Let G be an abelian group. We prove that a group G admits a Hausdorff group topology τ such that the von Neumann radical n(G, τ) of (G, τ) is non-trivial and finite iff G has a non-trivial finite subgroup. If G is a topological group, then n(n(G)) 6= n(G) if and only if n(G) is not dually embedded. In particular, n(n(Z, τ)) = n(Z, τ) for any Hausdorff group topology τ on Z. We shall write our a...