Communists who were Bourgeois?

[The Man]

Were there any Communists who were in the Bourgeois class?

[Jimmie Higgins]

Engels

[Ismail]

Hoxha was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant and landowning family, and received a Western education. Molotov once remarked to Stalin that, "I saw Hoxha in Paris [during the Peace Conference of 1946]. He is very handsome and leaves a good impression. He is quite cultured, but you sense Western influence on his upbringing." (Dedijer, Tito Speaks, p. 313.) Stalin also supposedly said to a Yugoslav delegation that due to his background Hoxha seemed to be "a petty bourgeois, inclined towards nationalism." (Đilas, Conversations With Stalin, p. 113.) Of course Stalin himself was also asking if Hoxha was even a communist, and was relying on the Yugoslavs (then Soviet allies) for information, and the Yugoslavs wanted to replace Hoxha as head of the Albanian Communists with the pro-Yugoslav Koçi Xoxe, so yeah.

The house he was born in: http://www.enver-hoxha.net/images/fotoalbumi/01-kindheit/17-shtepia_e_lindjes.jpg

[Tommy4ever]

Kropotkin was from an aristocratic family.

[ZeroNowhere]

I don't think that this thread is about which classes people's parents were, it seems that it's asking about whether some socialists were actively capitalists.

[Lunatic Concept]

Lenin? Not really relevant though, its thier actions that defined them, not their parents.

[Tommy4ever]

If its not the parents who define them then can anyone think of someone other than Engels? :p

[Cleansing Conspiratorial Revolutionary Flame]

Chernyshevsky is to be considered petit-bourgeois in certain aspects.

More or less however, Chernyshevsky had no actual relation to ownership of the means of production other than those relating to him as an author.

[SacRedMan]

Trotsky was kinda rich when he was a young men.

[REVLEFT'S BIEGGST MATSER TROL]

Engels was majorly bourgeois. If they had Revleft in the 1880s he would of probably got rinsed by stalin- kiddies pointing that out every thread he or Marx made.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

A handful of the anarchists had noble or wealthy origins, however most of them denounced their roots and lived rather poorly. Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Malatesta come to mind. I don't remember the origins of Rocker.

Engels certainly lived abundantly. Didn't he host extravagant dinner parties with the people his writings advocated against?

[Red Commissar]

Gaylord Wilshire was an early socialist in the United States who did a lot with land development and retail- essentially real estate. "Wilshire Boulevard" was named after him because it was developed on land he owned.

Emanuel Haldeman-Julius was a socialist who made a killing with "Little Blue Books"- cheaply printed editions of classic novels.

There was also one "James Graham Phelps Stokes", of whom I know nothing of beyond what the internet tells me, but considered himself a socialist and operated in the SPUSA before WW I while being a powerful businessman.

Also, Armand Hammer was a businessman in petroleum whose father was a member of the Communist Party, though he himself wasn't communist.

[punisa]

It's an interesting fact that many of the most well known communists were petty burguoise at least. Still this doesn't mean anything, if anything it emphasizes their role as people who couldn't cope living peacefully with all the injustice in the world.

Also, Che Guevara.

[Nolan]

It's an interesting fact that many of the most well known communists were petty burguoise at least. Still this doesn't mean anything, if anything it emphasizes their role as people who couldn't cope living peacefully with all the injustice in the world.

Also, Che Guevara.

They had educational opportunities.

[Ermo Kruus]

Most well-known historical communists and anarchists had bourgeois backgrounds. It makes sense in a time were most of the population were illiterate, weren't allowed to study nor could make a living out of writing pamphlets and books.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

There was also one "James Graham Phelps Stokes", of whom I know nothing of beyond what the internet tells me, but considered himself a socialist and operated in the SPUSA before WW I while being a powerful businessman.
No surprise here.The Socialist Party during its hayday had many wealthy members because it's right-wing appealed to them. Doctors, lawyers, etc. As much as the S.P.A. had grassroots left-wing support, it's financial contributions were definitely from businessman.

[hatzel]

I heard from the Maoists that literally every non-Maoist in the history of the universe was a massive bourgie, so...

Yeah, mainly Engels. I'm sure there were a few people who might have made some kind of transition from narodnik circles to bolshevik circles who were bourgeois, but their names don't seem to be major enough for anybody to remember / care who they were :)