A communist odyssey : the life of Jozsef Pogany/John Pepper / by Thomas Sakmyster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sakmyster, Thomas L.

Language:

English

Hungarian

Subjects (All):

Pogány, József, 1886-1938.

Pogány, József.

Pepper, John, 1886-1938.

Pepper, John.

Communists--Hungary--Biography.

Communists.

Communism--United States--History--20th century.

Communism.

Communism--Europe--History--20th century.

European 6 :--Russia & Eastern.

European 6 :.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (p. cm.)

Place of Publication:

Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2012.

Summary:

A group of Central European communists, most of them Hungarians, in the interwar period served the world communist movement as international cadres of the Comintern, the Moscow-based Communist International. As an important member of this cohort, József Pogány played a major role in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, the "March Action" in Germany in 1921, and, under the name of John Pepper, in the development of the American Communist Party of the 1920s. During the 1920s he was an important official in the Comintern apparatus and undertook missions on three continents. A prolific writer and effective organizer, he was one of the most flamboyant and controversial communists of his era. Some of his comrades praised him as "the Hungarian Christopher Columbus." Others, like Trotsky, called him a "political parasite."This study is based on newly available primary sources from Hungary, Russia, and the United States; it is the first ever written about this colorful and well-travelled Hungarian communist. Examines Pogány's development as a socialist and communist, the influence of his Jewish origins on his career, the reasons for his remarkable success in the United States, and the circumstances that led to his arrest and execution in the Stalinist terror.

Contents:

The making of Jozsef Pogany

The revolutionary, 1918-1919

The communist

Vienna, Moscow, and Berlin

The "Hungarian Christopher Columbus"

"Pepperism" in America

The Comintern cadre

Pepper and the "American question," 1924-1928

Return to the new world

End of the odyssey.

Notes:

Published in 2012 by Central European University Press.

Printed in Akaprint Kft., Budapest.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-003-71798-5

1-283-64098-8

615-5225-52-4

9781003717980

OCLC:

815970231