A Communist Odyssey

"Thomas Sakmyster relates all in his wellresearched, informative and easy-to-read biography. Between his arrival in Moscow and his death in the same city Pogány was, for most of the time, a Comintern agent, sent to different countries to assess the situation and sometimes generate pro-communist disturbances. A fiery brand of Hungarian red pepper - Sakmyster covers the intriguing American period of John Pepper - as Pogány now called himself - in detail. Pepper comes across as someone who was disruptive rather than unifying. The American communists didn’t quite know what to make of him, this messenger from “Mecca”, as they used to call Moscow. “Pepperism” became a term, both in the US and Moscow, to describe the latest line that he happened to be promoting" * Budapest Times *
"Sakmyster has written a fascinating and important study of a largely forgotten Hungarian communist who was both a witness to history and a history maker himself, in Europe and the US... Meticulously documented, this work offers yet another glimpse into the interwar communist world, one that adds important new insights into the relationship of the US Communist Party and its leaders with the Comintern and its international agents. Highly recommended." * Choice *
"Sakmyster wrote a highly important book on the life and political career of one of the most controversial characters in Hungarian history. The book is based on a number of new, hitherto unknown or underused primary sources, such as the unpublished oral memoirs of Pogány’s wife, Irén Czóbel, the archives of the Communist International and the Com­munist Party of the United States, and the FBI files on John Pepper. The book makes a major contribution to the study of the Hungarian civil war after the First World War and to the understanding of complicated factions within the Communist movement both in Europe and the United States. But the Communist Odyssey is, first and foremost, an enjoyable read. ..." * Hungarian Studies Review , Vol. XL, No. 2 (Fall 2013) *
"Thomas Sakmyster has combed through an impressive range of sources, including Federal Bureau of Investigation files, Comintern records, Communist party publications, and, most importantly, previously unavailable Hungarian-language material, such as the records of the Béla Kun government and the unpublished memoirs of Pepper’s wife, Irén Czóbel, to produce a comprehensive study of Pepper’s life and career. Sakmyster portrays Pepper as a sincere Communist who could have achieved much as a member of capitalist society, but he also does not hesitate to reveal his ruthless ambition, obsessive need for praise, power-seeking behavior, love of the trappings of the good life, and compulsive womanizing." * Journal of American History *
"Pogány/Pepper—who like other Communists of the era used several other pseudonyms as well—remained something of a mystery until now. Before this book, Hungarian historians knew of József Pogány who had been a major figures in the Hungarian Revolution and the Americans knew John Pepper who had played a key role in the American Communist Party, but now we have the full picture of this fascinating figure in a highly engaging and illuminating biography. Thomas Sakmyster, a scholar in the area of international relations, Communism, and Hungary, making use of Hungarian, Russian and American sources from the archives of the Communist International to the records of the FBI, as well as the memoirs of Pepper’s wife and many other papers, has produced the first comprehensive biography of Pogány." * New Politics *
"A Communist Odyssey is a well-documented and fascinating book. The factional fights and personalities in the American Communist Party can almost bewilder at times, though to say this is not a reflection on Thomas Sakmyster's scholarship, which is thorough and praiseworthy. He writes clearly and intelligently. Does his book tell a tragic story? It's hard to feel much sympathy for Pogány. He was prepared to treat other people in an offhand and ruthless manner, and his unprincipled behaviour was noticeable right from the start of his activities as a radical. I don't doubt that he would have been prepared to shoot his opponents in the American Communist Party, had it been necessary to do so, and if he could get away with it. I can't help wondering what was going through his mind as he was led away to be shot?" * Northern Review of Books *
"The protagonist of Thomas Sakmyster’s study was a thoroughly reprehensible character. József Pogány was a scoundrel. Even his loving wife described him as arrogant, supercilious, excessively ambitious, and unpleasant. He had more pseudonyms and played more roles than most actors. He utterly lacked principle and loyalty. When it suited his ambitions, Pogány was a Hungarian nationalist, then he was a socialist and later a communist. Without exception he betrayed everyone who was close to him: his wife, his children, his parents, his friends, and, most relevant to the historian, all of his political allies. Pogány was Jewish and Hungarian by birth, but neither seemed important for the identity that he had created for himself. Evidently he was a smart man, who learned languages easily, wrote well, and also must have had a certain charisma to be able to get away with his betrayals as long as he did. Judging from his pictures, he was physically unimpressive; nevertheless women were attracted to him. The question emerges: was Pogány the product of the extremely unhealthy environment of the interwar communist world? The impression one gets is that his character had been formed before he became a communist. It is, true, however, that people like him could fl ourish in that particular environment" * Slavic Review *