Charles Krumbein
{{Short description|American Communist leader}}
Charles Krumbein (February 10, 1889 - January 20, 1947) was an American Communist activist.
Biography
Krumbein initially joined the Socialist Party.{{Cite book |last=Storch |first=Randi |title=Red Chicago: American Communism at its Grassroots, 1928-35 |date=2007 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252032066 |pages=22}} He left the SP in 1919 and became a founding member of the Communist Labor Party.{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=James R. |title=William Z. Foster and the tragedy of American radicalism |date=1999 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0252020464 |pages=113}}
Krumbein was a delegate to the 1922 Bridgman Convention of the Communist Party of America.{{Cite book |last=Draper |first=Theodore |title=The Roots of American Communism |date=1957 |publisher=The Viking Press |location=New York |pages=370}} He was arrested with 17 other Party members but was later pardoned by Illinois Governor Len Small.{{Cite news |date=December 6, 1922 |title="Red" Freed by Illinois Governor in Court Here |url=https://newspapers.com/image/364840996 |work=The Herald-Palladium |pages=1}} Krumbein was one of seven Americans invited to study at the International Lenin School in May 1926.{{Cite book |title=American Communism and Soviet Russia: The Formative Period |date=1963 |publisher=The Viking Press |location=New York |pages=168}} In January 1935, Krumbein plead guilty to the charge of having traveled with a false passport in 1930, and received an eighteen month sentence at Lewisburg Penitentiary.{{Cite journal |date=August 14, 1935 |title=Editorial Paragraphs |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_nation_1935-08-14_141_3658/page/170/ |journal=The Nation |volume=141 |issue=3658 |pages=171}} Despite their political differences, Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas wrote a letter to Roosevelt asking for clemency for Krumbein, describing him as "a man of character and devotion to his cause".{{Cite book |last=Swanberg |first=W.A. |title=Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist |date=1976 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |pages=197}} Krumbein was elected to serve as the national treasurer for the Communist Party at their convention on May 22, 1943.{{Cite book |last=Isserman |first=Maurice |title=Which side were you on? : The American Communist Party during the Second World War |date=1982 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=0819550590 |pages=204}}
Krumbein was married to fellow Communist Party activist Margaret Cowl.{{Cite book |last=Ware |first=Susan |title=Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s |date=1982 |publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=0805799001 |location=Boston |pages=138}} He died of a heart attack on January 20, 1947, while on vacation in Miami Beach.{{Cite news |date=January 22, 1947 |title=Communist Leader Dies |url=https://newspapers.com/image/1166395023 |work=The Cleveland Press |pages=10}}