The revolution dismisses its children

The revolution releases its children is the book title of an autobiographical story by Wolfgang Leonhard . In it he describes his political path from Moscow in 1935 to his escape from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany in March 1949.

General

The first edition of the book appeared in 1955 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in Cologne. A camouflage edition for the GDR had the title: Stalin, Josef Wissarionowitsch, Brief biography (published by Dietz-Verlag ). Since then, numerous new editions and paperback editions have been published by various publishers. The total German-language circulation is over 200,000 copies. The work has been translated into at least eleven languages, including - after the fall of the Soviet Union - into Russian.

content

The book describes the experiences of the young people or the young adults Vladimir (later "Wolfgang" called) Leonhard in the period from 1935 to 1949. He left in 1933 as a 13-year-old Germany and then attended a boarding school in Viggbyholm in Stockholm. His mother remained illegally in Germany until early summer 1935. Both emigrate via Sweden to the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin . Shortly after arrival, the mother is arrested by the NKVD and deported to labor camps for twelve years. Meanwhile, Leonhard is housed in Moscow in a home for German and Austrian emigrant children. This home will be closed at the time of the Great Purge and most of the educators and teachers will be arrested. In the further course he studies foreign languages ​​at a university and becomes a Komsomolze there . During the war with Germany , Leonhard was forcibly relocated to Karaganda by the authorities .

With a visit to the Comintern School and participation in the National Committee for Free Germany, further stations of a career as a functionary follow . Because of his education and training, he was selected as the youngest member of the “ Ulbricht Group ” and with it came to the Soviet occupation zone in Berlin. There he is involved in rebuilding communal structures. As the author of the SED training books and most recently as a lecturer at the SED party college , Leonhard's doubts about Stalinism are growing . Shortly before the German Democratic Republic was founded in March 1949, he fled to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia .

Book editions

• Wolfgang Leonhard : The revolution releases its children . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1955, ISBN 3-462-01463-3 ; 22nd edition: Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-462-03498-7 ; New edition: Anaconda Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86647-460-4 .
  • Search for clues. 40 years after "The revolution releases its children". Current photos by Gerhard Weber, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-462-02390-X .
  • as an audio book : The Revolution releases its children , spoken by the author, 22 audio CDs, Infosat, Daun 2006, ISBN 3-933350-07-7 .

filming

German first broadcast: May 22, 1962 ARD . Director: Rolf Hädrich , screenplay: Claus Hubalek , Wolfgang Leonhard: Christian Doermer u. a.

Web links

• Interview with Wolfgang Leonhard (PDF; 522 kB) from 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The revolution releases its children . In: wunschliste.de . imfernsehen GmbH & Co. KG. Retrieved March 13, 2019.