Karl Radek
1885 – 1939 Russian Bolshevik and Comintern propagandist
The witty Comintern propagandist who fell in the purges.
- Religion
- Born to a Jewish family; a militant atheist.
- Affiliations
- Bolshevik Party; leading Comintern agitator; joined Trotsky's opposition, recanted, then died in the camps.
Radek was a sharp-tongued journalist and agitator who worked for the Communist International and its push for world revolution. He joined Trotsky's opposition to Stalin, then recanted and testified in a 1937 show trial. Sentenced to the camps, he was killed there in 1939.
Connections
- rival of Joseph Stalin — Recanted and testified at a show trial but still died in the camps.
- ally of Leon Trotsky — An ally in the opposition before he broke and denounced it.