May
1, 1950
Mosinee, Wisconsin
taken over by USSR
The town of Mosinee, Wisconsin, was the site of a mock
Communist takeover, staged by the local American
Legion outpost to illustrate what life under Soviet conquest might be like.
Benjamin
Gitlow, who had twice been the vice-presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA (in 1924 and 1928), before
renouncing Communism, played the role of General Secretary of the Communist
Party of the "United Soviet States of America", while another former
Communist, Joseph Zack Kornfeder, assisted as the new
Commissar of the town, renamed "Moskva" in the exercise. A Soviet
flag flew in front of the American Legion outpost. Tragically, Mayor Ralph E. Kronenwetter, who had participated
in the mock coup by allowing himself to be "arrested", suffered a
cerebral hemorrhage that evening, and died six days later at the age of 49,
while another participant, Reverend William L. Bennett, died the a day after
Kronenwetter
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