Alois Muna

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Alois Muna

Alois Muna (also Alois Můňa ; born February 23, 1886 in Lissitz ; † August 2, 1943 in Kladno ) was a Czech politician ( KPTsch ) and journalist . He was a co-founder of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC) and for a short time chairman of its central executive committee. Muna was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (EKKI).

Life

Muna, a trained tailor , joined the Social Democratic Youth in Vienna in 1903 , and from 1908 to 1911 he was active for the Social Democratic Party in Prague . From 1911 to 1914 he acted as secretary of the Czechoslovak trade union headquarters ( Czech Odborové sdružení českoslovanské ) in Proßnitz . After the outbreak of World War I , he served in the Austro-Hungarian army from January 1915 . In May 1915 he was taken prisoner by Russia . However, Muna was able to escape from the prison camp in Ardatow ( Simbirsk Governorate ) and went to Kiev in 1917 . There Muna published the Czech-language newspaper Svoboda (Eng. "Freedom"). Muna supported the October Revolution of 1917. Muna was a co-founder of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in Russia ( Czech: Českoslovanská komunistická strana v Rusku ) in May 1918 and became its chairman and editor-in-chief of its organ, Průkopník Svobody (dt. "Pioneer of Freedom").

Muna was planned by the Soviets for the establishment of a communist party in Czechoslovakia and was sent there - after brief information from Lenin himself (10 and 12 November 1918). Shortly after the proclamation of independent Czechoslovakia in October 1918, Muna returned to his homeland in December 1918. In January 1919 Muna settled in the mining town of Kladno, a stronghold of the left. In the same year he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper Svoboda (until 1929). In June 1919 Muna was arrested for his revolutionary activities. On May 31, 1920, he was released from custody on the basis of an amnesty decree. In the course of 1920 the clashes between the left and right wing of the social democracy intensified. The leaders of the left wing, among them Antonín Zápotocký and Muna, tried in December 1920 by means of a general strike to take over the leadership of the Social Democrats. The attempt failed, Muna and Zápotocký were arrested. Muna was on the III. World Congress of the Comintern in June / July 1921 elected honorary chairman in absentia .

After his release in February 1922 Muna member of was the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which had been established in May last year. Muna belonged to the right wing of the party around Bohumír Šmeral . Muna traveled again to Soviet Russia, where he took part in the Second Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) in Moscow in June 1922 . At the 4th World Congress of the Comintern in November 1922, Muna was elected as a candidate for the ECCI. At the constituent meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the CPC on February 6, 1923, Muna was elected its chairman, a position he held until November 1924. In 1924/25 he was also a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee. At the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern (1924) he was elected a full member of the ECCI and a candidate for its Presidium. In this capacity, Muna took part in the Fifth Extended Plenum of the ECCI in March and April 1925.

From November 1925 to September 1929 Muna was a member of the National Assembly . After the so-called "Karlín boys" ( Czech Karlínští kluci , alluding to the Karlín workers' district in Prague), led by Klement Gottwald , had taken power in the party, Muna was expelled from the CPC in June 1929 because of "legal opportunism and liquidationism" . In parliament he then joined the group of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Leninists) (in Czech Komunistická strana Československa (leninovci) ). From 1929 he was editor of the organ of the Leninists, Obrana Svobody (Eng. "Defense of Freedom") in Kladno .

In 1930 (according to other sources in October 1932) Muna was again a member of the Social Democratic Party. 1931/32 he was editor of the magazine Unhošťské rozhledy . He later retired from active politics.

Fonts

  • Ruská revoluce a československé hnutí na Rusi . Svoboda, Kladno 1919.
  • Můj proces. Jak se vyrábějí velezrádné procesy v československé republice za vlády "socialistického" ministerského předsedy . Sociální Demokratie, Prague 1920.

literature

  • Gerburg Thunig-Nittner: The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. Their history and importance in the creation of the First Czechoslovak Republic . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1970, p. 226.
  • Branko M. Lazić (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern . Hoover Press, Stanford 1986, ISBN 0817984011 , p. 328.
  • Josef Bartoš, Miloš Trapl: Československo 1918–1938: fakta, materiály, reálie . 2nd Edition. Univerzita Palackého, Filozofická fakulta, Olomouc 1994, p. 90.
  • Entry: Muna, Alois . In: Milan Churaň et al .: Kdo byl kdo v našich dějinách ve 20. století . Volume 1. Libri, Prague 1998, p. 464.

Web links

  • Alois Muna on the Encyklopedie ČSSD (Czech) page .
  • Alois Muna on the page Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů (Czech).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Czech communists released . In: Cillier Zeitung , June 3, 1920 , p. 4.
  2. ^ Entry on the website of the Czech Parliament (Czech).
personal data
SURNAME Muna, Alois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Můňa, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak politician (KPTsch)
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Lysice
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1943
Place of death Kladno