Leo Jogiches

Leo(n) Jogiches (17 July 1867 – 10 March 1919), also known by his party name of Leon Tyszka (Tyska, Tyshko, Tyshka) was a Marxist revolutionary active in Lithuania, Poland, and Germany.

A contemporary in Vilnius, his birthplace, of Felix Dzerzhinsky and Arkadi Kemer, little is known of Jogiches' early years due to his secretive work habits ingrained through years of conspiratorial work. He joined a social democratic workers circle before being forced into exile. In 1893 he helped form the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP, later SDKPiL) along with Rosa Luxemburg. Jogiches and Luxemburg fell in love with each other, a love that lasted their whole lives, through difficulties, and even if they never became a real couple. The work of the two cannot be separated in the least, although a clear division of labour is observable, with Jogiches the organiser and Luxemburg the theorist.

Jogiches was a founding member of the Spartacus League, a revolutionary left-wing organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, formed at the beginning of World War I by Karl Liebknecht, Luxemburg, Franz Mehring and others. On 1 January 1919 the League became the Communist Party of Germany.

The Spartacus League led the German communist revolution of 1918/1919, which failed, after which Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered by government troops. Jogiches was murdered in Berlin while trying to investigate the assassination of Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.