Bolshevik journalist and editor of Bednota who joined the Left Opposition and was executed
Born in 1886 in Orenburg, the son of a Jewish retired soldier, he joined the RSDLP in Samara in 1903 and the Bolshevik faction in 1904. Before the revolution he organised trade unions and wrote for Pravda, and was repeatedly arrested and banished to Chelyabinsk. In 1917 he chaired the Urals Regional Soviet; in 1918–1924 he sat on the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and edited the peasant newspaper Bednota, and from October 1921 to May 1922 he headed the Central Committee's Agitation and Propaganda Department. He signed the Declaration of 46 in 1923 and joined the Left Opposition, was expelled at the 15th Party Congress in 1927, and went through exile and political isolators. After renouncing the opposition in 1934 he was readmitted to the party in 1935, but he was arrested again in 1936 and shot in 1937.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1913Contributor to Pravda
- 1917.08Chairman of the Urals Regional Soviet
- 1918–1924Member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
- 1918–1924Editor of the peasant newspaper Bednota
- 1919.11–1920.01Chairman of the Kharkiv Governorate Party Committee
- 1921.10–1922.05Head of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the RCP(b) Central Committee
- 1923.04.25–1924.05.23Member of the Central Control Commission of the RCP(b)
- 1934–1936.10Member of the editorial board of Sotsialisticheskoye Zemledeliye