Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book is a political biography of Arkadij Maksimovich Maslow (1891-1941), a German Communist politician and later a dissident and opponent to Stalin. Together with his political and common-law marriage partner, Ruth Fischer, Maslow briefly led the Communist Party of Germany, the KPD, and brought about its submission to Moscow. Afterwards Fischer and Maslow were removed from the KPD leadership in the fall of 1925 and expelled from the party a year later. Henceforth they both lived as communist outsiders - persecuted by both Hitler and Stalin. Maslow escaped to Cuba via France and Portugal and was murdered under dubious circumstances in Havana in November 1941. He died as a communist dissident committed to the cause of a radical-socialist labor movement that lay in ruins. Kessler considers Maslow's role in pivot events such as the Bolshevik Revolution, in Soviet revolutionary parties and organizations, through to the rise of Stalinism and Cold War anti-communism. What results is a deep dive into the life of a key yet understudied figure in dissident communism.
Synopsis
1. A Young Revolution Between Russian and Germany
2. The Decisive Moment: The German November Revolution
3. On the Ultra-Left in the Early KPD
4. The March Action and its Aftermath
5. Controversies Over Workers' Government
6. 1923 (I): The Ruhr Crisis
7. 1913: (II): A Missed Revolution?
8. Maslow and Fischer: Towards the Party Leadership
9. Politics from Prison: The Bolshevization of the KPD
10. Disagreements: The Divided Left
11. Disempowerment and Fall
12. The Leninbund: A New Beginning?
13. Flight and Exile: Paris-Marseille-Lisbon-Havana
14. Maslow's Death
15. Avenging Maslow? Ruth Fischer's Crusade and Final Change of Mind