Musso was an Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n communist politician who was leader of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in the 1920s and again during the Madiun

Madiun

Madiun is a city in the western part of the province of East Java Indonesia, an agricultural centre. It is the capital of the regency of the same name....

 rebellion of 1948.

Musso became one of the main leaders of the PKI in the early 1920s. He was a supporter of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 and the Communist International in Moscow. By 1925 a group of PKI leaders were making plans for an insurrection in 1926, though this was opposed by some PKI leaders such as Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka

Tan Malaka was an Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader. A staunch critic of both the colonial Dutch East Indies government and the republican Sukarno administration that governed the country after the Indonesian National Revolution, he was also frequently in conflict with the...

. In 1926 Musso travelled to Singapore where he received instructions from Moscow to start a revolt against Dutch rule. Musso and another PKI leader Alimin later went to Moscow, met with Stalin, and received orders to cancel the revolt and to restrict the party's activities to radical nationalist agitation. Musso however was determined to go ahead. In November that year there were revolts led by the PKI in several cities including Batavia (now Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

), but the revolt was crushed by the Dutch. Musso and Alimin were arrested. Musso later went to Moscow, but returned to Indonesia in 1935 to enforce the "popular front" line ordered by the seventh Comintern congress. However he was forced to leave the country and return to the Soviet Union in 1936.

On August 11, 1948 Musso arrived back in Indonesia in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta (city)

Yogyakarta is a city in the Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. It is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to...

. On September 5 he gave a speech advocating that Indonesia align itself with the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. A revolt developed in Madiun

Madiun

Madiun is a city in the western part of the province of East Java Indonesia, an agricultural centre. It is the capital of the regency of the same name....

 in East Java

East Java

East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and islands to its east and to its north East Java is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the eastern part of the island of Java and includes neighboring Madura and...

 when some elements of the PKI militia refused to disarm. Army sources claimed that the PKI had announced the proclamation of the "Soviet Republic of Indonesia" on September 18 with Musso as its president and Amir Sjarifuddin

Amir Sjarifuddin

Amir Sjarifuddin Harahap, also spelled Amir Sjarifoeddin Harahap was a socialist politician and one of the Indonesian Republic's first leaders, becoming Prime Minister during the country's National Revolution. A Christian convert from a Muslim Batak family, Amir was a major leader of the Left...

as its prime minister. However the revolt was put down by the army. On September 30 Madiun was taken over by republican troops of the Silwangi division. Thousands of party cadres were killed and 36,000 were imprisoned. Amongst the executed were several leaders including Musso who was killed on October 31, allegedly while trying to escape from prison.