Franz Leschnitzer (12 February 1905 - 16 May 1967) was a German journalist-commentator, author and peace activist. In view of his Jewish provenance and communist politics, he was obliged to escape the country during 1933, and while living in Moscow was formally deprived, in absentia, of his German citizenship in 1939. He lived in the Soviet Union between 1933 and 1959, supporting himself as a political journalist and through teaching work in Moscow and Tashkent.