Zuzenko was a Russian sailor who had been imprisoned in Russia as a socialist revolutionary for his part in the revolution of 1905. He came to Australia in 1911 and spent more than seven years there, mostly in Queensland, working as a labourer, promoting the the cause of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and having a leading role in the militant Union of Russian Workers. He was deported to Odessa in 1919. He returned to Australia with the aim of welding the young Communist Party into a cohesive revolutionary force, but was again deported to Soviet Russia in 1923. Zuzenko was later executed as a 'British spy' during Stalin's purges. His writings (in Russian) were long hidden by the Comintern or disguised by pseudonyms in newspapers, but have subsequently come to light.
