Michel Pablo may be a little-known figure today, but Hall Greenland has done justice to his life as a committed fighter against capitalism and colonialism on several continents in his book, The Well-Dressed Revolutionary. As the book’s subtitle indicates, Greenland weaves together Pablo’s story with the wider backdrop of revolution and counterrevolution in the twentieth century.

Pablo’s real name was Michalis Raptis. Born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 1911 to Greek parents, he grew up in Crete and became active in communist circles while studying to become a civil engineer. During the 1930s, he joined Leon Trotsky’s Fourth International and adopted his nom de guerre Pablo.

His record of political engagement took him from the anti-Nazi resistance in wartime France to a role supplying weapons to the Algerian independence struggle two decades later. He worked as an adviser for Algeria’s first postcolonial president, Ahmed Ben Bella, and the Chilean socialist government of Salvador Allende.