First People's Commissar for Agriculture in the Soviet coalition, co-author of the Law on the Socialization of Land
'What emerged was not a law on the socialization of land, but on the nationalization of land.' — on the Bolshevik-amended land law passed by the Third Congress of Soviets, January 1918
A Left Socialist Revolutionary leader who served as the first People's Commissar for Agriculture in the Soviet coalition government (November 1917–March 1918), co-authoring the landmark Law on the Socialization of Land with Ivan Mayorov. He resigned in protest against the Brest-Litovsk Treaty but refused to join the July 1918 Left SR uprising, instead founding the Party of Revolutionary Communists and joining the Bolshevik Party that November. A key architect of revolutionary agrarian reform who navigated the SR–Bolshevik coalition and later served on the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front during the Civil War.
Career Timeline
- 1906Joined the SR Party; expelled from Kharkov University for political activity
- 1909–1916Exiled abroad; studied in Paris, joined the Left SR group
- 1917Leader of Kazan Left SRs, chair of Kazan Gubernia Soviet of Peasant Deputies; SR Central Committee member; delegate to Second Congress of Soviets, VTsIK member
- 1917.11–1918.3People's Commissar for Agriculture of the RSFSR; co-authored the Law on the Socialization of Land with Mayorov
- 1918.5–7Chair of Kazan Gubernia Soviet Executive Committee; refused to support the Left SR uprising
- 1918.7–11Founded and led the Party of Revolutionary Communists; joined RCP(b) in November
- 1919–1920Member of the RVS of the Southern Front; chair of the Special Food Commission
- 1921–1935Administrative and economic work in Narkomat of Communications, Moskust, and other bodies