Today I learned about Maria Koszutska, polish revolutionary and leader of the Polish Communist Party. A teacher by trade, she became a committed socialist early in her life, joining the Polish Socialist Party in 1902. Eventually, the PPS would buckle to nationalism. Maria led a left-wing faction, creating the PPS-Left and fighting for international workers solidarity and an opposition to nationalism. Eventually, she would help found the Polish Communist Party.
Ever outspoken, Maria was arrested over a dozen times by various governments, which did not deter her. Eventually, this resilience would be her undoing as she spoke out against the Stalinist degeneration of the comintern, calling Stalin a coward to his face at a meeting and proclaiming to the delegates that he was an opportunist who could not be trusted.
Stalin never forgot her brave honesty, and in 1936, she became one of the many victims of the Great Purges, under charges of being a Trotskyist. Though there is no evidence of Maria having joined the left-opposition or Trotsky, it is clear her bravery in the face of bureaucracy and Stalinism represents the best traditions of our movement
