TROELSTRA, Pieter Jelles

(1860–1930)

   Socialist politician. When the Socialist Party of Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuisbegan to lean toward anarchism, a new Sociaal Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP, Social Democratic Labor Party) was founded in 1894, of which Troelstra was one of the leaders. After 1897, Troelstra was a member of Parliament, where he excelled as an eloquent speaker. He made his ability as a Socialist propagandist clear in his function as editor in chief of the Socialist daily newspaper Het Volk [The People] after 1900. As a mediator between left- and right-wing currents in the party, he could not avoid the expulsion in 1909 of those at the extreme left who would later found the Dutch Communist Party. After the outbreak of World WarI in 1914, the SDAPsupported the Dutch government’s policy of neutrality, but when in 1918 revolutions broke out in Germany and Russia, Troelstra publicly announced his sympathy for the revolution ary upheaval, and public opinion turned strongly against him. His “mis take” had deep influence on political affairs during the following decades. Troelstra, who wrote some poetry in the Frisian language, published his memoirs, Gedenkschriften, in 1927–1931.