John Pepper

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John Pepper, real name József Pogány, also known as Joseph, (1886 - 1937) was a Hungarian-born American Communist.

John Pepper was active in the Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919 with Béla Kun, and, after its failure, he fled to Soviet Russia. As a representative of the Comintern, Pepper came illegally to the United States in 1922 to assist with the Hungarian language Federation of the American Communist movement, learned English quickly and soon became one of the Workers Party's most authoritative voices.

It is known that John Pepper in 1923 spent some time in Stockholm, Sweden, witnessing the internal struggles of the Swedish Communist Party that year, and participeting in the attacks against Zeth Höglund.

Pepper returned to the US as Joseph Stalin's agent to oversee the expulsion of Trotskyists in the American Communist Party, and especially assisting the Stalinists in their struggle with James P. Cannon. However, later back in the Soviet Union, Pepper would himself become a victim of the Great Purges - he was executed.

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