The revolutionary who led Kazakhstan's 'Little October'
In December 1925, addressing the party conference in Kyzyl-Orda, he declared that "before my arrival, no Soviet power existed in Kazakhstan," launching his 'Little October.'
An Old Bolshevik who joined the party in 1903, he was elected to the Central Committee and its Russian Bureau at the 1912 Prague Conference. He took part in the October uprising through the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, then led the establishment of Soviet power in the Urals from Ekaterinburg and was a principal organizer of the Romanov family's execution. As First Secretary of the Kazakh party organization (1925–1933), he pushed radical collectivization and nomadic sedentarization under the slogan 'Little October,' and later served as the USSR Chief State Arbitrator (1933–1939). Arrested in 1939, he was shot in 1941 and rehabilitated in 1961.
Career Timeline
- 1903Joined RSDLP, Bolshevik faction
- 1906–09Petersburg Committee, then Moscow Committee
- 1912Elected CC member and Russian Bureau (Prague Conference)
- 1917–18Petrograd MRC; established Soviet power in the Urals
- 1922–25Chairman of Samara Governorate Executive Committee; famine recovery
- 1925–33First Secretary, Kazakh Kraikom; 'Little October' collectivization
- 1933–39USSR Chief State Arbitrator
- 1939–41Arrested, imprisoned, shot
Related historical events
- 1917.10–1918.01The October Revolutionmember of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionUral Soviet leader, who organized the execution of the RomanovsHe led the establishment of Soviet power in Yekaterinburg and was a principal organizer of the execution of the Tsar's family.
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationExecutor of Kazakhstan's 'Little October'As First Secretary of the Kazakh party organization from 1925 to 1933, he pushed the confiscation of bay property, forced sedentarization of nomads, and radical collectivization under the 'Little October' banner. His policies were a principal cause of the Kazakh famine of 1932–1933, in which over 1.5 million died and hundreds of thousands fled across the border into China.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTarget of a later executionThe former Kazakhstan party secretary was arrested in 1939 and shot after the German invasion in 1941.
Organizer of the Romanov Family Execution
In the summer of 1918, as Military Commissar of the Ural Region, Goloshchyokin was the principal organizer of the Romanov family's execution. On 29 June, the Ural Soviet resolved to execute the entire Romanov family, and Goloshchyokin traveled to Moscow on 3 July to deliver the decision in person. Only seven members of the Central Executive Committee's Presidium remained in the capital; at a meeting with Lenin, Sverdlov, and Dzerzhinsky, the execution was approved, with discretion over the details left to the Ural Soviet.
On the evening of 16 July, with White Army forces closing on Ekaterinburg, Goloshchyokin and Georgy Safarov sent a final coded telegram to Moscow seeking approval, but the direct line was down and the message was routed through Zinoviev in Petrograd. According to Yurovsky's memoirs, the execution order signed by Sverdlov reached Goloshchyokin around 7:00 PM.
Goloshchyokin personally arrived at the Ipatiev House alongside Peter Ermakov and Stepan Vaganov to direct the execution as a representative of the Ural Soviet. He did not take part in the shooting himself, instead pacing along the palisade outside to gauge whether the gunfire could be heard beyond the walls. As the corpses were loaded onto the truck, he stooped to examine the tsar's body and murmured, "So this is the end of the Romanov Dynasty, is it..." His comrade Mikhail Kudrin replied: "No, not yet; there is still much work to be done." On 18 July at the Ekaterinburg telegraph office, when British diplomat Thomas Preston attempted to cable London with "The Tsar Nicholas the Second was shot last night," Goloshchyokin snatched the message and struck through the words with a red pencil, rewriting: "The hangman Tsar Nicholas was shot last night — a fate he richly deserved."