Julian Leszczyński (; 8 January 1889 – 20 August 1939), also known by

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

Leński, was a Polish

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

political activist, publicist, and leader of the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

faction in the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, 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 and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

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

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

Life and career

Leszczyński was born into 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, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...

, and in that same year joined the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SPDKiL) in Warsaw. In 1909–12, he studied philosophy at

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

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 and

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a revolutionary and writer active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a Communist International leader in the Soviet Union after the Russian ...

, who were closer to the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

than the old SDPKiL leaders,

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

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

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. 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, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

fortress at the start of the war with Germany. Later he was exiled to Mtsensk, then was released on parole. Lenski was in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

(St Petersburg) during the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

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, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, 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 Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. In February–April 1919, he was People's Commissar for Education in the short-lived Lit-Bel 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, for their alleged weakness during the political crisis in Poland that year. During 1924, he worked for

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

, 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,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

. The new KPP leader Henryk Domski was an ally of the head of Comintern,

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...

. 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 (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. 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