Biography
Benjamin Gidow, a leader of the American Socialist Party and a founder of the Communist Party from New York City, served approximately thirty-four months of a ten-year sentence in Sing Sing Penitentiary. He was pardoned on December 11, 1925. Gitlow won a seat in the New York State Assembly after running as the Socialist Party's candidate in 1917. He left the party to found the Communist Party. Gitlow twice ran as the Communist Party's candidate for vice president (in 1924 and 1928) and served in many positions of party leadership, including general secretary. In 1929, the Communist Party expelled Gitlow after he opposed Joseph Stalin's attempt to control the policies of the American Communist Party through the Comintern.
