Gollan, John

Gollan, John 

Born Apr. 2, 1911, in Edinburgh. Leader in the British, and international Communist and labor movement. Born into a working-class family.

Gollan began to work at the age of 13. He joined the Communist Party in 1927. In 1931. Gollan was sentenced to six months in prison for his propaganda activity. After he was freed, he became one of the leaders of the British youth movement. He was the editor of the Communist youth papers Young Worker and. later. Challenge. Gollan was national secretary of the Young Communist League of Great Britain from 1935 to 1940. In 1935 he was elected to the executive committee of the Communist Youth International. Gollan became a member of the Central Committee (after 1943, the Executive Committee) of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1935. In 1940 he was elected to the Politburo (after 1943, the Political Committee) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

From 1941 to 1947, Gollan was secretary of the northeastern organization, and then of the Scottish branch, of the Communist Party. He was assistant general secretary of the Communist Party from 1947 to 1949. From 1949 to 1954 he was deputy editor of the newspaper the Daily Worker. Gollan was national organizer of the Communist Party and leader of the organizational section of the Executive Committee from 1954 to 1956. From 1957 to 1962 he was chief editor of the Communist Party theoretical journal, Marxism Today. He became general secretary of the Communist Party in 1956.

WORKS

30 Years of Struggle: The Record of the British Communist Party. [London. 1950.]
Scottish Prospect: An Economic, Administrative, and Social Survey. Glasgow. 1948.
The Case for Socialism in the Sixties. London. 1966.
In Russian translation:
Molodezh’v angliiskoi promyshlennosti. [Moscow] 1938.
Politicheskaia sistema Velikobritaniia. Moscow. 1955.
Po kakomu puti dolzhny poiti sotsiatisty? Dovody ν pol’zu Kommunisticheskoi partii. Moscow, 1959.
Chto zhe dal’she? Moscow, 1960.
Kommunisty Velikobritanii ν bor’be za sotsializm. Moscow, 1968.