Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine (1 November 1895 – 1 November 1984), also known as Varine, was a French Marxist, communist activist, essayist and journalist.
Boris Souvarine | |
|---|---|
| Born | Борис Константинович Лифшиц Boris Konstantinovich Lifschitz 1895 Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Died | 1 November 1984 (aged 89) Paris, France |
| Nationality | Russian (before 1906), French (since 1906) |
| Occupation(s) | Activist and journalist |
| Political party | French Communist Party, Democratic Communist Circle |
| Partner | Colette Peignot |
A founding member of the French Communist Party, Souvarine is noted for being the only non-Bolshevik communist to have been a member of all three leading bodies of the Comintern for three years in succession. He famously authored the first biography of Joseph Stalin, published in 1935 as Staline, Aperçu Historique du Bolchévisme (Stalin, Historic Overview of Bolshevism) and kept close correspondence with Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky until their deaths.
His anticonformism and early criticism of Stalin made him break away from the party in 1924. In the decades that followed, Souvarine continued publishing as a leading Sovietologist and anti-Stalinist. He was also the founder of the Institute of Social History and an author, historian, publisher and journalist.