- John Pepper
John Pepper, real name József Pogány, also known as Joseph, (1886 - 1937) was a Hungarian
Jewish -bornCommunist active in theUnited States . His original name was Josef Schwartz.Fact|date=July 2007 Pogány participated in theHungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 withBéla Kun , and, after its failure, he fled toAustria and later to Soviet Russia.He was accused in taking part on
October 31 ,1918 in the murder of former Hungarian Prime MinisterCount István Tisza . In thetrial of 1921 he was convicted ofmurder , but being then inVienna , the Social-Democratic Austrian government refused hisextradition , thus the sentence was never enforced.As
Ferenc Göndör (Nathan Kraus) a former comrade of Pogány wrote in his book "Confessions" (printed inVienna in 1923), Pogány was repudiated by even his father (Vilmos Schwarz), who later committedsuicide after being dismissed from his function ashazzan .In the
Soviet Union , Pogány became active in theComintern . Using his new name John Pepper, he went illegally to the United States in 1922 to assist with theHungarian language Federation of the American Communist movement, learned English quickly and soon became one of the Workers Party's most authoritative voices. Pepper was a member of the editorial board of the The Liberator in the early 1920s, writing articles on international affairs.It is also known that John Pepper in the 1920s spent some time in
Stockholm ,Sweden and worked with the Communist Party there.Pepper returned to the US as
Joseph Stalin 's agent to oversee the expulsion of Trotskyists in theCommunist Party, USA , and especially assisting the Stalinists in their struggle withJames P. Cannon . However, later back in theSoviet Union , Pepper would himself become a victim of theGreat Purges in 1937.Works in English
*"For a Labor Party: Recent Revolutionary Changes in American Politics: A Statement by the Workers Party." 1922.
*"Underground Radicalism": An Open Letter to Eugene V. Debs and to All Honest Workers Within the Socialist Party." 1923.
*"The General Strike and the General Betrayal." 1926.
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