The party’s licensed voice of caution: his warnings outlived him
October 18, 1917: Kamenev revealed the CC's secret uprising decision in Novaya Zhizn, calling it "fatal to the revolution." Lenin demanded his expulsion as a strikebreaker. Ten days later the Bolsheviks took power — and Kamenev became the first head of the Soviet state.
One of Lenin's oldest comrades, whom he met in Paris in 1902 and trusted for over thirty years. He opposed the October 1917 rising but stayed to serve, chairing the Moscow Soviet for eight years and presiding over the Politburo during Lenin's illness. It was Kamenev who proposed Stalin as General Secretary in 1922, and with Stalin and Zinoviev formed the triumvirate that blocked Trotsky. In 1925 he broke with Stalin, declaring at the Party Congress that 'we are against creating a leader,' and lost every post. Exiled from politics, he directed the Pushkin House and the Academia publishing house, devoting himself to literary scholarship. In 1936 he stood beside Zinoviev in the dock at the first Moscow show trial, and was shot.
Career Timeline
- 1914Tried with the Bolshevik Duma fraction; Siberian exile
- 1917Edits Pravda; opposes the Theses and the rising
- 1918–26Chairs the Moscow Soviet
- 1922–24Presides in the Politburo during Lenin’s illness; the triumvirate
- 1936Tried beside Zinoviev; shot
Related historical events
- 1917.02–07The February RevolutionParty moderateOn his return he argued for conditional support of the Provisional Government and publicly objected to the April Theses; he was arrested after the July Days.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October RevolutionDissenting leaderHe opposed the insurrection plan, yet was elected the first chairman of VTsIK by the Congress and led the coalition negotiations.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionChairman of the Moscow Soviet and member of the Politburo
- 1921–1922The Russian Famine of 1921–1922Nominal chair, All-Russian Public Famine Relief CommitteeNominally chaired the public Pomgol committee as the government's control figure over its non-Bolshevik members, then led the press campaign that preceded its dissolution.
- 1922.12Formation of the USSRCommission leadershipA leader of the preparatory commission, he received Lenin's September letter criticizing autonomization and carried its revisions forward.
- 1921–1928The New Economic Policy (NEP)New Opposition leaderHe led the Moscow party and the Council of Labor and Defense, and with Zinoviev warned of the kulak danger under NEP.
- 1923–1927The Succession Struggle and the Left OppositionTriumvirate member who defended the party apparatus at the Dec 11, 1923 Moscow meetingTriumvirate member; delivered the Dec 11, 1923 Moscow Party meeting report defending the apparatus. Co-drafted the Dec 5 Politburo resolution. Co-formed the New Opposition, expelled 1927.
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTargetAn Old Bolshevik leader executed after the first Moscow Trial in 1936.
1924 — the decision to seal Lenin's Testament
In May 1924, on the eve of the 13th Party Congress, the Politburo faced one question: should they read Lenin's 'Letter to the Congress,' the Testament, to the delegates?
Lenin's widow Krupskaya had delivered the sealed letter to the Central Committee. The content was unambiguous: remove Stalin from the post of General Secretary. The Politburo was torn. Zinoviev spoke first: Lenin's fears were exaggerated, Stalin was entirely trustworthy. Kamenev backed him. As chair of the Politburo session, Kamenev engineered a compromise: the Testament would be read only to delegation heads, not to the full Congress, and there would be no open discussion.
Kamenev's calculation was simple. He needed Stalin's power, for now. To block Trotsky, Stalin was indispensable, and against that greater foe, Lenin's Testament seemed a side issue. The decision kept Stalin in his post. Within a year, Stalin began to squeeze Kamenev himself.
In 1936, Kamenev would be executed by the man whose position he had sealed.
August 1936 — the First Moscow Show Trial
From 19 to 24 August 1936, the Soviet Union's first great show trial unfolded in the October Hall of the House of the Unions: the case of the "Trotskyite–Zinovievite Terrorist Center." Among the sixteen defendants, the two central figures were Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev.
The road to the dock ran through torture and blackmail. All summer the central heating was kept on in the prisoners' cells, especially brutal for Zinoviev, who suffered from asthma. NKVD interrogators showed Kamenev evidence that his son was under investigation and could be shot. At last Stalin himself, posing as a commission of the Politburo, met the two men and promised that their lives, and their families, would be spared if they confessed. They broke.
In court, Prosecutor-General Andrei Vyshinsky showered the defendants with epithets: "dogs of the Fascist bourgeoisie," "mad dogs of Trotskyism," "stinking carrion." Evidence was beside the point; confession sufficed. Kamenev admitted guilt but struggled to preserve a thread of dignity. On 24 August, all sixteen were sentenced to death. Before dawn the next morning they were shot in the cellars of the Lubyanka.
As they were led to the execution chamber, Kamenev is said to have told a despondent Zinoviev: "Stop it, Grigory — let us die with dignity." Whether the words were really spoken is uncertain. What is certain is that a 53-year-old Old Bolshevik met his end in the basement of the party he had served for three decades.