Bolshevik soldier-politician who ran Soviet foreign trade under Stalin
The day after the Arcos raid in London, Rozengolts handed a seven-page protest memorandum demanding evidence; two days later, the British cabinet revealed documents seized from a 'subterranean photostat room' and severed diplomatic relations.
A Bolshevik since 1905, he served as a political commissar in the Civil War and later organized the Soviet Air Force as its chief, then faced the Arcos raid and the break in Anglo-Soviet relations as chargé d'affaires in London. As People's Commissar of Foreign Trade from 1930 to 1937, he directed Soviet exports and imports during the first Five-Year Plans. A signatory of the 1923 Declaration of 46 from the Left Opposition, his arc into the Stalinist apparatus was complex and emblematic. He was sentenced to death in the 1938 Trial of the Twenty-One and executed.
Career Timeline
- 1905–1917Joins Bolsheviks at 16, delegate to the 4th Party Congress; underground work as an insurance agent
- 1917Member of Moscow Soviet executive committee, Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee; takes part in October armed uprising
- 1918–1920Member of the Republic's Revolutionary War Council, commissar with 8th and 5th Armies; creates Tsektran transport committee
- 1922–1924Head of the Soviet Air Force — leads secret military negotiations with German high command
- 1925–1927Chargé d'affaires in London; faces the Arcos raid and break in Anglo-Soviet relations
- 1927–1930Member and presidium member of the Central Control Commission; works in Rabkrin (Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate)
- 1930–1937People's Commissar of Foreign Trade — directs trade during Five-Year Plans, clashes with Ordzhonikidze over equipment imports
- 1937–1938Dismissed, moved to State Reserves, arrested; sentenced to death in the third Moscow trial
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905joined Bolsheviks in 1905 and delegate to the 4th Party CongressHe joined the Bolsheviks during the 1905 Revolution and was elected a delegate to the 4th (Unity) RSDLP Congress in Stockholm the following year.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionMember of Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionMember of the Revolutionary Military Council and political commissar
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)People's Commissar of Foreign Trade
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationPeople's Commissar of Foreign Trade
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTarget of the Third Moscow TrialThe former foreign-trade commissar was condemned in the Third Moscow Trial and executed in 1938.
Chief of the Soviet Air Force and Secret German Military Cooperation
In January 1922 Rozengolts was appointed chief of the Red Air Fleet (Glavvozdukhoflot), tasked with rebuilding Soviet aviation practically from scratch after the devastation of the Civil War. He set four priorities: institutionalizing aviation science, building a state aircraft industry, creating a pilot and technician training pipeline, and securing ground infrastructure. Rallying enthusiasts and converting their work into a national project, he oversaw the integration of the new 'Ilyich' air squadron into the Red Air Fleet by the summer of 1924.
At the same time, Rozengolts was the key negotiator who gave concrete shape to the secret military clauses of the Rapallo Treaty (1922). That year he made direct contact with the German Reichswehr to discuss a framework for cooperation in aviation and armor. Those talks later materialized as the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school (1926–1933), the Kama tank school, and the Tomka gas-testing site. In this dual arrangement, Germany, barred by Versailles from maintaining an air force, trained pilots and tested new aircraft on Soviet soil, while the USSR absorbed German technology and doctrine. The partnership acted as midwife to both countries' military reconstruction until it ended with the Nazi rise to power in 1933.