Head of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP), scourge of the 'fellow travellers'
Born to a Jewish family in Saratov, he was the nephew of Yakov Sverdlov, and his sister Ida married Genrikh Yagoda. He left the gymnasium for Komsomol work, sat on its first Central Committee and joined the party in 1920. At nineteen he edited Molodaya gvardiya; as editor of Na literaturnom postu he led the proletarian writers' association and attacked 'fellow travellers' such as Bulgakov, Zamyatin, Pilnyak and Voronsky. Stalin's dissolution of RAPP in April 1932 broke his power, but Yagoda and Gorky protected him, and in 1934 he co-edited the White Sea–Baltic Canal book with Gorky and Firin. After Yagoda's fall he was arrested in April 1937 and shot on 14 August. He was rehabilitated in 1961.
Also known as: Leopold Averbach
Activities and affiliations
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1920–1937
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Ideology and propaganda- Secretary of the Moscow Komsomol committeeSocial movements and organizing
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1926–1932
Soviet Union state institutionsLeader of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP)Main
Ideology and propaganda
Career Timeline
- 1920Joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks); editor of Yunosheskaya Pravda
- 1926Took over the leadership of the All-Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
- 1928The association reorganised as RAPP
- 1932.04.23RAPP dissolved on Stalin's orders
- 1934Co-edited The White Sea–Baltic Stalin Canal
- 1937.04.04Arrested as a relative of Yagoda
- 1937.08.14Shot