Jan Romein

Who was Jan Romein?

Jan Marius Romein was a Dutch journalist and historian.

Born in Rotterdam, Romein married the writer and historian Annie Romein-Verschoor on August 14, 1920.

Romein began writing while studying humanities at the University of Leiden. Of his professors the historian Johan Huizinga inspired him the most. During his studies and impressed by the First World War and the Russian Revolution he became interested in Marxism. He translated Franz Mehring's biography on Karl Marx into Dutch. After the couple moved to Amsterdam in 1921, he became an editor of the daily De Tribune of the young Communistische Partij Holland. In addition, he worked as a freelance writer and translator. Already in 1916-1918 he published a Dutch translation of Romain Rolland's Jean Christophe. In 1924 he received his doctoral degree, with the highest distinction, at the University of Leiden with the dissertation Dostoyevsky in the Eyes of Western Critics. In 1927 he left the communist party, but he remained interested in Marxism and in the political development of the Soviet Union and of Asia.