Home > Harry Pollitt

In 1919 Pollitt was involved in the "Hands off Russia" campaign to protest against western intervention in the Russian Civil War. At the end of the war he joined Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Socialist Federation, which became the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International). As a member of this group he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain when it was formed in 1920. Pankhurst soon left the party, but Pollitt remained. He was heavily influenced by the Communist intellectual Rajani Palme Dutt, and the two remained close allies for many years.

In 1925 Pollitt was jailed for 12 months for seditious libel. In 1929 the CPGB elected him General Secretary, a position he held, with a brief interruption during World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, until 19561956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. see link for calendar) Events January January 1 End of Anglo- Egyptian Condominium in Sudan. January 16 President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine January 26 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in. He was then made Chairman, a position he held until his death four years later. Along with Dutt he was one of the leading figures in the party until his death.

Pollitt was always loyal to the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 and to its ruler from 1929, Joseph StalinIosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin ( Russian: Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin , original name Ioseb Jughashvili ( Georgian: Russian: Iosif Dzhugashvili see Other names section ( December 21 [ December 9, Old Style], 1879 1 March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik rev, although he sometimes made private protests to the Soviets about some of their actions, particularly during the Great PurgeThe Great Purge is the name given to the campaigns of repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included a purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The purge was motivated by the desire on the part of the leadership to remove dis of the 1930s. In September 1939Events January-June January 2 End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson. January 24 Earthquake kills 30. 000 in Chile about 50. 000 sq mi razed January 26 Falangists take Barcelona January 26, however, he welcomed the British declaration of war on Nazi GermanyNazi Germany or the Third Reich commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933 1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of National Socialism with Adolf Hitler as dictator. The term Nazi is a short form of the German. When this turned out to be contrary to the Soviet line (as Dutt had warned him it would be), he was forced to resign as party leader. He was reinstated in 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St when the Soviet Union entered the war. In 1971, Pollitt's devotion to the Soviet cause and to international communism was acknowledged by Moscow when the Soviet navy named a ship after him.

Pollitt faced another crisis in 1956 when Nikita Khrushchev revealed the extent of Stalin's crimes. Many members of the party resigned, and Pollitt was severely criticised for his long-time loyalty to Stalin. In 1957 the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution made the crisis in the party worse, and most of its intellectual figures (such as Doris Lessing and E. P. Thompson) resigned.

A plaque dedicated to the memory of Pollitt was unvelied by the Mayor of Tameside on the twenty-second of March 1995 outside Droylsden Library.