Victor Tedesco: A Luxembourg Pioneer of Communism

The Luxembourger Tedesco completes a law degree in Liège in 1844. In 1845, he becomes a Belgian citizen and meets Marx and Engels in Brussels that same year, where the three men become members of the newly founded Association démocratique. Shortly after the outbreak of the February Revolution in 1848, Tedesco founds the Société républicaine de Liège, aiming to propel the democratic-republican movement to victory in Belgium. Due to his involvement in an attempted coup against the Belgian government, he is sentenced to death on August 30, 1848. The sentence is later commuted to 30 years in prison. While incarcerated, Tedesco completes his programmatic work Catéchisme du prolétaire. He is released in 1854, settles in Arlon as a lawyer, and begins a political career.