pogány studied at the
University of Budapest
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
(1904-1908); he spent his last six months of studies in Berlin and Paris. He wrote his dissertation on
János Arany
János Arany (; archaic English: John Arany; 2 March 1817 – 22 October 1882) was a Hungarian poet, writer, translator and journalist. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that have been transl ...
.
![Népszava esti kiadása (1914](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/N%C3%A9pszava_esti_kiad%C3%A1sa_%281914._november_26.%29.jpg)
He worked as a high school teacher and journalist in Hungary prior to the revolution of 1918–1919. He wrote for the official organ of the
Hungarian Social Democratic Party
The Social Democratic Party of Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szociáldemokrata Párt, MSZDP) is a social democratic political party in Hungary. Historically, the party was dissolved during the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany (1944–1945) ...
, ''
Népszava
''Népszava'' (meaning "People's Word" in English) is a social-democratic Hungarian language newspaper published in Hungary.
History and profile
''Népszava'' is Hungary's eldest continuous print publication and as of October 2019 the last and ...
'' (People's Voice), and was a
war correspondent during the years of World War I.
[
]
Despite lack of military credentials aside from war reportage, at the time of the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
in 1918, Pogány found himself as the leader of the Budapest Soldiers' Soviet.
[
] While Pogány dedicated himself to promotion of what one historian has called "the often impossible demands of the soldiers,"
he nonetheless remained for a time supportive of the policies of the left-wing government of
Count Mihály Károlyi.
On 13 November 1918,
Gyula Károlyi
Gyula Count Károlyi de Nagykároly in English: Julius Károlyi (7 May 1871 in Baktalórántháza – 23 April 1947) was a conservative Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1931 to 1932. He had previously been prime ...
's new minister of defense,
Albert Bartha
Albert Bartha de Nagyborosnyó (12 August 1877 – 2 December 1960) was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a m ...
, decided to take on the Budapest Soldiers' Soviet head on in an attempt to bolster the sagging discipline of the army. Bartha declared that he would "no longer tolerate Soldiers' Councils," a position which greatly agitated the newly empowered soldiers. On 4 December he was forced to retreat from this position, however, when the disciplinary power of the officers was transferred to new popularly elected military tribunals.
[Vermes, "The October Revolution in Hungary," pg. 45.] Bartha attempted to dodge this decision with the establishment of new disciplinary "flying squads," but this move was regarded as counterrevolutionary and Bartha was forced to resign on 11 December.
Before this resignation was publicized, Pogány, acting without the endorsement of the Social Democratic Party, led a soldiers' demonstration on the Ministry of Defense demanding Bartha's dismissal. The formal announcement of the resignation on 12 December made it appear to have been the direct result of the street action, further bolstering the status of the Budapest Soldiers' Soviet at the expense of the authority of the officers corps.
At the time of the March 1919 uprising which proclaimed a
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
with
Béla Kun
Béla Kun (born Béla Kohn; 20 February 1886 – 29 August 1938) was a Hungarian communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919. After attending Franz Joseph University at Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoc ...
as ''de facto'' leader, Pogány cast his lot decisively with the revolution. The
Communist Party of Hungary
The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...
(KMP) first merged with radical members of the Social Democratic Party to form a single organization. Pogány was one of five party leaders signing the unity document on behalf of the Left Socialists.
While the two parties were formally ratifying the agreement, Pogány's Soldiers' Soviet assumed control of the Budapest police, occupied the collector jail, and dispatched armed bands throughout the capital to intimidate political opponents.
A Revolutionary Governing Council was established on 21 March 1919, with Pogány named People's Commissar of War.
[Kovrig, ''Communism in Hungary,'' pg. 40.] The first two decrees of the Revolutionary Governing Council instituted the death penalty for armed resistance to the new regime and a total prohibition of alcohol consumption in Hungary.
The next day, newspapers appeared carrying the proclamation drafted by Kun and Pogány proclaiming the establishment of a Hungarian Soviet Republic.
One of Pogány's first acts as People's Commissar of War was to summarily dismiss all "non-
proletarian
The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...
elements from the Hungarian military and to abolish
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
. It was hoped that a new recruitment campaign targeted at wage-workers and landless peasants would make up the losses, resulting in a homogeneous and loyal military organization. This policy, begun by Pogány and continued by his successor, proved to be a total failure, however, as only about 5,000 qualified individuals chose to enlist in the Hungarian Red Army after an intensive three week campaign.
The former Communists did not trust the former Left-Socialists now enlisted as party allies, however. Pogány clashed pointedly with a number of hardline Communist Party radicals, including
Tibor Szamuely
Tibor Szamuely (December 27, 1890 – August 2, 1919) was a Hungarian politician and journalist who was Deputy People's Commissar of War and People's Commissar of Public Education during the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
Early life
Born in N ...
and
Béla Vágó
Béla Vágó (born ''Béla Weiss''; 9 August 1881 in Kecskemét – 10 March 1939) was a Hungarian communist politician, who served as ''de facto'' Interior Minister with Jenő Landler during the Hungarian Soviet Republic. After the fall ...
.
[Kovrig, ''Communism in Hungary,'' pg. 52.] On 2 April, Pogány was shifted to the less sensitive position of deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, while Szamuely was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Culture, where he assumed responsibility for the revolutionary government's military recruitment campaign.
Pepper was shortly moved again to the position of People's Commissar of Education, a position which he retained until the fall of the revolutionary government on 1 August 1919.
Despite his removal as head of the People's Commissariat of War, Pogány remained a member of governing Revolutionary National Council, in which he seems to have maintained an ultra-radical position against a negotiated truce with Romania and in favor of an all-or-nothing gamble on the policy of uncompromising revolutionary war — a position roughly analogous to that espoused in 1918 by the "
Left Communists
Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they rega ...
" in Soviet Russia.
Pogány also joined Tibor Szamuely as an adherent of "
Red Terror
The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in lat ...
" — proposing that the Soviet government take as hostages 200 prominent citizens as a means of forcing an end to counter-revolutionary resistance.
[György Borsányi, ''The Life of a Communist Revolutionry, Béla Kun.'' Mario D. Fenyo, trans. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs/Atlantic Research and Publications, 1993; pg. 165.] Although himself of mixed mind on the issue, Kun signed on to the plan.
The hostages, many of them elderly and of no significant threat to the regime, were taken before ultimately being liberated as a goodwill gesture in an effort to bring about a negotiated settlement.
Pogány's leading position in the Soviet government made him a target for
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
forces. When the Red government was overthrown by
Admiral Horthy
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
and his allies, Pogány fled to
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and later to
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
to avoid being killed in the reprisals known as the "
White Terror
White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...
." Pogány was accused by the new regime of complicity in the murder of former Hungarian Prime Minister
Count István Tisza by a group of soldiers during the
Chrysanthemum Revolution of October 1918. He was
tried ''in absentia'' and convicted along with five others in October 1921, but never
extradited
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...
for enforcement of the sentence.
Germany
In March 1921, Pogány was sent to Germany along with Béla Kun to help organize a revolutionary uprising there with the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
. According to scholar
Thomas L. Sakmyster:
Despite the pressure from Moscow on the GCP leadership, Kun and Pogány encountered stiff resistance to their plans from the more moderate faction of the GCP leadership, especially from Klara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights.
Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the ...
and Paul Levi
Paul Levi (11 March 1883 – 9 February 1930) was a German communist and social democratic political leader. He was the head of the Communist Party of Germany following the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919. After being ...
. They regarded the Comintern agents as obnoxious and unscrupulous outsiders who knew little about conditions in Germany and were proposing a highly unrealistic and potentially disastrous policy... The message either did not reach Pogány or he chose to ignore it, for the action proceeded in Hamburg as planned... The plan to spark a major revolution had failed.. Pogány... made his way back to Berlin.
Following the defeat of this so-called "
March Action
The March Action (German "März Aktion" or "Märzkämpfe in Mitteldeutschland," i.e. "The March battles in Central Germany") was a 1921 failed Communist uprising, led by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the Communist Workers' Party of Germa ...
," Pogány and Kun returned to Moscow, where they attended the
3rd World Congress of the Comintern
The 3rd World Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) was held in Moscow on 22 June–12 July 1921. The third official meeting of the Communist International included delegations from more than 50 different national structures and too ...
from 22 June to 12 July.
United States
Along with other
émigré
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...
Hungarian radicals in Soviet Russia, Pogány was set to work in the apparatus of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern), which was at the time attempting to foment general socialist revolution across Europe. The Hungarian Communists in exile were bitterly divided along factional lines. Pogány, as a member of the governing Central Committee of the Hungarian Communist Party, was closely allied to Béla Kun in the
factional turmoil which ensued. The Comintern disapproved of the disorganizing impact of this intra-party war among the Hungarian Communists and ordered the feuding groups to disband in January 1922.
Pogány was dispatched by the Comintern to the United States in July 1922 to assist with the
Hungarian Federation of the
Communist Party of America
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 Re ...
(CPA).
[Theodore Draper, ''The Roots of American Communism.'' New York: Viking, 1957; pg. 364.] Upon arrival Pogány adopted a new Americanized name as his own, "John Pepper" — the name by which he was known for the rest of his life — and immediately set about learning the English language. Along with the Comintern's official representative to the CPA,
Genrik Valetski, and its representative to the Communist Party's trade union movement,
Boris Reinstein
Boris may refer to:
People
* Boris (given name), a male given name
*:''See'': List of people with given name Boris
* Boris (surname)
* Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907), the first Christian ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, canonized after his d ...
, Pepper attended the ill-fated
August 1922 convention of the CPA, held in
Bridgman, Michigan
Bridgman is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,291 at the time of the 2010 census.
History
There was a place in this area known as Plummer's Pier. In 1856 lumbermen founded Charlotteville in this area.
...
, narrowly escaping from the clutches of the police who raided the gathering.
Future factional ally
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 ...
later recalled the initial impression which Pepper made upon him when he first met him at the Bridgman convention:
The second of the three Comintern nuncios looked like a Hungarian version of the proverbial traveling salesman. Short and stocky, with a large head and a disproportionately larger nose that proudly bore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles perched importantly on its bridge, he dressed like a dude, combed his hair sleek and neat, was always clean-shaven, smoked gold-tipped cigarettes, listened attentively to everything that was being said in his presence, and said absolutely nothing.... In Hungary his name had been Josef Pogány; he came to America as John Pepper.
Making use of his European erudition, storied past as a revolutionary leader, and personal magnetism, Pepper soon emerged as one of the CPA's most authoritative voices. Pepper wrote extensively on international developments and domestic policy questions for the party press, becoming the American Communist movement's most forceful advocates for abandonment of "underground" isolation and adoption of the strategy of constructing a mass Labor Party in America.
Pepper aligned with
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...
's pro-
Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory.
...
faction, as Whittaker Chambers recalled in his memoirs:
For the first and only time, I attended a Lovestone caucus meeting... I remember the short, arrogant figure of John Pepper, who, as Joseph Pogany, had been the commissar for war in the Hungarian Soviet Government, and who was now the official representative of the Communist International to the American Communist Party, and Lovestone's "gray eminence."
A factional foe,
James P. Cannon
James Patrick Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1974) was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.
Born on February 11, 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, the son of Irish immigrants with strong socialist convictio ...
, later recalled the decisive role which Pepper played in the American Communist movement of the 1920s:
He first came to this country in the summer of 1922 and soon began to regulate party affairs with the arbitrary authority of a receiver appointed by the court to take over a bankrupt concern. His only trouble was that this particular concern was by no means bankrupt, and the receiver's operations met with challenge and opposition which limited his tenure to a rather short term. But while it lasted it was a real merry-go-round which left everybody dizzy. * * *
We were ater Ater (Hebrew אֲתַר) is an Old Testament male name.
#A descendant of Hezekiah, who returned from Babylon ;
#An Israelite, who subscribed to Nehemiah’s covenant
#A porter ; {{bibleverse, , Nehemiah, 7:45
Set index articles on Hebrew Bible ...
told in Moscow that he had been shipped to America in one of the moves to break up the raging faction fight in the émigré leadership of the defeated Hungarian Communist Party, and that his assignment was to work with the Bureau of the Hungarian Federation of the party in the U.S.
As far as I know, that's all the official authorization he ever had. But Pepper, a manipulator deluxe, was never one to be stopped by the formal rules and regulations which act as restraints on ordinary mortals. The man worked fast.[
]
Pepper was made a member of the governing Central Executive Committee of the CPA's "above-ground" arm, the
Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929.
Background
As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fr ...
, a position to which he was re-elected by the 3rd Convention in January 1924. Pepper allied himself closely with the Executive Secretary of the CPA's "legal" wing,
C.E. Ruthenberg
Charles Emil Ruthenberg (July 9, 1882 – March 1, 1927) was an American Marxist politician and a founder and head of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
Biography
Early years
Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio, th ...
, and together the two headed one of the two primary factions in the American Communist Party throughout the second half of the 1920s.
Not surprisingly, Pepper was loathed by the opposition faction headed by
William Z. Foster
William Zebulon Foster (February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a Political radicalism, radical American labor organizer and Communism, Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party US ...
and James P. Cannon, who managed to have Pepper recalled to Moscow by the Comintern in 1925.
Soviet Union
Once back in Moscow, Pepper headed the Information Department of the Comintern,
while continuing to play a role in a factional war that swept the American Communist Party by supporting the various positions of the
Ruthenberg-
Lovestone faction which came before the
Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...
(ECCI). An acute factionalist, Pepper was early to attempt to bolster the standing of his American allies in Moscow by agitating against
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 ...
and accusing the Foster group of softness towards the discredited Soviet leader.
Pepper was a delegate of the Communist Party of America to the
5th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI, convened in March 1925, to which he delivered the report of the Information Department on 6 April 1925.
At the
6th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second smalles ...
, held in February and March 1926, Pepper was made an alternate member of the Presidium of ECCI and returned to the political commission of that body.
At the
7th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI, held in November and December 1926, Pepper was named a member of the political commission, where he was instrumental in helping to remove his nemesis
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 ...
from the Comintern Presidency.
In July 1927 Pepper was elected to the Presidium of ECCI.
Pepper fell from favor in 1928 as
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 ...
and
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
parted company in the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
, with Pepper's political views coming under criticism at both the
9th Enlarged Plenum of ECCI and the
6th World Congress of the Comintern
The Sixth Congress of the Communist International was held in Moscow from July 17 to September 1, 1928. The Congress was attended by 515 delegates from 65 organizations (including 50 Communist Parties) from 57 countries. Adopting the theory of the ...
. In 1929, Stalin repeated accusations against him at the ECCI Presidium and in May 1929 the Comintern sent an open letter to the American Communist Party relaying the news that the "Pepper case" would shortly be submitted to the disciplinary International Control Commission (ICC) of the Comintern
The ICC returned its verdict in September 1929, confirming the accusations made against Pepper and removing him from all functions in the Communist International.
Following his dismissal from the Comintern, Pepper went to work in the Soviet government. At the time of his 1937 arrest, Pepper was serving as the head of the publicity department of the People's Commissariat of the Food Industry.
["Dzhon Vil'gel'movich Peper-Pogan'," in L. I. Shvetsova, et al. (eds.), ''Rasstrel'nye spiski: Moskva, 1937–1941: “Kommunarka,” Butovo: Kniga pamiati zhertv politicheskikh represii.'' Moscow: Obshchestvo “Memorial”/Izdatel'stvo “Zven'ia,” 2000, pg. 316. For a full English translation of this material, see: Tim Davenport (trans.)]
John Wilhelmovich Pepper-Pogány: Arrest and Execution Information: (executed 8 Feb. 1938)
Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels ...
, Retrieved 13 October 2009.
Death and legacy
Pepper was arrested by the
Soviet secret police
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(NKVD) on 27 July 1937.
Following extensive interrogation, he was convicted of "participation in a counter-revolutionary organization" in a summary trial on 8 February 1938, and executed that same day.
Pepper was
posthumously rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on 30 May 1956.
Works
* ''Arany János politikai nézetei.'' Budapest: 1909.
* ''A Balkán-háború és az osztrák-magyar imperializmus.'' Budapest: 1912.
* ''Lemberg. Tíz hónap a cárizmus uralma alatt.'' Budapest: 1915.
* ''A meghódított Orosz-Lengyelországon keresztül.'' Budapest, 1915.
* ''A földre szállt pokol.'' Az Isonzo eposza: 1916.
* ''Dánia, a paraszt eldorádó.'' Budapest: 1918.
* ''Napóleon.'' (play) Budapest: 1919.
a Labor Party: Recent Revolutionary Changes in American Politics: A Statement by the Workers Party.''New York: Workers Party of America, n.d. — Three editions: 1. No author listed, 1922; 2. 2nd Revised Edition, New York, 1923; 3. 3rd Revised Edition, Chicago, 1923.
"The Farmers and the American Revolution,"''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 1, no. 317 (Jan. 19, 1924), section 2, pp. 5–6.
"Lenin,"''The Daily Worker,'' vol. 1, no. 320 (Jan. 23, 1924), pg. 1.
Radicalism": An Open Letter to Eugene V. Debs and to All Honest Workers Within the Socialist Party.''New York: Workers Party of America, 1923.
''The General Strike and the General Betrayal.''Chicago: Workers (Communist) Party of America, 1926.
''Why Every Miner Should be a Communist.''New York: Workers Library Publishers, n.d.
928
Year 928 ( CMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* King Rudolph I loses the support of Herbert II, count of Vermandois, who controls the pr ...
''American Negro Problems.''New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1928.
See also
*
Bela Kun
Bela may refer to:
Places Asia
*Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India
*Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara
* Bela, Dang, in Nepal
* Bela, Janakpur, ...
*
C.E. Ruthenberg
Charles Emil Ruthenberg (July 9, 1882 – March 1, 1927) was an American Marxist politician and a founder and head of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
Biography
Early years
Charles Emil Ruthenberg was born July 9, 1882, in Cleveland, Ohio, th ...
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Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht Sr. (October 13, 1883 – July 4, 1972) was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time ...
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Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone (15 December 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an American activist. He was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Centr ...
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James P. Cannon
James Patrick Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1974) was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.
Born on February 11, 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, the son of Irish immigrants with strong socialist convictio ...
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William Z. Foster
William Zebulon Foster (February 25, 1881 – September 1, 1961) was a Political radicalism, radical American labor organizer and Communism, Communist politician, whose career included serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party US ...
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James P. Cannon
James Patrick Cannon (February 11, 1890 – August 21, 1974) was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.
Born on February 11, 1890, in Rosedale, Kansas, the son of Irish immigrants with strong socialist convictio ...
*
Hungarian Communist Party
The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...
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Chrysanthemum Revolution (1918)
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Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Socialist Federative Republic of Councils in Hungary ( hu, Magyarországi Szocialista Szövetséges Tanácsköztársaság) (due to an early mistranslation, it became widely known as the Hungarian Soviet Republic in English-language sources ( ...
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Communist Party of Hungary
The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...
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Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
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Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...
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Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929.
Background
As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fr ...
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August 1922 convention of the CPA
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Willy Pogany
William Andrew Pogany (born Vilmos András Pogány; August 24, 1882 – July 30, 1955) was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's and other books. His contemporaries include C. Coles Phillips, Joseph Clement Coll, Edmund Dulac, Harvey Du ...
(no relation)
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepper, John
1886 births
1938 deaths
Politicians from Budapest
Hungarian Jews
Foreign ministers of Hungary
Education ministers of Hungary
Great Purge victims from Hungary
Hungarian Comintern people
Jews executed by the Soviet Union
Jewish socialists
Jewish Hungarian politicians
Hungarian Communist Party politicians
Hungarian emigrants to the Soviet Union
Soviet rehabilitations
Hungarian revolutionaries
Executed communists