JOGICHES, LEON

JOGICHES, LEON (Jan Tyszka ; 1867–1919), socialist leader in Poland and Germany. Born in Vilna, Jogiches in 1885 became a member of the revolutionary party Narodnaya Volya. He was a leading member of the Vilna group and was connected with its terrorist organization. He was later arrested by the Czarist authorities. On his release he emigrated to Switzerland and from 1890 to 1893 worked with Plekhanov's Marxist group Osvobozhdeniye Truda ("Emancipation of Labor"). Jogiches was a founder and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania and considerably influenced Rosa *Luxemburg, with whom he was in close personal contact. He edited the party organ Sprawa Robotnicza ("The Workers' Cause") with Rosa Luxemburg and others and later edited four other periodicals: Czerwony Sztandar ("Red Banner"); Przegląd Socjaldemokratyczny ("Social-Democratic Review"); Trybuna Ludowa ("People's Tribune") and Trybuna. Jogiches returned to Poland on the outbreak of the Russian revolution in 1905 and organized the Warsaw workers' strikes of December 1905. He was arrested in 1906 and sentenced to eight years hard labor. In 1907, however, he escaped to Germany where he became active in the Polish, Russian, and German Socialist movements. During World War i, Jogiches was a leading figure in the left-wing groups Internationale and Spartacus until his arrest in 1918. After the revolution in Germany (Nov. 1918) he joined Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in forming the German Communist Party (kpd), but early in 1919 was rearrested and murdered in prison.

bibliography:

J. Krasny, J. Tyszka, zarys życia i dziaxalności (Moscow, 1925); Polski Słownik Biograficzny, 11 (1964–65), 260–2 (incl. bibl.).

[Abraham Wein]