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The main aim of the article is to investigate the Ludwik Królikowski’s (1799-1879) early communism in transnational perspective. To fulfil this task, I follow the ways in which he synthetized the elements of Polish radicalism with the ideological devices typical for the Icarian movement, in which he was deeply involved (especially in 1848-1851). In the result of his ideological evolution, in 1850, Królikowski as the first Polish person used the term “communist” as a self-applied label. He did so in particular circumstances, when, after the crackdown following the failed 1848 revolution, anti-communist discourse was gaining momentum. However, as it appeared, he intentionally attempted to reverse an ideological weapon used eagerly by his political opponents in order to redefine it. Moreover, such a vague concept as “communism” opened up the space for forging the visions of the completely new world that could be grounded in emotions and intuitions mostly.