Leader of the Workers' Opposition, defeated by Lenin, devoured by the Purge
At his closed Military Collegium trial on 2 September 1937 he pleaded not guilty, refusing to confess to the terrorist conspiracy or to implicate others. He maintained that the programme of the Workers' Opposition had been right.
A skilled metal turner born into a poor Old Believer family in Murom, he joined the RSDLP in 1901 and sided with the Bolsheviks after the 1903 split. Working in French, German and British factories, he absorbed the European labor movement firsthand and ran the party's clandestine Scandinavian courier network during the war. In February 1917 he was the most senior Bolshevik in the capital, active in the Russian Bureau of the CC and the Petrograd Soviet's executive committee. After October he became the first People's Commissar of Labor, laying the foundations of the eight-hour day; at the end of the Civil War he and Kollontai led the Workers' Opposition, which Lenin defeated at the Tenth Congress in 1921. Sidelined into diplomacy, expelled in 1933 and imprisoned in 1935, he was executed on 2 September 1937 on fabricated charges. Rehabilitated in 1963 and restored to the party in 1988.
Career timeline
1901Joined the RSDLP; aligned with the Bolsheviks after the 1903 split
The metalworker who co-led the Workers' Opposition, defeated by the party machine, consumed by the Purge
At his Military Collegium trial on 10 September 1937, charged under Article 58 with terrorist intentions, he never confessed and implicated no one. He was shot the same day.
A Bolshevik metalworker from a poor peasant family near Moscow, he became a turner at the Obukhov factory at thirteen. During WWI he helped Shlyapnikov organize the Russian Bureau of the Bolshevik CC in Petrograd and formed the Achinsk Soviet in 1917. After the Civil War he co-led the Workers' Opposition with Shlyapnikov from the Metalworkers' Union CC, demanding trade union control of the economy and working-class democracy within the party. He co-signed the 'Letter of the Twenty-Two' to the Comintern in 1922 protesting the suppression of worker voices, was expelled in 1933, and refused to confess at his 1937 trial before being shot.
Career timeline
1901Participated in the Obukhov factory strike
1903Joined the RSDLP, sided with the Bolshevik faction
1912–14Organized underground workers' insurance movement
1915–17Organized Russian Bureau of the CC; Siberian exile
1917Formed Achinsk Soviet; elected to Constituent Assembly
1918Chair, Revolutionary Tribunal of VTsIK; Red Army political commissar
1920–22CC member, Metalworkers' Union; co-led the Workers' Opposition
1921–22Candidate member, Central Committee RCP(b)
1922Co-signed 'Letter of the Twenty-Two' to Comintern; warned for factionalism
1920s 후반Worked in the Commissariat of Heavy Industry
1933Expelled from the party; administrative exile to northern Russia
1935–37Arrested; White Sea Canal camp; sentenced to death
Bolshevik revolutionary and metalworker from Lugansk, a leader of the Workers' Opposition
As one of the leaders of the Workers' Opposition in 1920–1921 he defended collegial management of industry and workers' interests, was defeated by Lenin at the 10th Party Congress, and, disillusioned with the NEP and the bureaucratization of the party, shot himself on 7 May 1924.
Born in 1887 in Lugansk, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, into a peasant family, he worked from childhood as a metal turner at the Lugansk cartridge factory. He joined the RSDLP in 1904, was exiled to Arkhangelsk and Yakutsk provinces and escaped twice, and during the reaction of 1907–1910 belonged to the SR party before returning to the Bolsheviks. In March 1917 he became a member of the Lugansk Bolshevik committee, in August was elected chairman of the metalworkers' union board, and in November was elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In March 1918 he headed the SNK of the Lugansk region and then became deputy chairman of the SNK of the Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, and after the civil war he served on the VTsSPS presidium and as chairman of the Union of Communications Workers.
Career timeline
1904Joined the RSDLP
1917Chairman of the Lugansk Metalworkers' Union and member of the Lugansk RSDLP(b) committee
1917.12Chairman of the Donets-Krivoy Rog regional trade-union committee
1918.3Chairman of the SNK of Lugansk Oblast
1918.4Deputy chairman of the SNK of the Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic
1918.7.12–10.17Member of the CC of the CP(b)U
1919.1.25–1921.5.17Member of the VTsSPS presidium
1919.12.10–1920.12.31Secretary of the VTsIK
1921.1.5–12.29Secretary of the VTsIK
1921–1922Deputy trade representative of the RSFSR in Germany
1922.9.22–1924.5.7Member of the VTsSPS presidium and chairman of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Workers and Employees of Communications
