A fellow traveller is a person who sympathizes with the beliefs of a particular organization, but does not belong to that organization. The phrase must be understood as referring to people who "walk part of the way" with an organization, without committing themselves to it. The term is most often applied to a sympathizer of communism, or particular communist states such as the Soviet Union, who is nonetheless not a "card-carrying member" of a Communist Party. Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production, and can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement. ... A Communist state is a term for a nation-state governed by a single political party which declares its allegiance to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical philosophy based on Marxism. ...

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the term "fellow traveller" was sometimes applied to Russian writers who accepted the revolution's ends but were not active participants. Some writers were able during the relatively liberal era of the New Economic Policy to write on subjects in the manner of their choosing, but during various periods of repressions that followed, particularly after the ascendency of Joseph Stalin, many found their position difficult. Some emigrated when the authorities refused to allow publication of anti-regime works, while others ceased writing together, sometimes coerced into doing so. A prominent example of the literary fellow travellers is Mikhail Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, which, after the elimination of the Russian autocracy system, resulted in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... The New Economic Policy (NEP) was officially decided in the course of the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. ... The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. ... (help· info) (Russian, in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин (Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin), born Джугашвили (Dzhugashvili), Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (Ioseb Jughashvili); (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of... Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (Cyrillic: Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891 – March 10, 1940) was a Soviet novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century. ... The Master and Margarita book cover. ...

In Europe, the term was used to describe those who, without being Communist Party members of their respective countries, had communist sympathies, and sometimes acted in close connection with the Comintern and the Soviet regime: attending communist meetings, writing in communist journals, and even fighting alongside communists in Spain (in the 1930s), Greece, Yugoslavia (in the late 1940s), and Latin America (in the 1950s and 1960s). Many journalists, intellectuals and artists have been described (and sometimes referred to themselves) as fellow travellers, among them André Gide, André Malraux, Ernest Hemingway, and George Orwell. Some of these individuals would not maintain their sympathies. The Comintern (from Russian Коммунистический Интернационал (Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional) – Communist International), also known as the Third International, was an independent international Communist organization founded in March 1919 by Vladmir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and the Russian Communist Party (bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of... // Events and trends A public speech by Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fascist movement The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the global depression. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, in Macedonian and Serbian Cyrillic Југославија) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... André Paul Guillaume Gide (November 22, 1869 – February 19, 1951) was a French author and, at times, a spokesman for gay rights (disputed — see talk page). ... André Malraux, French author, adventurer, and statesman André Malraux (November 3, 1901 - November 23, 1976) was a French author, adventurer and statesman preeminent in the world of French politics and culture during his lifetime. ... Ernest Hemingway, 1950 Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist and short story writer whose works, drawn from his wide range of experiences in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II, are characterized by terse minimalism and understatement; they exerted... George Orwell on Time Magazine cover from 1983. ...

In the United States, the term has long been used to describe those who were linked, or accused of having links with, communists. Partly because of political controversies surrounding the subject, the term is in this context often used as or considered to be a political pejorative. Look up pejorative on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

See also

• Useful idiot

In political jargon, the term useful idiot was used during the Cold War by certain anti-communists to describe communists and apparent communist sympathizers in western countries (particularly in the United States). ...

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