Leon Trotsky records his impression of Thomas Paine Cox in his diary, November 1917.
We managed again to get a lift out to Smolny with some heavily armed sailors in a commandeered car. The English reporter, Tom Cox was there, tirelessly badgering the restless sentries in his faltering Russian.
from Ten Days That Shook The World- John Reed.
Thomas Paine Cox (1887- 1920)
Thomas Paine Cox first came to the public eye as a fourteen year old schoolboy selected to play cricket for Tamba- Tamba against the MCC.
He was a good scholar, and Clifton Gates Kakoy funded his education. In preference to an English public school.In September 1904, Tom was sent to Morristown School in New Jersey to prepare to go to Harvard in the fall of 1906 he entered Harvard College.Cox graduated from Harvard College in 1910, and that summer he set out to see more of the world, funded still by Clifton Gates, visiting England, France, and Spain before returning to America the following spring. he the embarked on a career in journalism.
In the autumn of 1913 Cox went to Mexico to report on the Revolution,spending four months with the army of Pancho Villa.
In August, 1914, Cox set sail for Europe again. He reported widely on the Great War.
By now his interest in Radical Politics was firmly established, and in 1917 he was in Petrograd for the March Revolution.
Staying on in Russia Cox was an eyewitness to the momentous events of November 1917. He was as close to Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov and the other principles as any non Russian.
He published a number of pamphlets in the United States and Britain championing the Bolshevik cause.
Returning to Russia in 1920 Cox travelled south with Frunze's forces as they took on Makhno's anarchists in the Ukraine . En route he met Jaroslav Hasek In Samara.
Privately, Cox felt more affinity with Makhno than he did with the Bolsheviks.
Sadly during the expedition Cox contracted typhus, and died in Tsaritsyn.
In the autumn of 1913 Cox went to Mexico to report on the Revolution,spending four months with the army of Pancho Villa.
In August, 1914, Cox set sail for Europe again. He reported widely on the Great War.
By now his interest in Radical Politics was firmly established, and in 1917 he was in Petrograd for the March Revolution.
Staying on in Russia Cox was an eyewitness to the momentous events of November 1917. He was as close to Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov and the other principles as any non Russian.
He published a number of pamphlets in the United States and Britain championing the Bolshevik cause.
Returning to Russia in 1920 Cox travelled south with Frunze's forces as they took on Makhno's anarchists in the Ukraine . En route he met Jaroslav Hasek In Samara.
Privately, Cox felt more affinity with Makhno than he did with the Bolsheviks.
Sadly during the expedition Cox contracted typhus, and died in Tsaritsyn.
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