thumb|right|220px|bert wolfe as he appeared in 1929 as national agit-prop director of the workers (communist) party. bertram david "bert" wolfe (1896â1977) was an american scholar and former communist best known for biographical studies of vladimir lenin, joseph stalin, leon trotsky, and diego rivera. ==biography== ===early life=== bertram wolfe was born january 19, 1896 in brooklyn, new york. his mother was a native-born american and his father was an ethnic jewish immigrant from germany who had arrived in the united states as a boy of 13.branko lazitch with milorad m. drachkovitch, biographical dictionary of the comintern: new, revised, and expanded edition. stanford, ca: hoover institution press, 1986; pp. 514-515. wolfe studied to teach english literature and writing and received degrees from the college of the city of new york, columbia university, and the university of mexico. ===communist party=== wolfe was active with the socialist party of america in his youth and was an active participant in the left wing section which emerged in 1919. wolfe attended the june 1919 national conference of the left wing and was elected by that body to its nine member national council. he helped draft the manifesto of that organization, together with louis c. fraina and john reed. in 1919 wolfe became a founding member of the communist party of america (cpa). together with maximilian cohen, wolfe was responsible for the communist world, the cpa's first newspaper in new york city."wolfe starts campaign tour: communist candidate to speak in many cities," daily worker, vol. 5, no. 235 (october 4, 1928), pp. 1, 3. during the period of repression of leading communists in new york conducted by the lusk committee, wolfe fled to california. in 1920 he became a member of the san francisco cooks' union. he also edited a left wing trade union paper called labor unity from 1920 to 1922. wolfe was a delegate to the ill-fated august 1922 convention of the underground cpa held in bridgman, michigan, for which he was indicted under michigan's "criminal syndicalism" law. in 1923, wolfe departed for mexico, where he became active in the trade union movement there. he became a member of the executive committee of the communist party of mexico and was a delegate of that organization to the 5th world congress of the communist international, held in moscow in 1924. wolfe was also a leading member the red international of labor unions (profintern) from 1924 to 1928, sitting on that body's executive committee. wolfe was ultimately deported from mexico to the united states in july 1925 for activities related to a strike of mexican railway wor
1896_births 1977_deaths Accidental_deaths_in_California American_Comintern_people American_Jews American_Marxists American_anti-communists American_communists American_people_of_German-Jewish_descent American_socialists City_College_of_New_York_alumni Columbia_University_alumni Columbia_University_faculty Democratic_socialists Guggenheim_Fellows Historians_of_communism Jewish_socialists Members_of_the_Communist_Party_USA Members_of_the_Socialist_Party_of_America People_from_Brooklyn Right_Opposition