Fyodor Andreyevich Sergeyev
Фёдор Андреевич СергеевFounder and head of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, close friend of Stalin and Kirov
March 1902, Moscow. Nineteen-year-old Fyodor raised a homemade red banner — 'Inviolability of the Person! Freedom of Speech! Freedom of Assembly!' — the signal launching the student demonstration. Arrest, prison, expulsion: thus 'Artyom' was born.
An Old Bolshevik from 1901, he rose from Donbas miner and railway worker to organizer of Russian immigrant workers in Australia, and in 1918 founded and led the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. A close friend of Stalin and Kirov, he chaired the All-Ukrainian Military Revolutionary Committee and CEC during the Civil War and served as Moscow Party executive secretary. He defended Soviet power against German occupiers and Denikin's White Army, dying at 38 in the 1921 aerowagon derailment. His infant son was adopted and raised by Stalin.
Career timeline
- 1901–1902Joined RSDLP; led student demonstration at Moscow Technical School, expelled and jailed
- 1903–1905Underground revolutionary work in Donbas and Kharkov; led December 1905 Kharkov armed uprising
- 1906–1910Delegate to IV Congress; party work in Perm and Moscow; sentenced to lifetime Siberian exile, escaped
- 1911–1917Organized Russian workers in Brisbane, Australia; led general strike; published Echo of Australia
- 1917–1918Elected CC member at VI Congress; founded DKSR, chairman of its Council of People's Commissars
- 1918–1919Chairman of All-Ukrainian CVRK; chairman of All-Ukrainian CEC
- 1920Plenipotentiary in Bashkiria; suppressed 'Black Eagle' uprising; executive secretary of Moscow Party Committee
- 1920–1921Chairman of All-Russian Miners' Union CC; organized International Miners' Union