Max Levien (; 21 May 1885 – 17 June 1937) was a leading German-Russian

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician. He was one of the co-founders of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

(KPD). As the first party chairman of the KPD in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, he was in April 1919 one of the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

s of the

Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic (or Bavarian Council Republic), also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (), was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German revolution of 1918–1919. A group of communists and anarchist ...

that emerged in the wake of the German November Revolution of 1918.

Life

Early life

Research has established that Levien was descended from

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

immigrants into Russia by the name of Lavigne. Max Levien was born into a German merchant family in Moscow in 1885. His studies began in 1893 at the Moscow German Gymnasium and continued in 1897 in

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

, Germany, where he graduated in 1902. He discontinued his scientific studies at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

in the fall of 1905 to participate in the Russian revolution that year. Joining the

Socialist Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

(SR) in 1906, he was arrested by the

Okhrana The Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order (), usually called the Guard Department () and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana ( rus , Охрана, p=ɐˈxranə, a=Ru-охрана.ogg, t= The Guard) w ...

and sentenced to prison in Moscow in 1907. After his release in 1908, Levien went to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

where he continued his studies, and graduated with a doctorate in the summer of 1913. In Switzerland, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party, had contacts with

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and became a follower of the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. After graduation, Levien went to Germany and became a German citizen. On 29 October 1913, he volunteered for the Royal Bavarian Infantry Lifeguards Regiment and served from 1914 to 1918 on most fronts in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, fighting alternately in France, Italy, Serbia and Romania.

Revolution and Council republic

During the November revolution he was active in the soldiers' councils, working closely together with anarchist writer and activist

Erich Mühsam Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German Antimilitarism, antimilitarist anarchism, anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a Federalism, federated Bavari ...

. Levien became chairman of the Munich Soldiers´ Council and the Munich Spartacus group. He participated as a delegate for

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in the founding convention of the

(KPD) over the New Year 1918–19, and became party chairman for KPD in

. Levien was together with

Eugen Leviné Eugen Leviné (; 10 May 1883 – 5 June 1919), also known as Dr. Eugen Leviné, was a German Communism, communist revolutionary and one of the leaders of the short-lived Second Bavarian Soviet Republic. Background Eugen Leviné was born on 10 ...

one of the leaders of the second phase of the Soviet Republic after the suppression of the

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

counter-coup on

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm bran ...

13 April 1919. Levien was considered to be the main intellectual and political leader of the new communist led Soviet Republic. Unlike Leviné, Levien was an ethnic German and not of Jewish descent, but was nevertheless defamed as Jewish by right-wing political opponents. Levien was arrested after the suppression of the Soviet Republic, but managed to flee to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in May 1919. There he was arrested again. Karl Retzlaw, who personally knew and worked with him, wrote in his biography: "Max Levien was an interesting figure. About 35 years old, medium-sized, full dark hair - "artist's mane" - doctor of science and a great, quick-witted speaker.“ The Austrian government released Levien by the end of 1920. Before that, long negotiations had taken place after the Bavarian judiciary had placed a request for his extradition.

Soviet exile

Levien settled in Moscow in June 1921, there he first worked in the hunger relief for Soviet Russia. Elected in 1922 into the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI), he worked in his apparatus and participated in 1924 at the 5th World Congress of the Communist International. Levien was later involved in academic work as a journalist and biologist, he was an editor of the philosophical journal ''

Under the Banner of Marxism ''Under the Banner of Marxism'' (, ) was a Soviet Union, Soviet philosophical and socio-economic journal published in Moscow from 1922 to 1944. It was published monthly, except for 1933–1935, when it was published bi-monthly. History In a lett ...

'' and lectured at the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West and the

Communist Academy The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of ...

and was a member of its presidium. In 1925 he became member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. During this time Levien was closely associated with the disgraced former KPD leader

Arkadi Maslow Arkadi Maslow , born Isaak Yefimowich Chemerinsky (March 9, 1891 – November 20, 1941) was a communist politician in the German Republic, Along with his partner Ruth Fischer, he was a leading figure in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) t ...

. In the 1930s he had a professorship for History and Philosophy of natural sciences at the

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

Death

Eventually Levien fell victim to the

Great Terror The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...

. He was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

on 10 December 1936 and was in March 1937 initially sentenced to five years camp imprisonment. But on 16 June the verdict was converted into a

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, which was executed the following day. Max Levien is classified by the Russian historian Alexander Vatlin as a victim of the German operation of the NKVD, even if he was sentenced and executed before

Nikolai Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Николай Иванович Ежов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940), also spelt Ezhov, was a Soviet Chekism, secret police official under Joseph Stalin who ...

signed the order of its initiation.

Literature

* Martin H. Geyer: ''Verkehrte Welt. Revolution, Inflation und Moderne. München 1914–1924,'' Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, p. 82. * Branko Lazitch; Drachkovitch, Milorad M. (Hgg.): ''Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern,'' Stanford/CA, Hoover Institution Press, 1986, p. 259f. * Natalia Mussienko; Ulla Plener (Hgg.): ''Verurteilt zur Höchststrafe. Tod durch Erschießen. Todesopfer aus Deutschland und deutscher Nationalität im Großen Terror in der Sowjetunion 1937/1938,'' Berlin, Dietz, 2006, p. 58. *
Levien, Max
'. In: Hermann Weber, Andreas Herbst: Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945. 2., überarbeitete und stark erweiterte Auflage. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2008, . * Hermann Weber: „Zu den Beziehungen zwischen der KPD und der Kommunistischen Internationale“, in: ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'' 16 (1968), 2, p. 177–208, here: p. 188
PDF
.

External links

Friedbert Mühldorfer, Spartakusbund, 1915-1919, in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levien, Max 1937 deaths 1885 births German anti-capitalists German anti-fascists Russian anti-fascists Far-left politicians in Germany Far-left politics in Russia German people of Russian descent Russian people of German descent Russian expatriates Soviet journalists Academic staff of Moscow State University Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Communist Party of Germany members Great Purge victims from Germany Great Purge victims from Russia People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 German Army personnel of World War I Russian people of World War I People of the Russian Civil War Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Soviet biologists German revolutionaries German Marxists Russian Marxists German communists Russian communists German socialists Russian socialists Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Bavarian Soviet Republic