Ralph Winston Fox (30 March 1900 – 28 December 1936) was a British revolutionary, journalist, novelist, and historian, best remembered as a biographer of

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

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

. Fox was one of the best-known members of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

(CPGB) to be killed in Spain fighting against the Nationalists in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

Biography

Early years

Fox was born 30 March 1900 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, to a middle-class family.Samuel Sillen, "The Man Who Was Ralph Fox," ''The New Masses,'' vol. 54, no. 2 (9 January 1945), pp. 22–24. He knew James Crowther in his youth and helped stimulate Crowther's interest in

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. Fox studied modern languages at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

's Magdalen College, where he was drafted into Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps.Graham Stevenson, "Communist Biographies: Ralph Fox," Grahamstevenson.me.uk Although commissioned as a lieutenant, the war ended before Fox was sent to the front lines of

World War I 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 ...

. During his time in Oxford, Fox joined the Oxford University Labour Club, where he met activist fellow activist Tom Wintringham. In 1919 Fox became active in the effort to halt British blockade and military intervention to overthrow the

Bolshevik 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, ...

government which had assumed power in the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

. He was active in the Oxford Hands Off Russia Committee and was instrumental in helping to organise the local CPGB unit.

1920s and Soviet experiences

In 1920 as the dust was settling from the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, Fox travelled to Soviet Russia, an experience which further moved him towards lifelong identification with the communist political movement. Fox returned to Oxford, where in 1922 he graduated with a first class honours in modern languages. In the summer following graduation, Fox returned to Soviet Russia, this time as a worker with the

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

Relief Mission in

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

. Back in Great Britain, he went to work as a functionary for the CPGB in its propaganda department. He also studied in at the School of Foreign Languages and wrote his first major book, ''People of the Steppes,'' which was published in 1925. In 1925 Fox returned once again to Moscow, this time to work in the apparatus of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

. He met his wife in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and married in the spring of 1926. In 1928 Fox went to work for the ''Sunday Worker,'' the high-profile weekly predecessor of the '' Daily Worker,'' launched in 1930. Fox and his wife returned once again to the Soviet Union in 1929, where he took a position as a librarian at the Marx–Engels Institute in Moscow.

1930s and Spanish Civil War

During his time with the Marx-Engels Institute, Fox began a detailed study of the Asiatic Mode of Production as reflected in the writings of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. He published an article on the topic, "The Views of Marx and Engels on the Asiatic Mode of Production and Their Sources," in the journal ''Letopisi marksizma'' in 1930. Fox returned once again to England in 1932, going to work for the ''Daily Worker'' as a columnist and writing several pamphlets and books for the Communist press. In 1935 Fox shared a hotel room with the famous Jewish-American communist writer Mike Gold. In 1936, to fight fascism in the

, Fox joined the

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

through the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

in Paris. When he arrived in Spain at the end of the year, he was sent to be trained in Albacete and was assigned to the XIV Brigade. After some weeks as a political commissar at the base, Fox was sent to the front in one of the first operations in which the Brigades were involved. Fox died at the Battle of Lopera in the province of Jaén in late December 1936. During the same fascist attack which killed Fox, his friend the Cambridge poet John Cornford was also killed. Some biographies state 3 January 1937 as his date of death, which was the day that his death was made public. However, modern historians place his death within late 1936.

Legacy

After Fox's death, the leader of the CPGB, Harry Pollitt, published a tribute to Fox's death, praising him for his convictions and contributions to the fight against fascism. In 1937 a selection of tributes to the memory of Fox was published and titled '''Ralph Fox: A Writer in Arms'.'' The bulletin of the Marx Memorial Library contains recent articles on Fox, and the Library holds many of Fox's papers and publications. To date there are only two extended accounts of Fox: Mike Freeman's 2009 study of Fox's life and cultural politics, 'Ralph Fox: Telling the Times' and a biographical essay by Don Hallett in the 2009 proceedings of the Halifax Antiquarian Society. Primary sources on Fox are available at the Working Class Movement Library at Salford, and Halifax Central Library. A bench in his memorial sits at the Manor Heath Walled Garden, Halifax. Fox's memorial bench was erected by the Marxist historian E. P. Thompson. Fox's name is included on the Oxford Spanish Civil War memorial.

Works

* ''People of the Steppes.'' London: Constable, 1925. * ''A Defence of Communism: In Reply to H.J. Laski.'' London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1927. * ''Storming Heaven.'' London: Constable, 1928. —Novel * ''The Colonial Policy of British Imperialism.'' London: Martin Lawrence, 1933. * ''Lenin.'' London: Victor Gollancz, 1933. * ''The Class Struggle in Britain.'' In Two Parts. New York: International Publishers, 1933. * ''The Colonial Policy of British Imperialism.'' New York: International Publishers, 1934. * ''Communism.'' London: John Lane, 1935. * ''Genghis Khan.'' New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1936. * ''France Faces the Future.'' New York: International Publishers, 1936. * ''The Novel and the People.'' London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1937. (posthumous) * ''This Was Their Youth.'' London: Secker & Warburg, 1937. (posthumous) * ''Marx, Engels and Lenin on Ireland.'' New York: International Publishers, 1940. (posthumous)

References

External links

*
Ralph Fox Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/ * Harry Pollitt
''Ralph Fox: A Tribute,''
Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Ralph Winston 1900 births 1930s deaths People from Halifax, West Yorkshire Communist Party of Great Britain members English male journalists English communists British Anti-Francoists British people of the Spanish Civil War English anti-fascists 20th-century English historians British communist writers British military personnel killed in action International Brigades personnel killed in action