Sam Lesser
Encyclopedia
Sam Lesser was a British
journalist
and veteran
of the Spanish Civil War
's International Brigades
. Lesser was one of the last surviving British veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and went on to serve as chair of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
, and write for the Daily Worker and its successor, the Morning Star.
on 19 March 1915. He was raised as a practising Orthodox Jew
and attended South Hackney Central and George Green schools, then won a scholarship to study Egyptology
at University College London
(UCL) in 1934. He acknowledged in a 2007 interview that he was already "a bit Bolshevised
" by the time he arrived at UCL. In 1935 Lesser joined the Communist Party of Great Britain
, a decision he credited to the party's anti-fascist
stance; and participated in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists
in London, including the October 1936 Battle of Cable Street
. While at UCL, Lesser also joined the Officers' Training Corps, something he later described as "something that I always have great difficulty explaining," but which he justified by quoting Vladimir Lenin
's maxim "An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to use arms, to acquire arms, only deserves to be treated like slaves."
Harry Pollitt
, Lesser was among the first group of 30 British volunteers to depart for Spain in 1936, telling his mother he had gone to Egypt
for his studies. He later recalled his having done so as "a gesture of solidarity" having observed the rise of fascism in Europe. It was at this time that he took the name "Sam" and reversed "Lesser" to form "Russell." He travelled to Spain via Paris
and Perpignan
, took the pseudonym
"Raimundo Casado" while crossing the Pyrenees
, and travelled to the headquarters of the International Brigades
in Albacete
, where he trained.
His first experience of combat came as part of a British unit in a French battalion
in the Casa de Campo
university campus in Madrid
in October 1936, where he defended the faculties of philosophy
and literature
. Of the original 30 members of Lesser's unit, only six survived until mid-December. In December 1936, Lesser joined a reconstituted British company and went south to Lopera
, where in January 1937 (having previously suffered a shrapnel-inflicted head wound) Lesser was hit by bullets in the back and foot, likely to have come from his own machine gun
company, and dragged to safety by a friend who insisted on looking for him. "I didn't know at the time where I'd been wounded – in which part of my body – except that when I tried to get up I couldn't. I just fell down," he later recalled.
While recovering, he learned Spanish
, was introduced to Miguel de Cervantes
' Don Quixote, and worked in the battalion office in Albacete before returning to Britain with the list of casualties to recuperate. Upon his recovery, Lesser went to Paris, where he worked in the International Brigades recruitment office, assisting in the organisation of newly arrived volunteers and later leading a group of female volunteers to Spain in a fisherman's boat. However, he failed a medical examination
and was told that he would be unable to fight, a setback which led to a career in journalism
.
radio programmes for the Republican
cause. He was responsible for English language
broadcasts at a Barcelona headquarters established to broadcast on shortwave
in German
, Italian
, Portuguese
and English. He then became a correspondent for the Daily Worker in Barcelona, using "Sam Russell" as his byline
and covering the Republicans' retreat at the border town of Figueres
. Barcelona was at the time under attack from Benito Mussolini
's forces (which had a base in Majorca), who, Lesser wrote, "bombed our area of Barcelona, and I shall never forget the smell there when I went outside. There was one wonderful row of lime trees
– a beautiful scent when they're in flower. The gutter was literally flowing with blood, and the smell of the blood of these poor people was mixed with the smell of the lime trees." He left Barcelona the day before the city fell to the Nationalists in January 1939.
Lesser was the Daily Workers correspondent in Paris
and Brussels
, leaving Paris after the banning of the Communist Party following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and fleeing Belgium
after the Nazi invasion in May 1940. He returned to Britain, where the wounds he had received in Spain prevented him from serving in the British Army
. Instead, he worked for four years as an inspector in a Napier & Son
aircraft factory in west London, also serving as a shop steward
.
In 1945, following the lifting of the government's ban on publication of the Daily Worker, he flew in a Royal Air Force
Avro Lancaster
bomber
dropping food supplies in the Netherlands
. Writing for the Daily Worker, Lesser visited Jersey
following its occupation
, covered the 1952 show trial
of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
general secretary Rudolf Slánský
, and witnessed Nikita Khrushchev
's rise to power. As Moscow
correspondent from 1955 until 1959, he became friends spies
Guy Burgess
and Donald Maclean, two of the Cambridge Five
, and travelled from Moscow to report on the Soviet invasion following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, replacing Peter Fryer
in Budapest
after Fryer resigned in protest at his reports, which supported the rebellion, having been rewritten by the paper. Though Lesser's first despatch from Budapest, headlined "Kadar reveals the facts", was sympathetic to Soviet-installed Prime Minister János Kádár
, his attempts to report on the realities of everyday life led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
to request his withdrawal from Moscow, which was refused by the British party. Having been tipped off regarding the content of Khrushchev's report "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
(known as the "Secret Speech") and being aware that a Reuters
journalist planned to file the story once outside of Russia, he sought verification from the Soviet Communist Party, arguing that it would be better a sympathetic journalist such as himself to tell the story than for it to be first reported in the capitalist press. He was told, however, that "just because you are a friend doesn't mean you can look in our cupboard." He later said that despite his having filed a 12-page report to his London newsroom
, only a few paragraphs appeared in the paper.
As foreign editor, Lesser was based in London but reported from Nigeria
, where he covered the 1960 independence celebrations; from Cuba
during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
, where he conducted a five-hour-long interview with Che Guevara
; from Prague
during the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
, of which he was critical; and from North Vietnam
during the Vietnam War
. Lesser was in Chile
during the 1973 coup d'etat, his report of which began "I saw democracy murdered in Chile by a rabble of Rip van Winkle
general and admirals recruited by the CIA
to impose a savage military dictatorship on a people which had seen and welcomed the dawn of a new era", and reported on the beginnings of a new democracy in Spain following Francisco Franco
's death in 1975. During his career with the Daily Worker and Morning Star, Lesser held the positions of home reporter, diplomatic correspondent, Moscow correspondent and foreign editor. He retired in 1984 at the age of 69, but continued contributing articles to Seven Days, the Communist Party's own weekly newspaper.
Nell Jones in 1943, but shortly after renewed his acquaintance with Powell. He divorced Jones and married Powell in 1950. Margaret died in 1990. She and Lesser had one daughter, Ruth.
In the 1980s, splits developed in the Communist Party and the Morning Star between traditionalists and the dominant Eurocommunists
. Lesser, in his capacity as the National Union of Journalists
' Father of the Chapel
, joined the Eurocommunist wing in opposition to Morning Star editor Tony Chater
. The Communist Party was dissolved in 1991, and Lesser joined the Labour Party
. Also in the 1990s, Lesser backed the post-Communist
Democratic Left organisation. In November 2000, Lesser described himself not as a communist but as a socialist
, and acknowledged that some friends considered him a Blairite. He said that having lived in Lambeth
, he could "see the terrible, terrible damage that was done to the Labour party by the ultra-left," and felt that Clause IV
of the Labour Party Constitution
, which called for state ownership
of industry
before its revision in 1995, was outdated.
In 1996 he was among the International Brigade veterans who returned to Spain to be offered honorary Spanish citizenship
, an experience he described as "remarkable, really remarkable," and commented "I don't mind admitting I was moved to tears." Lesser was a founding member of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
, an organisation established in 2001 to educate the public in the history of the International Brigades and remember those who died in the Spanish Civil War, and served as its chair.
On 9 June 2009 Lesser was among seven British and Irish
volunteers who received Spanish passport
s and citizenship as a gesture of thanks, and gave a speech in fluent Spanish, linking the Spanish Civil War to the fight against the British National Party
, who he argued "have the same filthy policy of racism
, which started off in Germany with Hitler
's campaign against the Jews."
In July 2009 he appeared at the International Brigade memoral in Lambeth's Jubilee Gardens, where he paid tribute to his late friend and fellow brigadier Jack Jones, and on 7 May 2010 he appeared at the unveiling of a plaque honouring the 90 members of the International Brigades killed at the Battle of the Ebro
, where he gave a speech in Spanish condemning the lack of support shown to Republican volunteers by representatives of the British government. He also wrote an autobiography
, which was never published.
Lesser died in London on 2 October 2010 at the age of 95, leaving instructions for his ashes to be scattered near the International Brigade memorial at Montjuich in Barcelona.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
's International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
. Lesser was one of the last surviving British veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and went on to serve as chair of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
International Brigade Memorial Trust
The International Brigade Memorial Trust is a British educational trust formed by the veterans of the International Brigade Association, the Friends of the IBA, representatives of the Marx Memorial Library, and historians specialising in the Spanish Civil War....
, and write for the Daily Worker and its successor, the Morning Star.
Early life
Lesser was born Manassah or Manasseh Lesser, the son of Polish immigrants and the eldest of eight children, in the London Borough of HackneyLondon Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
on 19 March 1915. He was raised as a practising Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and attended South Hackney Central and George Green schools, then won a scholarship to study Egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
(UCL) in 1934. He acknowledged in a 2007 interview that he was already "a bit Bolshevised
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
" by the time he arrived at UCL. In 1935 Lesser joined the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
, a decision he credited to the party's anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
stance; and participated in demonstrations against the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
in London, including the October 1936 Battle of Cable Street
Battle of Cable Street
The Battle of Cable Street took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, overseeing a march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, socialist, anarchist,...
. While at UCL, Lesser also joined the Officers' Training Corps, something he later described as "something that I always have great difficulty explaining," but which he justified by quoting Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's maxim "An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to use arms, to acquire arms, only deserves to be treated like slaves."
Spanish Civil War
Lesser planned, in July 1936, to embark on an excavation under the supervision of Flinders Petrie. However, at the request of the Communist Party, and the specific request of the party's general secretaryGeneral secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt
Harry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...
, Lesser was among the first group of 30 British volunteers to depart for Spain in 1936, telling his mother he had gone to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
for his studies. He later recalled his having done so as "a gesture of solidarity" having observed the rise of fascism in Europe. It was at this time that he took the name "Sam" and reversed "Lesser" to form "Russell." He travelled to Spain via Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
, took the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Raimundo Casado" while crossing the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
, and travelled to the headquarters of the International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
in Albacete
Albacete
Albacete is a city and municipality in southeastern Spain, 258 km southeast of Madrid, the capital of the province of Albacete in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The municipality had a population of c. 169,700 in 2009....
, where he trained.
His first experience of combat came as part of a British unit in a French battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
in the Casa de Campo
Casa de Campo
The Casa de Campo is the largest urban park situated west of central Madrid, . It was formerly a royal hunting estate. Its area is more than ....
university campus in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in October 1936, where he defended the faculties of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. Of the original 30 members of Lesser's unit, only six survived until mid-December. In December 1936, Lesser joined a reconstituted British company and went south to Lopera
Lopera
Lopera is a city located in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2005 census , the city has a population of 3,976 inhabitants....
, where in January 1937 (having previously suffered a shrapnel-inflicted head wound) Lesser was hit by bullets in the back and foot, likely to have come from his own machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
company, and dragged to safety by a friend who insisted on looking for him. "I didn't know at the time where I'd been wounded – in which part of my body – except that when I tried to get up I couldn't. I just fell down," he later recalled.
While recovering, he learned Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, was introduced to Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
' Don Quixote, and worked in the battalion office in Albacete before returning to Britain with the list of casualties to recuperate. Upon his recovery, Lesser went to Paris, where he worked in the International Brigades recruitment office, assisting in the organisation of newly arrived volunteers and later leading a group of female volunteers to Spain in a fisherman's boat. However, he failed a medical examination
Physical examination
Physical examination or clinical examination is the process by which a doctor investigates the body of a patient for signs of disease. It generally follows the taking of the medical history — an account of the symptoms as experienced by the patient...
and was told that he would be unable to fight, a setback which led to a career in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
.
Journalism
With no prior experience of journalism, Lesser began producing and broadcasting propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
radio programmes for the Republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
cause. He was responsible for English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
broadcasts at a Barcelona headquarters established to broadcast on shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and English. He then became a correspondent for the Daily Worker in Barcelona, using "Sam Russell" as his byline
Byline
The byline on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name, and often the position, of the writer of the article. Bylines are traditionally placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines place bylines at the bottom of the page, to leave more room for graphical...
and covering the Republicans' retreat at the border town of Figueres
Figueres
Figueres is the capital of the comarca of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which attracts many visitors...
. Barcelona was at the time under attack from Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's forces (which had a base in Majorca), who, Lesser wrote, "bombed our area of Barcelona, and I shall never forget the smell there when I went outside. There was one wonderful row of lime trees
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
– a beautiful scent when they're in flower. The gutter was literally flowing with blood, and the smell of the blood of these poor people was mixed with the smell of the lime trees." He left Barcelona the day before the city fell to the Nationalists in January 1939.
Lesser was the Daily Workers correspondent in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, leaving Paris after the banning of the Communist Party following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and fleeing Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
after the Nazi invasion in May 1940. He returned to Britain, where the wounds he had received in Spain prevented him from serving in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. Instead, he worked for four years as an inspector in a Napier & Son
Napier & Son
D. Napier & Son Limited was a British engine and pre-Great War automobile manufacturer and one of the most important aircraft engine manufacturers in the early to mid-20th century...
aircraft factory in west London, also serving as a shop steward
Union steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company, who represents and defends the interests of her/his fellow employees but who is also a labor union official...
.
In 1945, following the lifting of the government's ban on publication of the Daily Worker, he flew in a Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Avro Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
dropping food supplies in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Writing for the Daily Worker, Lesser visited Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
following its occupation
Occupation of the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands were occupied by Nazi Germany for much of World War II, from 30 June 1940 until the liberation on 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands are two British Crown dependencies and include the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey as well as the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark...
, covered the 1952 show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
general secretary Rudolf Slánský
Rudolf Slánský
Rudolf Slánský was a Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia...
, and witnessed Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's rise to power. As Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
correspondent from 1955 until 1959, he became friends spies
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
Guy Burgess
Guy Burgess
Guy Francis De Moncy Burgess was a British-born intelligence officer and double agent, who worked for the Soviet Union. He was part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War...
and Donald Maclean, two of the Cambridge Five
Cambridge Five
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and at least into the early 1950s...
, and travelled from Moscow to report on the Soviet invasion following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, replacing Peter Fryer
Peter Fryer
Peter Fryer was an English Marxist writer and journalist.-Early life:Peter Fryer joined the Young Communist League in 1942 and the Communist Party in 1945. On leaving school in 1943 he became a reporter on the Yorkshire Post, and was dismissed by the paper in 1947 for refusing to leave the...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
after Fryer resigned in protest at his reports, which supported the rebellion, having been rewritten by the paper. Though Lesser's first despatch from Budapest, headlined "Kadar reveals the facts", was sympathetic to Soviet-installed Prime Minister János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
, his attempts to report on the realities of everyday life led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
to request his withdrawal from Moscow, which was refused by the British party. Having been tipped off regarding the content of Khrushchev's report "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...
(known as the "Secret Speech") and being aware that a Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
journalist planned to file the story once outside of Russia, he sought verification from the Soviet Communist Party, arguing that it would be better a sympathetic journalist such as himself to tell the story than for it to be first reported in the capitalist press. He was told, however, that "just because you are a friend doesn't mean you can look in our cupboard." He later said that despite his having filed a 12-page report to his London newsroom
Newsroom
A newsroom is the place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, along with other staffers—work to gather news to be published in a newspaper or magazine or broadcast on television, cable or radio...
, only a few paragraphs appeared in the paper.
As foreign editor, Lesser was based in London but reported from Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, where he covered the 1960 independence celebrations; from Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, where he conducted a five-hour-long interview with Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
; from Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
during the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...
, of which he was critical; and from North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Lesser was in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
during the 1973 coup d'etat, his report of which began "I saw democracy murdered in Chile by a rabble of Rip van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
general and admirals recruited by the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
to impose a savage military dictatorship on a people which had seen and welcomed the dawn of a new era", and reported on the beginnings of a new democracy in Spain following Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's death in 1975. During his career with the Daily Worker and Morning Star, Lesser held the positions of home reporter, diplomatic correspondent, Moscow correspondent and foreign editor. He retired in 1984 at the age of 69, but continued contributing articles to Seven Days, the Communist Party's own weekly newspaper.
Personal life
While in Barcelona, Lesser met Margaret Powell, a nurse. He married Daily Worker switchboard operatorSwitchboard operator
In the early days of telephony, through roughly the 1960s, companies used manual telephone switchboards and switchboard operators connected each call by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the...
Nell Jones in 1943, but shortly after renewed his acquaintance with Powell. He divorced Jones and married Powell in 1950. Margaret died in 1990. She and Lesser had one daughter, Ruth.
Later life and politics
Though he initially supported Khrushchev's reforms, he cited his experience surrounding the "Secret Speech" and the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, as experiences which changed him politically, and later acknowledged that he was troubled by his own credulity in reporting the Slánský show trial.In the 1980s, splits developed in the Communist Party and the Morning Star between traditionalists and the dominant Eurocommunists
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
. Lesser, in his capacity as the National Union of Journalists
National Union of Journalists
The National Union of Journalists is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists .-Structure:...
' Father of the Chapel
Father of the Chapel
The Father of Chapel and Mother of Chapel are the titles in the United Kingdom referring to a shop steward representing members of a trade union in a printing office or in journalism. The FoC or MoC is assisted by the Clerk of the Chapel or by a Deputy FoC/MoC.In the printing trade, a Chapel was...
, joined the Eurocommunist wing in opposition to Morning Star editor Tony Chater
Tony Chater
Anthony P J "Tony" Chater is a former British newspaper editor and communist activist.Born in Northampton, Chater attended Northampton Town and County Grammar School, and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain whilst in the sixth form. Chater then studied at Queen Mary and Westfield College...
. The Communist Party was dissolved in 1991, and Lesser joined the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. Also in the 1990s, Lesser backed the post-Communist
Post-Communism
Post-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentary...
Democratic Left organisation. In November 2000, Lesser described himself not as a communist but as a socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and acknowledged that some friends considered him a Blairite. He said that having lived in Lambeth
Lambeth
Lambeth is a district of south London, England, and part of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated southeast of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
, he could "see the terrible, terrible damage that was done to the Labour party by the ultra-left," and felt that Clause IV
Clause IV
Clause IV historically refers to part of the 1918 text of the British Labour Party constitution which set out the aims and values of the party. Before its revision in 1995, its application was the subject of considerable dispute.-Text:...
of the Labour Party Constitution
Labour Party Rule Book
The Labour Party Rule Book is the governing document for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.The Labour Party Constitution forms the first chapter of the Rule Book and contains the most important principles and provisions for Labour Party governance. The chapter is divided into ten sections...
, which called for state ownership
State ownership
State ownership, also called public ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that are vested in the state, rather than an individual or communities....
of industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
before its revision in 1995, was outdated.
In 1996 he was among the International Brigade veterans who returned to Spain to be offered honorary Spanish citizenship
Spanish nationality law
Spanish nationality law refers to all the laws of Spain concerning nationality. The 11th article of the First Title of the Spanish Constitution refers to Spanish nationality and establishes that a separate law is to regulate how it is acquired and lost. This separate law is the Spanish Civil Code...
, an experience he described as "remarkable, really remarkable," and commented "I don't mind admitting I was moved to tears." Lesser was a founding member of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
International Brigade Memorial Trust
The International Brigade Memorial Trust is a British educational trust formed by the veterans of the International Brigade Association, the Friends of the IBA, representatives of the Marx Memorial Library, and historians specialising in the Spanish Civil War....
, an organisation established in 2001 to educate the public in the history of the International Brigades and remember those who died in the Spanish Civil War, and served as its chair.
On 9 June 2009 Lesser was among seven British and Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
volunteers who received Spanish passport
Spanish passport
Spanish passports are issued to Spanish citizens for the purpose of travel outside Spain. However, for travel solely within the European Economic Area, Switzerland and a number of other European countries, Spanish citizens need only use their Spanish identity card...
s and citizenship as a gesture of thanks, and gave a speech in fluent Spanish, linking the Spanish Civil War to the fight against the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
, who he argued "have the same filthy policy of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, which started off in Germany with Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's campaign against the Jews."
In July 2009 he appeared at the International Brigade memoral in Lambeth's Jubilee Gardens, where he paid tribute to his late friend and fellow brigadier Jack Jones, and on 7 May 2010 he appeared at the unveiling of a plaque honouring the 90 members of the International Brigades killed at the Battle of the Ebro
Battle of the Ebro
The Battle of the Ebro was the longest and bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War...
, where he gave a speech in Spanish condemning the lack of support shown to Republican volunteers by representatives of the British government. He also wrote an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, which was never published.
Lesser died in London on 2 October 2010 at the age of 95, leaving instructions for his ashes to be scattered near the International Brigade memorial at Montjuich in Barcelona.