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Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist
Black Bolshevik is the autobiography of Harry Haywood, the son of former slaves who became a leading member of the Communist Part USA and a pioneering theoretician on the Afro-American struggle.
The author’s first-hand accounts of the Chicago race riot of 1919, the Scottsboro Boys’ defense, communist work in the South, the Spanish Civil War, the battle against the revisionist betrayal of the Party, and other history-shaping events are must reading for all who are interested in Black history and the working class struggle.
The author’s first-hand accounts of the Chicago race riot of 1919, the Scottsboro Boys’ defense, communist work in the South, the Spanish Civil War, the battle against the revisionist betrayal of the Party, and other history-shaping events are must reading for all who are interested in Black history and the working class struggle.
776 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
63 people are currently reading
3273 people want to read
About the author
Harry Haywood
19 books36 followersFrom Wikipedia:
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 8, 2022
This is one of the most important books ever written in the struggle for socialism. It should be required reading in every Communist group, Party, organization, etc. If Goodreads had a 6 star option, I'd give it 6 stars. Actually, ☆ <- there's the 6th star. I'm not sure what edition is registered here on GR that says this book is 776 pages; my copy is the original 1978 version and the book itself is only 644 pages, with 56 pages of notes, rounding out at exactly 700 pages. But I digress.
This book is so absolutely incredible, historical, and a cornerstone of Marxist text. I was overwhelmed at times reading it because of the sheer meticulous detail Harry Haywood tells stories in. Here is a Black man, the son of formerly enslaved people, who went on to fight for Communism for over 60 years and in doing so, witnessed some of the greatest moments in the struggle. One of the most humbling parts is when Haywood recounts meeting veterans of the 1871 Paris Commune, in 1930. He met Stalin, he met Dolores Ibárruri, he was personally acquainted with Paul Robeson, and he knew Langston Hughes. And he wasn't there as some fly on the wall; he was in the struggle with them. He tells of meeting Ibárruri during the Spanish Civil War in which he fought on the front lines of at almost 40 years old, in 1937. He tells of his struggles with sell-out William Z. Foster and chronicles the downfall of CPUSA through revisionist bastards like Earl Browder and James Jackson. He tells of helping organize over 10,000 Black sharecroppers and farmers in Alabama in the 1930s, helping defend the Scottsboro boys, and of being a constant target of state surveillance in a time where the FBI overtly targeted both Black people, and Communists, although today it still overtly targets the latter, and covertly targets the former.
Haywood recounts with such vivid detail his life in the struggle that he does something that is very difficult to do in autobiographies: he puts you there with him as the reader. When he talks of vacationing in Crimea, witnessing the downfall of the ultimate betrayer, Leon Trotsky, being at a CPUSA convention with thousands of other Communists -- his descriptions are so in-depth that you feel yourself sitting next to him, or sitting in front of him as he speaks.
As the lead theoretical mind behind the Black Belt Thesis [building on Lenin's National Question], there is no better book to understanding this Thesis than in this one, in Haywood's own words. He draws on the first 30 years of his own life, the lives of other Black workers, and his time in the struggle in the early 1920s, to come up with a thesis so strong that it not only complemented Lenin's own National Question, but was approved unanimously by the CPSU in the Comintern. Here is a man who not only lived this rich, revolutionary history, but also made it.
It is a long, long read, as I said. But it is so worth it. I can't recommend this enough.
This book is so absolutely incredible, historical, and a cornerstone of Marxist text. I was overwhelmed at times reading it because of the sheer meticulous detail Harry Haywood tells stories in. Here is a Black man, the son of formerly enslaved people, who went on to fight for Communism for over 60 years and in doing so, witnessed some of the greatest moments in the struggle. One of the most humbling parts is when Haywood recounts meeting veterans of the 1871 Paris Commune, in 1930. He met Stalin, he met Dolores Ibárruri, he was personally acquainted with Paul Robeson, and he knew Langston Hughes. And he wasn't there as some fly on the wall; he was in the struggle with them. He tells of meeting Ibárruri during the Spanish Civil War in which he fought on the front lines of at almost 40 years old, in 1937. He tells of his struggles with sell-out William Z. Foster and chronicles the downfall of CPUSA through revisionist bastards like Earl Browder and James Jackson. He tells of helping organize over 10,000 Black sharecroppers and farmers in Alabama in the 1930s, helping defend the Scottsboro boys, and of being a constant target of state surveillance in a time where the FBI overtly targeted both Black people, and Communists, although today it still overtly targets the latter, and covertly targets the former.
Haywood recounts with such vivid detail his life in the struggle that he does something that is very difficult to do in autobiographies: he puts you there with him as the reader. When he talks of vacationing in Crimea, witnessing the downfall of the ultimate betrayer, Leon Trotsky, being at a CPUSA convention with thousands of other Communists -- his descriptions are so in-depth that you feel yourself sitting next to him, or sitting in front of him as he speaks.
As the lead theoretical mind behind the Black Belt Thesis [building on Lenin's National Question], there is no better book to understanding this Thesis than in this one, in Haywood's own words. He draws on the first 30 years of his own life, the lives of other Black workers, and his time in the struggle in the early 1920s, to come up with a thesis so strong that it not only complemented Lenin's own National Question, but was approved unanimously by the CPSU in the Comintern. Here is a man who not only lived this rich, revolutionary history, but also made it.
It is a long, long read, as I said. But it is so worth it. I can't recommend this enough.
February 15, 2021
Absolutely humbling to be able to have read Harry Haywood’s remarkable life and revolutionary praxis.
October 3, 2024
Wow. This is easily some of the most heavy subject matter I’ve read in a long time. Harry Haywood packed more into this than I could have even thought 650 pages could hold, (perhaps even too much). The short version is, Black Bolshevik is somewhat of a combination of historical analysis, a personal autobiography, and political theory, focusing mainly on capitalism, its contradictions, and the black national question. Born in 1898 to former slave parents, his experience pretty much covers the entire era through reconstruction, both world wars, the Cold War, and the civil rights movement.
The first 200 or so pages of Black Bolshevik are some of the greatest material I’ve ever read, opening my eyes to things I didnt know around the black struggle of its time. This basically covered his life up through visiting the USSR, where Haywood lived for 5 years attending two different universities, including Lenin College. This period detailed some of the deepest looks at black oppression in the turn of the century, which seems to have reached a peak during the 20s when anti-black propoganda poured out like a waterfall. This would be where Haywood started looking for a political line, and he even outlined Garveyism in detail. In short, that was a radical movement that quickly revealed itself to be a bit of a Zionist-coded black bourgeoisie way of thinking, meant to call African Americans back to the African continent and establish themselves in their homeland through displacement. Obviously, he would quickly move away from this.
After serving for the military in France during WWI, his older brother, Otto would turn him onto Marxist-Leninist politics, and visiting the USSR detailed all sorts of differences between how he was treated there as opposed to the U.S. Apparently he met Stalin on two different occasions, and through his time there worked up the ranks in the U.S. communist party and collaborated closely with the CPSU on the development of the question of the black nation within the United States.
This would be a continuous theme throughout much of the rest of the book, and at times, it would admittedly be a little too much detail. Maybe some pages could have been trimmed in terms of what sometimes felt like an entire meetings notes written in book form. However, anytime I encountered this, I also encountered very good information. The struggle of the black proletariat within the unions with whites was constantly an ongoing battle, and this revealed the time through the great depression into WWII as a turning point for leftist movements within the U.S. Much emphasis is put on how the ruling class intended to keep workers down by continuing the conflict between races, rather than them rising up to overthrow the bourgeoise.
Factionalism and revisionism were key subjects, and the former was emphasized heavily when talking about the power struggle in the Soviet government. Rightist factions within the party got worked out into the ‘30s, contrary to the belief of “Stalin just killed people who didn’t agree with him,” which evidently played a crucial role in the survival of the USSR. This becomes important because following the World War II sections of Haywood’s time as a seaman, a lot of the book focuses around how right wing ideology infiltrated the U.S. communist party. Stories around the FBI hunting him down, comrades getting locked up for simply being comrades, and all sorts of other light is shed on the way the U.S. ruling class was essentially able to phase it out of the ranks, up through the time of Malcolm X and other black revolutionaries gaining popularity.
Infighting is also highlighted throughout, which is hit heavily when he talks of rumors floating around him after his time volunteering in the Spanish civil war with the republicans against the nationalists. A line from this point is traced forward to inner party fighting, and how quickly leftists were ready to call someone out as a chauvinist for absolutely no reason, playing into the very disintegration of what was supposed to be united. Really, we see different flavors of that today, as I’ve encountered more often than I care to admit, leftists in the 21st century focusing more on tearing down their comrades for one misstep rather than focusing on growing together. Haywood closed things by talking about how we may be too far gone, but hopes that his book can contribute to the ever moving struggle.
So yeah, lot to unpacked. I barely even touched the tip of the iceberg there, but those were some of the key takeaways, and this is something I think every American, black or white, that likes any kind of progressive politics should consider reading. It gets very dry at times, and there definitely could have been some trimming done in some areas, but I’m glad I stuck it out for the whole thing. I’ll definitely be referencing this one in the future.
The first 200 or so pages of Black Bolshevik are some of the greatest material I’ve ever read, opening my eyes to things I didnt know around the black struggle of its time. This basically covered his life up through visiting the USSR, where Haywood lived for 5 years attending two different universities, including Lenin College. This period detailed some of the deepest looks at black oppression in the turn of the century, which seems to have reached a peak during the 20s when anti-black propoganda poured out like a waterfall. This would be where Haywood started looking for a political line, and he even outlined Garveyism in detail. In short, that was a radical movement that quickly revealed itself to be a bit of a Zionist-coded black bourgeoisie way of thinking, meant to call African Americans back to the African continent and establish themselves in their homeland through displacement. Obviously, he would quickly move away from this.
After serving for the military in France during WWI, his older brother, Otto would turn him onto Marxist-Leninist politics, and visiting the USSR detailed all sorts of differences between how he was treated there as opposed to the U.S. Apparently he met Stalin on two different occasions, and through his time there worked up the ranks in the U.S. communist party and collaborated closely with the CPSU on the development of the question of the black nation within the United States.
This would be a continuous theme throughout much of the rest of the book, and at times, it would admittedly be a little too much detail. Maybe some pages could have been trimmed in terms of what sometimes felt like an entire meetings notes written in book form. However, anytime I encountered this, I also encountered very good information. The struggle of the black proletariat within the unions with whites was constantly an ongoing battle, and this revealed the time through the great depression into WWII as a turning point for leftist movements within the U.S. Much emphasis is put on how the ruling class intended to keep workers down by continuing the conflict between races, rather than them rising up to overthrow the bourgeoise.
Factionalism and revisionism were key subjects, and the former was emphasized heavily when talking about the power struggle in the Soviet government. Rightist factions within the party got worked out into the ‘30s, contrary to the belief of “Stalin just killed people who didn’t agree with him,” which evidently played a crucial role in the survival of the USSR. This becomes important because following the World War II sections of Haywood’s time as a seaman, a lot of the book focuses around how right wing ideology infiltrated the U.S. communist party. Stories around the FBI hunting him down, comrades getting locked up for simply being comrades, and all sorts of other light is shed on the way the U.S. ruling class was essentially able to phase it out of the ranks, up through the time of Malcolm X and other black revolutionaries gaining popularity.
Infighting is also highlighted throughout, which is hit heavily when he talks of rumors floating around him after his time volunteering in the Spanish civil war with the republicans against the nationalists. A line from this point is traced forward to inner party fighting, and how quickly leftists were ready to call someone out as a chauvinist for absolutely no reason, playing into the very disintegration of what was supposed to be united. Really, we see different flavors of that today, as I’ve encountered more often than I care to admit, leftists in the 21st century focusing more on tearing down their comrades for one misstep rather than focusing on growing together. Haywood closed things by talking about how we may be too far gone, but hopes that his book can contribute to the ever moving struggle.
So yeah, lot to unpacked. I barely even touched the tip of the iceberg there, but those were some of the key takeaways, and this is something I think every American, black or white, that likes any kind of progressive politics should consider reading. It gets very dry at times, and there definitely could have been some trimming done in some areas, but I’m glad I stuck it out for the whole thing. I’ll definitely be referencing this one in the future.
January 11, 2024
Less an autobiography than a map of the political struggles of a black man trying to unsuccessfully prove his line to a chauvinist Party. This is a shame because you get little sense of Harry Haywood himself than you do of his growing alienation from the CPUSA.
Haywood mentions his personal life very little and one senses a sort of detachment from his own emotional geography outside of in relation to political events. There is no inch of suspense about Haywood. For instance, regarding his first wife from the Soviet Union, he wrote about their separation and their plan to get her into the US with him being blocked. At the very instant of his departure, he writes, plainly, that he never saw her again. For what I’d imagine to be a pretty traumatic event, he is a little cavalier I must say.
Anyways I enjoyed the book for what it was. The infighting was honestly exhausting a bit of a chore to sift through, knowing already that the CPUSA is no Party for the oppressed people’s of the world. I simply did not care. Haywood’s analysis is far more interesting when it has to do with world events more generally. Nobody knows how to dissect the political landscape of the United States as well as a black revolutionary.
I also really really enjoyed the section on his time in the Merchant Marines during the Second World War, as well as his initial experiences in the Soviet Union. I was excited to read about his time in Spain but that section was severely undercooked. The ending is definitely abrupt and a little detached from the rest of the joint. I don’t know. I do know that I understand a little better why there has been no sufficient, Left threat to the American two-part system. They were too busy arguing at meetings over 20 year old lines and slogans! Reading that one-third of the world was socialist at one point in time gave me chills. I don’t see how you could fumble any kind of progressive, communist program knowing a statistic like that but here come the White American cadre.
Really glad I read it overall!
Haywood mentions his personal life very little and one senses a sort of detachment from his own emotional geography outside of in relation to political events. There is no inch of suspense about Haywood. For instance, regarding his first wife from the Soviet Union, he wrote about their separation and their plan to get her into the US with him being blocked. At the very instant of his departure, he writes, plainly, that he never saw her again. For what I’d imagine to be a pretty traumatic event, he is a little cavalier I must say.
Anyways I enjoyed the book for what it was. The infighting was honestly exhausting a bit of a chore to sift through, knowing already that the CPUSA is no Party for the oppressed people’s of the world. I simply did not care. Haywood’s analysis is far more interesting when it has to do with world events more generally. Nobody knows how to dissect the political landscape of the United States as well as a black revolutionary.
I also really really enjoyed the section on his time in the Merchant Marines during the Second World War, as well as his initial experiences in the Soviet Union. I was excited to read about his time in Spain but that section was severely undercooked. The ending is definitely abrupt and a little detached from the rest of the joint. I don’t know. I do know that I understand a little better why there has been no sufficient, Left threat to the American two-part system. They were too busy arguing at meetings over 20 year old lines and slogans! Reading that one-third of the world was socialist at one point in time gave me chills. I don’t see how you could fumble any kind of progressive, communist program knowing a statistic like that but here come the White American cadre.
Really glad I read it overall!
April 11, 2019
There's a lot happening here, namely an incredible political memoir. Haywood's parents were born slaves, he served in a segregated unit in World War, was one of the earliest black members of the Communist Party USA, helped developed the revolutionary approach to black liberation in the 1930's, knew Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson, met fucking Stalin, fought in the Spanish Civil War, organized sharecroppers and the defense of the Scottsboro boys. The direct experiences that he recounts are the most valuable: the stories from the revolutionary years of the old CP, how they organized coal miners and sharecroppers, are deeply valuable lessons to this day- and the story of putting a party member on trial (!) for white chauvinism, as a lesson in the overall struggle is an important rejoinder to the current malaise of identity politics.
This is not a straightforward memoir. I couldn't keep track of his wives, and the chapters are structured as much around political struggles as they are chronological. While the lived stories of class struggle are deep and moving, there's some political problems- despite his embrace of Mao in the very last chapter, Haywood is uncritical towards the Soviet Union and the Comintern experience.
This is not a straightforward memoir. I couldn't keep track of his wives, and the chapters are structured as much around political struggles as they are chronological. While the lived stories of class struggle are deep and moving, there's some political problems- despite his embrace of Mao in the very last chapter, Haywood is uncritical towards the Soviet Union and the Comintern experience.
November 21, 2025
One of the most outstanding autobiographies I have ever read. Harry Haywood truly gave his entire life to the Revolution, and what a fucking life it was. Fighting in World War One, joining the Communist Party USA, studying at the Lenin School in Moscow where he met revolutionaries from all over the world, putting forward and developing the Black Belt Thesis, building the CPUSA in the South through the Scottsboro Boys defense and organizing sharecroppers, leading American Communist troops in the Spanish Civil War, organizing in the National Maritime Union, working with Paul Robeson, and combatting the tragic turn towards the right in the CPUSA — he led a life that truly justifies the 600 page length of this book.
Every Communist should read this book. Haywood offers a granular analysis of why the CPUSA showed such immense promise in the 30s as well as how exactly the party fell into disgrace afterwards, since he was there at every turn. There is a tendency among US leftists to ignore our own history and instead read about revolutions or figures in other countries. However, as the Marx quote goes, the point is to change the world, not simply interpret it. We must understand our own material conditions and our history in order to make revolution in this country.
It is humorous how little he talks about his personal life in this text. Haywood spends page after page expounding on this or that CPUSA convention (and does so in a worthwhile and engaging way), and then he’ll follow that up with just a sentence or two mentioning that he divorced his wife that year. I would’ve appreciated more insight into this side of his life, though the omission of this aspect maybe speaks for itself.
Excellent excellent read. 10/10
Every Communist should read this book. Haywood offers a granular analysis of why the CPUSA showed such immense promise in the 30s as well as how exactly the party fell into disgrace afterwards, since he was there at every turn. There is a tendency among US leftists to ignore our own history and instead read about revolutions or figures in other countries. However, as the Marx quote goes, the point is to change the world, not simply interpret it. We must understand our own material conditions and our history in order to make revolution in this country.
It is humorous how little he talks about his personal life in this text. Haywood spends page after page expounding on this or that CPUSA convention (and does so in a worthwhile and engaging way), and then he’ll follow that up with just a sentence or two mentioning that he divorced his wife that year. I would’ve appreciated more insight into this side of his life, though the omission of this aspect maybe speaks for itself.
Excellent excellent read. 10/10
January 12, 2024
Loved it. This is a definitely a "political Autobiography" in a similar vein as Dusk of Dawn and The Autobiography by W. E. B. DuBois, but somehow with even less personal information included. I definitely didn't pick this up to learn about Harry Haywood in particular, but still, after spending hundreds and hundreds of pages with the man there were times where he'd just casually drop a sentence about having a kid or finding a new wife or something, before getting back to discussing the inner workings of the CPUSA, and I'd be like WHAT! I NEED MORE INFO!
This book is like 1/3 autobiography and 2/3 a history of the American communist movement, and in particular the history of the CPUSA from the 20s-late 50s, as seen through the eyes of Harry Haywood. I found it incredibly informative and I learned a fuck ton about the movement of that era that helped connect a lot of dots with information I've learned in other books (Hammer and Hoe immediately comes to mind).
Haywood's theoretical discussions are also incredibly enlightening and thought provoking, and it's interesting to see his Lenin School education on display throughout the course of the book.
This book is like 1/3 autobiography and 2/3 a history of the American communist movement, and in particular the history of the CPUSA from the 20s-late 50s, as seen through the eyes of Harry Haywood. I found it incredibly informative and I learned a fuck ton about the movement of that era that helped connect a lot of dots with information I've learned in other books (Hammer and Hoe immediately comes to mind).
Haywood's theoretical discussions are also incredibly enlightening and thought provoking, and it's interesting to see his Lenin School education on display throughout the course of the book.
August 14, 2025
A massive 700 page first hand account spanning the organising against racism and of workers in the US, life as a student and communist party activist in the Soviet Union, being an international brigades volunteer in the Spanish civil war and travelling the world with the merchant Navy during world war II.
Throughout the book the author Harry Hayward gives constant updates of the internal struggles within the Communist party USA at the time. providing valuable lessons for those involved in left/revolutionary politics today.
Harry's first hand account of life as a student in the Soviet Union blasts apart The right-wing propaganda about soviet society and daily life that is still prevalent today.
Throughout the book the author Harry Hayward gives constant updates of the internal struggles within the Communist party USA at the time. providing valuable lessons for those involved in left/revolutionary politics today.
Harry's first hand account of life as a student in the Soviet Union blasts apart The right-wing propaganda about soviet society and daily life that is still prevalent today.
April 5, 2021
This book is an amazing look at the life of a dedicated Marxist Leninist who fought pretty much his whole life for black liberation.
Not only that, but it's an amazing perspective on the history of the CPUSA and its role in worker's rights and black liberation through the years, the good and the bad.
Not only that, but it's an amazing perspective on the history of the CPUSA and its role in worker's rights and black liberation through the years, the good and the bad.
October 7, 2020
Absolutely essential.
June 5, 2023
This was a LOT, and most of it the stuff I least wanted to hear about in an autobiography. In fact a more appropriate subtitle would be: a chronicle of factionalism in the Communist Party USA, cause that's what about 2/3 of the book was about. And if you're considering joining a leftist political party I would definitely recommend you NOT read this book lest you be incredibly discouraged. It's really demoralizing to witness the decades of nonstop infighting through Haywood's eyes.
My issue with the book overall is that this chronicle just became really repetitive and tedious. Even the interesting parts such as studying in Moscow, fighting in the Spanish Civil War or joining the Merchant Marines became mere backdrops for the infighting. And Haywood offers very little by way of introspection or explanation. He's often just describing events like a court stenographer, with some occasional analysis interpolated.
And there were plenty of clues to suggest Haywood is not the most reliable narrator either: why does intrigue seem to follow him wherever he goes? How is a claim of misogyny just invented whole cloth on one of his soviet vacations? What happens to his second wife? Why does his analysis of the Spanish Civil War differ so drastically from George Orwell's remarkably level-headed account?
In my experience, constantly falling prey to rumor-mongering and political triangulation does not simply happen to people out of the blue. Usually the "victim" is participating in the dance on some level. And the fact that Haywood presents himself as almost completely blameless in all of these affairs, plus glossing over several clearly negative events, is highly suspicious to me.
I appreciate this for what it is: a historical perspective on mid-20th century leftist organizing in the U.S. But I'm filing it away with many grains of salt for future contemplation. For some further context I recommend listening to an interview with Haywood's briefly mentioned daughter by the excellent podcast Rev Left Radio:
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
My issue with the book overall is that this chronicle just became really repetitive and tedious. Even the interesting parts such as studying in Moscow, fighting in the Spanish Civil War or joining the Merchant Marines became mere backdrops for the infighting. And Haywood offers very little by way of introspection or explanation. He's often just describing events like a court stenographer, with some occasional analysis interpolated.
And there were plenty of clues to suggest Haywood is not the most reliable narrator either: why does intrigue seem to follow him wherever he goes? How is a claim of misogyny just invented whole cloth on one of his soviet vacations? What happens to his second wife? Why does his analysis of the Spanish Civil War differ so drastically from George Orwell's remarkably level-headed account?
In my experience, constantly falling prey to rumor-mongering and political triangulation does not simply happen to people out of the blue. Usually the "victim" is participating in the dance on some level. And the fact that Haywood presents himself as almost completely blameless in all of these affairs, plus glossing over several clearly negative events, is highly suspicious to me.
I appreciate this for what it is: a historical perspective on mid-20th century leftist organizing in the U.S. But I'm filing it away with many grains of salt for future contemplation. For some further context I recommend listening to an interview with Haywood's briefly mentioned daughter by the excellent podcast Rev Left Radio:
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
June 9, 2022
This is great if you want a history of the CPUSA, black rights and norms compared from USA to USSR, racism, self-determination for black people, dancing with Stalin, a bit about the Spanish Civil War, from a veteran of the latter, the first and second world war.
Although, I feel it was too dry and sometimes unnecessarily-detailed, being tough to get to the last page haha; yet, it was one of the first books I had read in a long while, so it was a challenge, but worth it, finally solidifying and entrenching my beliefs in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Although, I feel it was too dry and sometimes unnecessarily-detailed, being tough to get to the last page haha; yet, it was one of the first books I had read in a long while, so it was a challenge, but worth it, finally solidifying and entrenching my beliefs in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
March 8, 2018
More or less finished. Haha long book though so read what I wanted and didn't read what I didn't. Honestly, trying to move away from reading things I don't want to read.
January 21, 2020
A must read for any communist.
March 30, 2021
Ostensibly an autobiography, Black Bolshevik also serves as a history of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from its inception to the 60s from the perspective of one of its hardline Marxist-Leninist theoreticians, and that may be where most of its value lies.
We follow Haywood through his childhood and service in WWI while he develops his sociopolitical consciousness before he becomes involved in organizing with the CPUSA, which eventually leads to his being sent to the USSR to study Marxism-Leninism, where he developed the concept of the Black Belt thesis and the self-determination of Black Americans as a nation within the US.
Following this, the book deals with the three crises of revisionism within the CPUSA before his exit in the late 50s, with particular attention paid to their activities organizing with Black people, especially those of the South.
Also addressed are Haywood’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War and as a sailor during WWII, with deviations to talk about the writing of his seminal work, Negro Liberation.
Though he unfortunately doesn’t delve into his later critiques of dogmatism within the anti-revisionist trend of the 70s, he does lay out a good amount of support for anti-revisionism anyway and how revisionism can negatively affect a revolutionary movement.
Good read for seeing the perspective of someone involved in both the CPUSA and the CPSU, as well as the theoretical works of the Comintern. Recommended to anyone interested in American revolutionaries.
We follow Haywood through his childhood and service in WWI while he develops his sociopolitical consciousness before he becomes involved in organizing with the CPUSA, which eventually leads to his being sent to the USSR to study Marxism-Leninism, where he developed the concept of the Black Belt thesis and the self-determination of Black Americans as a nation within the US.
Following this, the book deals with the three crises of revisionism within the CPUSA before his exit in the late 50s, with particular attention paid to their activities organizing with Black people, especially those of the South.
Also addressed are Haywood’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War and as a sailor during WWII, with deviations to talk about the writing of his seminal work, Negro Liberation.
Though he unfortunately doesn’t delve into his later critiques of dogmatism within the anti-revisionist trend of the 70s, he does lay out a good amount of support for anti-revisionism anyway and how revisionism can negatively affect a revolutionary movement.
Good read for seeing the perspective of someone involved in both the CPUSA and the CPSU, as well as the theoretical works of the Comintern. Recommended to anyone interested in American revolutionaries.
November 9, 2020
I wish I could give this book 6 stars. An incredible life well told, brilliant analysis which is still extremely relevant. Every American leftist should read this book, it confronts problems in our movements we still struggle with today and provides a revolutionary materialist view of a path ahead.
October 21, 2025
When Harry Haywood is writing about organising in the States, the book is invaluable, particularly for its insights on the fight against racism (including within his own party). However, when he is taking lengthy sectarian detours to denounce his political opponents on the left, its a waste of space. For example, most of the section about his time in Russia should have been cut entirely.
July 27, 2020
Vital historical document of the inter-party struggles of many black communists in the CPUSA, as well as a blazing depiction of the real lives of black people in the US at that time (and in many ways, today.)
August 8, 2024
According to Harry Haywood, The history of the communist party of the USA has generally always been a rightist, white chauvinist history. Which has been more of an obstacle than a vehicle to the liberation of the working masses.
May 12, 2024
Great first hand perspective on the rise and fall of the Communist Party in the US
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July 31, 2011Fascinating autobiography of Harry Haywood, an important activist in the Communist Party USA in the 1930s, when it truly was an influential force in the American Left. It was Haywood who first fully developed the notion of African-American self-determination- that Blacks in the U.S. constituted an independent, oppressed nation, like the minority groups within the "prison house of nations" of Tsarist Russia. Haywood felt that African-Americans were owed the option of real self-determination within the geographic U.S- an independent Black nation in the Black Belt.
Haywood lived in an America where the African-American community was still very much centered in the “Black Belt” of the south-eastern states. This geographic and ethnic grouping had been, of course, systematically depressed by the oppressor-nation, the United States. A bourgeois revolution had almost taken place in the Reconstruction period, but had never been finished due to the betrayal and roll-back of Reconstruction. So, Haywood argued, the proletariat of the north, and the peasantry of the Black Belt, were natural allies against the white bourgeoisie of the United States, which sought to suppress a proletarian, socialist revolution in the North, and an agrarian bourgeois revolution in the South.
Haywood was also a life-long, self-described, "Stalinist". His unwavering support of Stalin, which continued after the Khrushchev revelations, is somewhat startling for a contemporary reader. However, given the historical epoch that Haywood lived and worked in, his defense of the Stalinist line in relation to Trotsky is somewhat understandable. Haywood argues convincingly that Lenin and Stalin understood better than Trotsky the significance for the communist movement of forming an alliance with the peasantry, not just within the former Russian "prison-house of nations," but with supporting the bourgeois-nationalist revolutions of developing nations, be they pre-revolutionary Estonia, the Black Belt, or contemporary Iran. These colonial nations were the natural allies of the revolutionary proletariat, even if their revolutions would not, initially have a socialist character.
However, the book also gives a fascinating account of the relationship of the CP USA to the Soviet leadership and (perhaps inadvertenty) offers a damning portrait (from a communist perspective) of the structure of the old Comminturn. Since the actions of Communist parties in the major capitalist countries had to meet with the "approval" of the Soviet leadership, then that same leadership would inevitably stifle revolutionary activity in the main capitalist countries in order to avoid provoking a war with the West that would have threatened and potentially destroyed the comfortable position of the Soviet leadership. The Comminturn model would never have led to revolution in the West, without which (as even the Soviet leadership acknowledged) the Socialist camp could not have hoped to survive in the long run.
In historical hind-sight, Trotsky's emphasis on inciting revolution in the West seems, from a communist perspective, once again relevant. The Comminturn model could never have been successful. From a communist perspective, it would seem most practical for revolutionary parties to develop independently within each nation, evaluating their particular nation's cultural conditions for themselves, while respecting and supporting foreign revolutionaries unconditionally.
Haywood lived in an America where the African-American community was still very much centered in the “Black Belt” of the south-eastern states. This geographic and ethnic grouping had been, of course, systematically depressed by the oppressor-nation, the United States. A bourgeois revolution had almost taken place in the Reconstruction period, but had never been finished due to the betrayal and roll-back of Reconstruction. So, Haywood argued, the proletariat of the north, and the peasantry of the Black Belt, were natural allies against the white bourgeoisie of the United States, which sought to suppress a proletarian, socialist revolution in the North, and an agrarian bourgeois revolution in the South.
Haywood was also a life-long, self-described, "Stalinist". His unwavering support of Stalin, which continued after the Khrushchev revelations, is somewhat startling for a contemporary reader. However, given the historical epoch that Haywood lived and worked in, his defense of the Stalinist line in relation to Trotsky is somewhat understandable. Haywood argues convincingly that Lenin and Stalin understood better than Trotsky the significance for the communist movement of forming an alliance with the peasantry, not just within the former Russian "prison-house of nations," but with supporting the bourgeois-nationalist revolutions of developing nations, be they pre-revolutionary Estonia, the Black Belt, or contemporary Iran. These colonial nations were the natural allies of the revolutionary proletariat, even if their revolutions would not, initially have a socialist character.
However, the book also gives a fascinating account of the relationship of the CP USA to the Soviet leadership and (perhaps inadvertenty) offers a damning portrait (from a communist perspective) of the structure of the old Comminturn. Since the actions of Communist parties in the major capitalist countries had to meet with the "approval" of the Soviet leadership, then that same leadership would inevitably stifle revolutionary activity in the main capitalist countries in order to avoid provoking a war with the West that would have threatened and potentially destroyed the comfortable position of the Soviet leadership. The Comminturn model would never have led to revolution in the West, without which (as even the Soviet leadership acknowledged) the Socialist camp could not have hoped to survive in the long run.
In historical hind-sight, Trotsky's emphasis on inciting revolution in the West seems, from a communist perspective, once again relevant. The Comminturn model could never have been successful. From a communist perspective, it would seem most practical for revolutionary parties to develop independently within each nation, evaluating their particular nation's cultural conditions for themselves, while respecting and supporting foreign revolutionaries unconditionally.
January 7, 2008
This is one of the more useful and informative works I've run into on the history of the Communist Party USA. Haywood was a leading member of the Party and one of the folks who formulated the policy of upholding the Black Nation's right to self-determination. In this autobiography he takes us through his childood and youth, his experiences in World War 1, joining the Communist Party, living in the Soviet Union, fightingin the Spanish Civil War and other struggles against fascism and capital in the 30s, and eventually leaving the Party when it completely abandoned revolutionary politics in the 1950s. Overall this is useful especially in its exploration of Communism as a vehicle of black liberation struggle. Overall, the bulk of this is on struggle over political line and not a lot on how it felt to be in the movement. Also, Haywood is explicitly an unabashed Stalinist and upholds the worst barbarism of the Soviet government and its crushing of working class democracy.
October 27, 2021
Haywood was present for an unbelievable amount of great historical events. From recounting his family's descriptions of growing up as children of newly freed slaves and the quick abandonment of Reconstruction, to his own experiences with race riots and serving as a black man in WWI, through his experiences as a student in Moscow and communist organizer in the US attempting to fight the two-headed monster of white chauvinism and myth of American exceptionalism. This book not only chronicles an incredible life, but also offers an insightful perspective on the Marxist-Leninist view on emancipatory nationalism as it relates to black Americans, and provides first-hand accounts for a counter-narrative against various lies we've been told about the Soviet Union in the period of the first decades following the Russian revolution.
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