Tatar revolutionary who led the Kazan Muslim Socialist Committee and became the first head of the Soviet Muslim Commissariat
Born in 1885 into a merchant family, in Kazan or in Kazaevo in Perm province according to different records, he took part in the 1905 revolution. After the St Petersburg Polytechnic he moved in 1912 to the law faculty of the Psychoneurological Institute, where he met Mikhail Frunze among others and organised a circle of Muslim students. After the February Revolution he led the Muslim Socialist Committee in Kazan and its newspaper Qızıl Bayraq, became a member of the Kazan Military Revolutionary Committee in October and was elected to the Constituent Assembly. In January 1918, on Lenin’s advice, he became head of the Muslim Commissariat (Muskom) and sent sailors to crush the Trans-Bulak Republic. Appointed extraordinary food commissar for the Volga in July, he was captured and executed after Komuch’s People’s Army took Kazan in August.
Also known as: Mullanur Waxitov · Mulla-Nur Vakhitov · Mullanur Mullazyanovich Vakhitov
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1907Entered the economics department of the St Petersburg Polytechnic
- 1912Law faculty of the Psychoneurological Institute; organised a Muslim student circle
- 1917Leader of the Kazan Muslim Socialist Committee; member of the Kazan Military Revolutionary Committee
- 1918Head of the Muslim Commissariat (Muskom)
- 1918Extraordinary food commissar for the Volga region