Letters of the German Communists Leader Ernst Thalmann to Joseph V. Stalin and Vyacheslav M. Molotov: 1939–1941
| 12 November 2024
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Publication of archival documents
Khavkin B.L., Moscow, Russian Federation
Letters of the German Communists Leader Ernst Thalmann to Joseph V. Stalin and Vyacheslav M. Molotov: 1939–1941
Abstract
The article studies letters of the German communists leader Ernst Thalmann arrested by the Nazis to the Soviet leaders, which he secretly wrote when in Hannover prison (1939-1941), now stored in the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. Ernst Thalmann was a Communist Party of Germany (KPD) member since 1920, a participant of the Hamburg Uprising of 1923, aReichstag deputy since 1924. In 1925 hebecame Chairman of the KPD and of the Roter Front kepferbund (Alliance of Red Front-Fighters). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI). Twice he was a candidate for the German Presidency: in March-April 1925 he got 1.9 mln votes; in the first round of elections in March 1932 he got almost 5 mln and 3.7 mln in the second, in April 1931. In early 1930s the KPD under Thalmann’s leadership was second largest communist party in the world (following the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)). In German federal election onJuly 31, 1932 the KPD got 5.37 mln votes, thus winning 89 seats; in elections on November 6, 1932 6 mln voted for communists, who got 100 seats in the Reichtag. In March 1933 Thalmann was arrested by the Nazis who came to power in Germany. There was to beatrial. By the indictment of December 17, 1934 the leader of the banned by Nazis KPD was charged with complicity in planning a communist take-over aiming establish dictatorship of the proletariat in Germany.
Keywords
Sources, Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, Soviet-German relations, Communist Party of Germany, chairman of the Communist Party of Germany Ernst Thalmann, letters of Ernst Thalmann to Joseph V. Stalin and Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1939-1941).
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About the authors
Khavkin Boris L’vovich, PhD in History, professor of the History and Archives Institute of the Russian State University of the Humanities (RGGU), Moscow, Russian Federation, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it