Moissaye Joseph Olgin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Moissaye Joseph Novominsky (1878-03-24)March 24, 1878 village Buki,Kyiv Governorate,Imperial Russia |
| Died | November 22, 1939(1939-11-22) (aged 61)[1] |
| Nationality | Russian; American |
| Alma mater | University of Kyiv,University of Heidelberg,Columbia University[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, journalist, translator |
| Years active | 1910–1939 |
| Political party | Communist Party USA |
Moissaye Joseph Olgin (24 March 1878 – 22 November 1939) was a Ukrainian-born writer, journalist, and translator in the early 20th century. He began his career writing for the Jewish press in support of theRussian Revolution in 1910. During theFirst World War, he moved to the United States in 1915, settling in New York City, where he continued his career in journalism. Much of his work was in support of communism, and he was a founding member of theWorkers Party. In 1922, he foundedThe Morning Freiheit, and served as its editor until his death in 1939.[1]
Moissaye Joseph Olgin was born on March 24, 1878, in Buki,Kyiv Governorate (then part of theRussian Empire) to Chaim Aaron Novominsky and Tsipe (Gelman) Novominsky, both of whom were of ethnicJewish origins.[2] His father worked as a lumber camp employee.[3]
Olgin received a traditional education in Hebrew. After a short period of self-study, he began his studies at theUniversity of Kyiv in 1900.
He was sympathetic to the causes of theRussian Revolution, and first became active in the underground revolutionary movement during his studies at the University of Kyiv. His writings for Jewish and revolutionary publications earned him some fame among the manyRussian Jews, who were heavily oppressed by the government ofTsar Nicholas II. He took part in a Jewish revolutionary student group known as "Freiheit" (Freedom).
In 1901 Olgin was elected chairman of the Students Central Committee. The tsarist regime ordered his arrest in April 1903 on a charge of organizing Jewish self-defense groups against anticipatedpogroms.[4]
In 1904, Olgin left the University of Kyiv and went toVilno as a member of the Vilno Committee of the JewishBund. There he was arrested but released on bail. He then became a member of the editorial board of the Arbeiter Stimme (Labor's Voice). He was the author of all the proclamations issued by the Central Committee of the Bund during the Revolution of 1905 while at the same time he prepared literary compositions for the illegal Jewish press. While editing newspapers and working with these underground organizations he also wrote books, short stories and literary essays.[4]
In 1907, he traveled to Germany to continue his studies at theUniversity of Heidelberg. He continued his studies there until 1910, when he returned to Russia.[3][4]
Traveling in Germany at the onset ofWorld War I, he was unable to return to Russia, and immigrated to the United States in 1915.[4]
Shortly after arriving in the United States, Olgin became a regular contributor to the Jewish daily newspaperThe Forward.
Olgin became an American citizen in April 1920. He was a leading member of theJewish Socialist Federation of theSocialist Party of America and was influential in leading the JSF out of the party at a special convention of the organization held in September 1921. Together with other defecting members of the JSF, Olgin thereafter entered the fledglingWorkers Council organization, a small group ofrevolutionary socialists which rejected the conspiratorial "underground" form of organization of the then extant communist movement. Olgin ceased contributing toThe Forward at this same time.
In April 1922, there was launched a newYiddish-language newspaper, the DailyFreiheit (later theMorning Freiheit). Olgin served as first editor of this publication, a position which he retained up until the time of his death.[5] He also contributed frequently to the Communist Party's English-language newspaper,The Daily Worker, and served as a special correspondent for theSoviet Communist Party's daily,Pravda.[5]
At the end of December 1922, the Workers Council group was among the organizations which were united into theWorkers Party of America (WPA), a new "legal political party" affiliated with the underground Communist Party of America, and Olgin thereby entered the formal communist movement for the first time. Olgin was named to the governing Bureau of the Jewish Federation of this new organization. Olgin was a member of the governing Central Executive Committee of the WPA and its Executive Council from the time of the organization's formation.
Olgin was a frequent candidate for political office on behalf of the Communist Party. He first ran in 1924, when he was a candidate forNew York State Assembly on the ticket of the Workers Party.[3] He ran forU.S. Congress in 1926, 1930, and 1934, and for New York Assembly again in 1927, 1929, 1933, and 1936.[2]
Although a bitter rival ofAlexander Bittelman in the heated factional politics of the Jewish Federation in the early 1920s, by the middle of the decade, Olgin had emerged as a supporter of the political faction that was headed byWilliam Z. Foster,Earl Browder, and his former foe.
Olgin made several trips to theSoviet Union. In 1937, he went to Paris as delegation to the International Yiddish Culture Congress which founded the World Alliance for Jewish Culture (YCUF). While in Paris, he addressed the Writers Congress.[4]
Following his trip to Paris, Olgin's health began to decline. After almost two years' illness, during which Olgin continued his work for theFreiheit, as well as for theDaily Worker and as the American correspondent forPravda,[1] he had apparently improved in health enough to appear atMadison Square Garden, on November 13, for his first public speech in several years.[4] Following the speech, his health again declined, and he died at his home of a heart attack on November 22, 1939. He was buried inNew Montefiore Cemetery nearFarmingdale, New York.[1][4]
Olgin was the author of numerous books and pamphlets in seven languages: English, Russian, German, French, Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. It is not known whether some of these works were, in fact, translated by others. He wrote verse, essays, literary criticism and sociological studies. His booksThe Soul of the Russian Revolution andA Guide to Russian Literature and pamphletWhy Communism? achieved sales of nearly half a million in several languages.[4]
Olgin translated several volumes ofLenin's collected works from Russian into English;Friedrich Engels'The Peasant War in Germany from German intoYiddish;John Reed'sTen Days That Shook the World from English into Yiddish; a volume of short stories fromPolish into Yiddish; two volumes of tales ofMendele Mocher Sforim, the father of Jewish literature, from Hebrew into Yiddish; andJack London'sCall of the Wild from English into Yiddish.[4]
