Theodore Rothstein

Theodore Aronovich Rothstein (1871 - 1953) was a Russian journalist, writer and communist.

Life

Theodore Aronovich Rothstein was born 1871 in Kovno (today: Kaunas in today's Lithuania) as a son of a Jewish family. Nothing is known about his parents, his childhood and his youth.

Rothstein left Russia in 1890 for political reasons and settled in Britain. He worked as a journalist in the area of foreign policy for The Tribune, for the The Daily News which was founded by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) in 1847, for the The Manchester Guardian, and he became a member of the National Union of Journalists. Furthermore he was active in London as a correspondent for some radical Russian newspapers. Rothstein also wrote article for Die Neue Zeit, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which represented the direct way of a consistent Marxism and in which took place all the important debates to the topic of Marxism and socialism.

In 1895, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) which was founded by Henry Hyndman (1842-1921) in 1884. He occupied the left wing of the party as a prominent theorists and forward thinker, and in 1900 he was elected to its executive. Within the SDF's successor, the British Socialist Party (BSP), was he a leader of the opposition to Hyndman's support for the war. After Hyndman and his supporters left the BSP, Rothstein became a leading figure in the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He also joined the Russian Social Democratic and Labour Party as a british member in 1901, siding with the Bolsheviks against the Mensheviks and becoming a close comrade of Lenin (1870-1924), who often stayed at Rothstein's house on Clapton Square in the Hackney area of London.

He caused sensation in 1910 in which he published "Egypt's Ruin", a careful analysis about Egypt's systematic exploitation through Brits after the occupation, proved by using correspondent reports of London newspapers over Egypt and British government documents. Although Rothstein was a convinced opponent of the first World War I, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the British War Office as a Russian translator and interpreter.

However, following an invitation to Moscow 1920, he could not travel back to Britain due to the Russian Civil War (1917-1923) and its political complications. Hey remained in Russia, became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, took on the chairmanship of the "University reform commission" (1920-1921), became the Ambassador to Tehran (1921-1922) and was from 1922 on a member of the "Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs". Rothstein got appointed to the director of the Institute of World Economy and Politics in Moscow, became a member of the academy in 1939 and was put under the authority of Lenin directly.

Rothstein's son, Andrew, remained in Britain and also became a prominent communist.

Rothstein died 1953, when, where and under which circumstances is not known.

Works

* "The Decline of British Industry", 1903.
* "The Russian Revolution", 1907.
* "Egypt’s Ruin, A Financial and Administrative Record", London, 1910.
* "Essays in the History of the British Labour Movement",
* "From Chartism to Labourism - Historical Sketches of the English Working Class Movement", Dorrot Press Ltd., London, 1929.
* [http://www.marxists.org./archive/rothstein/index.htm Artikel in The Social Democrat, Justice, The Call and The Communist International] - Marxists Internet Archive

Sources

* Theodore Rothstein, "From Chartism to Labourism - Historical Sketches of the English Working Class Movement", Dorrot Press Ltd., London, 1929.
* [http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/r/o.htm#rothstein-theo Theodore Rothstein] - Marxists Internet Archive
* [http://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/archives/000089.html Compendium of Communist Biography by surname] - Graham Stevenson, National Organiser for the Transport and General Workers Union

External links

* [http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2001/1023/win/muller.htm Theodore Rothstein] - Russian article about Rothstein with his photo