Max Levien (21.5.1885 Moscow – 16.7.1937 Soviet Union)

Levien hailed from a Russian-German merchant family and grew up in both Russia and Germany. In 1905, he discontinued his biology studies at the University of Halle to take part in the Russian Revolution. After a longer prison sentence in Moscow, he took up his studies again in Zürich in 1908, where he first joined the Social Democratic Party but then became a supporter of Bolshevism. After receiving his doctorate (in 1913), he relocated to Germany, became a German citizen, and volunteered for the Royal Bavarian Life Guards. After serving as a soldier for four years on the front, Levien returned to Munich in November 1918. Due to his charisma, intelligence, and oratory skills, he quickly occupied leading political positions: He was elected head of the Soldiers’ Council and Chairman of the Munich Spartacus group and KPD. Along with Eugen Leviné, Levien was considered the intellectual and political head of the communist Soviet Republic.

After its suppression, he managed to flee. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested in Vienna, however the Austrian government declined to extradite him to Bavaria, where he would have faced the death penalty. In 1921, Levien moved to the Soviet Union, where he was initially active in the Communist International, later he taught at Moscow University as a history professor. During the Stalinist ‘Purges’, Levien was arrested on December 10, 1936 and shot on June 16, 1937.