"Mit kommunistischem Gruss!" from Béla Kun

Kun, Béla, Hungarian Communist politician (1886-1938). Typed letter signed ("Béla Kun").

Moscow, August 1924.

Folio. 1 p. The letterhead reads "Agitational-Propagandist Department of the E.C.C.I., Moscou" in German, French, English, and Russian. Also included is an English translation of the letter and a typed dossier on Kun in English, dated 1931.

 15.000,00

A rare letter signed by one of the most notorious early Bolshevik leaders and a proponent of international communism. Béla Kun led the brutal and short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, oversaw the massacre of tens of thousands of people when he controlled the Revolutionary Committee in Crimea in 1920, and spurred the German Communist Party into an abortive uprising in March 1921. While he lost the active support of Lenin with this last failure, Kun continued to hold a number of significant positions in Comintern throughout the 1920s. He disappeared in 1937 in the midst of Stalin's Great Purge, and was shot as a Trotskyite in 1938, following a show-trial.

In this letter, Kun orders that future copies of specific publications (he lists "Rote Fahne, S.A.Z., Kämpfer, Ruhr-Echo, Schlesische A.Z., Volkswacht Mecklenburg, Klassenkampf") be sent to the central committee of Comintern's Agitprop department for scrutiny, in order to ensure better control and management of communist publications. As Kun explains, "Die Exekutive der K.I. stellte der Agitprop-Abteilung des E.K.K.I. die Aufgabe, die gesamte kommunistische Presse eingehend zu kontrollieren [...] Wir haben deshalb beschlossen, in einer Frist von 3 Monaten die wichtigsten Parteiorgane einiger Sektionen einer eingehenden Beobachtung und Kontrolle zu unterziehen [...]". Regarding the specific publications, Kun adds, "Wir bitten Euch, uns umgehend und regelmässig je drei Exemplare dieser Zeitungen zuzusenden." He signs off "Mit kommunistischem Gruss!".

Lightly worn and creased; insignificant tears to lower edge. A vanishingly rare signature.