Red Conspirator

In this bold contribution to our understanding of the Communist underground in the United States, Thomas Sakmyster offers the first biography of J. Peters, a shadowy figure in the American Communist party in the 1920s through the 1940s. Known as the "Hungarian man of mystery," Peters eventually constructed a complex network of informants and spies that stole numerous State Department documents in the 1930s. After years of hiding underground he was arrested and deported in 1949. Using Peters's unpublished memoir as well as multilingual sources from the United States, the United Kingdom, Hungary, and the Soviet Union, Sakmyster traces Peters's activities from his arrival in the United States to the dawn of the Cold War. While previous studies of the American Communist movement have relegated Peters to a minor role, Sakmyster reveals him to be not just the influential leader of conspiratorial Communist activities, but also an important organizer in the open American Communist party. Thomas Sakmyster is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of Hungary, the Great Powers, and the Danubian Crisis, 1936-1939 and Hungary's Admiral on Horseback: Miklos Horthy, 1918-1944.