Mieczysław Broński
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Mieczysław Broński (also known as Warszawski-Broński or Broński-Warszawski, and M. J. Braun; ; ''Mechislav Genrikhovich Bronsky''; 1882 – 1 September 1938) was a Russian-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 ...
,
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
diplomat, economist and academic, and a victim of 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 ...
.


Early career

The Bronski family were industrialists, who owned a cotton factory in
Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
. After leaving school in 1900, he emigrated to
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
to study at the
Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
, and later at the
Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
, and joined the Polish Progressive movement. In 1902, he joined the
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (, SDKPiL), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 and later served as an autonomous section of the Russian Social ...
(SDKPiL), led by
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 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. Jogich ...
. On the outbreak of the
1905 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, t ...
, in February, he moved to Warsaw, to work first as a propagandist for the SDPKiL, then as a member of the Warsaw city party committee. In 1906, he edited the party newspaper ''Czerwony Sztandar'' ("Red Flag"). He was arrested in
Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
in autumn 1906, and held in prison until the end of 1907. After his release, he emigrated to Switzerland, and joined the
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (, SP; ), also called the Swiss Socialist Party (; , PS), is a List of political parties in Switzerland, political party in Switzerland. The SP has had two representatives on the Federal Council (Switzerl ...
. When the SDKPiL split in 1911, he joined the 'rozlamovist' faction, 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 ...
.


Bolshevik career

Bronski was a founder of the
Zimmerwald Zimmerwald () was an independent municipality in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland until 31 December 2003. It is located on a hill in the proximity of the city of Bern in the Bernese Mittelland. On 1 January 2004 Zimmerwald united with the municipa ...
anti-war movement, and a Polish delegate to the second Zimmerwald conference in Kienthal in April 1916. By then, he had become part of the Zimmerwald left, and an ally of the Bolshevik leader,
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 ...
. By 1916, they were near neighbours in Zurich: it was Bronski who brought Lenin news in 1917 that 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 ...
had broken out in Russia. In June 1917, he reached
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, ...
, where he joined the Bolsheviks, worked in the party's
Agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...
department, and edited the Polish-language newspaper ''Trybuna''. After the
Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...
, in November 1917, he worked for the state bank, and April supervised the first conference for prisoners of war (such as Bela Kun and
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...
) who had converted to Bolshevism. From March 1918 until November 1918 he was the acting People's Commissar of Trade and Industry and until spring 1919, he was Deputy People's Commissar for Trade and Industry. In 1919, he was sent to Germany as an agent of
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 ...
, and addressed the founding congress the
Young Communist International The Young Communist International (YCI) was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International (Comintern). History International socialist youth organization before World War I After failed efforts to fo ...
in a beer hall in Berlin in November 1919, and took part in a secret communist conference in Frankfurt and was a member of the
Western Europe Secretariat Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...
. However he was very critical of
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 bein ...
's leadership of the
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
during the
Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an abortive coup d'état against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to ...
and was then recalled to
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. In 1920–24, he was the Soviet envoy in Austria, but was in Germany during the attempted revolution known as the
March Action The March Action ( or , i.e. "The March battles in Central Germany") was a failed communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communi ...
, but left soon afterwards. In 1924, he returned to Russia and held a senior post in the People's Commissariat for Finance. In 1927–37, he was Professor of Political Economy at
Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...
. From 1928 he was a full member of the Communist Academy and was also a senior researcher at the Institute of Economy at the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...
.


Arrest and death

Bronski was arrested on September 9, 1937, and accused of being part of a terrorist plot, during a mass round-up of Polish nationals living in the Soviet Union. The former French communist, Boris Souvarine, thought it inevitable that he would be a victim of the purges because "a man like Bronski – cultured, polite, irreproachable – could not help but attract the murderous animadversion of the Despot." He was shot and buried at Kommunarka, near Moscow, on 1 September 1938. He was formally rehabilitated on July 21, 1956.


Family

Bronski had a daughter, (1911–1972), from his first marriage. Brought up in Switzerland and Germany, she joined her father in the Soviet Union in 1931. She was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to eight years in the
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
, in
Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...
. She was released in 1946, moved to Germany in 1952, and became known as a writer. In Vienna, in 1920, he married , a German communist and the mother of
Wolfgang Leonhard Wolfgang Leonhard (16 April 1921 – 17 August 2014) was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated ...
, later renowned as a historian and critic of communism. She was arrested in 1936, and survived twelve years in the Gulag, in
Vorkuta Vorkuta (; ; Nenets languages, Nenets for "the abundance of bears", "bear corner") is a coal-mining types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin a ...
. With the help of her son, she was released in 1948, moving to
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
. A few month later, in the spring of 1949, mother and son decided to leave
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 ...
East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
for good, relocating to
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. Upon arrival, the U.S. Army's
Counter Intelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
interned her, but refusing to work as a spy, she was released in 1950. Susanne Leonhard died in
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
in 1984.


Works

* ''Zur Geschichte und Tätigkeit der Sowjets in Rußland : aus dem Volkskalender der Petrograder Sowjets 1919.'' (On the History and Activities of the Soviets in Russia: From the People's Calendar of the Petrograd Soviets, 1919.) "M. J. Braun", Berlin: Rote Fahne, 1919. * ''Die Lehren des Kapp-Putsches.'' (The Lessons of the Kapp Putsch.) "M. J. Braun", Leipzig: Franke, 1920.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronski, Mieczyslaw 1882 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Łódź People from Piotrków Governorate Old Bolsheviks Polish communists Soviet economists Soviet people of Polish descent Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Austria Great Purge victims from Poland Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Soviet rehabilitations Technical University of Munich alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Diplomats from Łódź Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Polish revolutionaries Soviet diplomats