Wolfgang Leonhard

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Wolfgang Leonhard (16 April 1921) is a german political author, publicist, and historian. He flew in 1936 with his mother from Nazi Germany to the USSR. In 1943 he became a member of the national committee "Freies Deutschland". As one of the first exiled communists he returned to Germany in the late April 1945 with the so-called "Gruppe Ulbricht", a special command of politicians and instructors. As he recognised that the aim of the communists was a new authoritarian regime he flew again in 1949 and first went to Yugoslavia , then to West Germany. Knowing well the mechanisms of stalinism Leonhard became an expert of the Soviet Union , worked as a docent at the Columbia University, N.Y., and the Yale university, but also as a political advisor in Germany, where he was known as "astrologer of the Kreml". His most famous book is "Child of the Revolution" (Pathfinder Press, 1979, ISBN 0-906133-26-2) describing his political way from 1935 up to his flight in 1949.