The revolutionary soldier who founded Post No. 1 at Lenin's Mausoleum
In June 1928, from Siberian exile, Muralov wrote to Trotsky: "I would rather be drawn and quartered than write a confession. Even if I am alone — I will not write it."
A Bolshevik since 1903, he took part in the 1905 Moscow armed uprising and served on the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee leadership during October 1917, and was appointed the first commander of the Moscow Military District after the revolution. During the Civil War he served on the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Eastern Front and the 12th Army, and in 1924 he founded Post No. 1, the honor guard at Lenin's Mausoleum. He signed the Declaration of the 46 in 1923, joining the Left Opposition, and at the 15th Party Congress in 1927 he defended intra-party democracy in a speech from the floor, after which he was expelled and exiled. Arrested in 1936, he was sentenced to death at the second Moscow Trial in 1937 and executed; he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1986.
Career Timeline
- 1903–1907Joined Bolsheviks; took part in 1905 Moscow armed uprising
- 1917.10–1917.11Member of Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee; led armed uprising
- 1917.11–1919.02First Commander (Commissar) of Moscow Military District
- 1919Member of RVS, Eastern Front and 12th Army
- 1921–1924Commander Moscow Military District again; founded Post No. 1
- 1925–1927Member of Central Control Commission; rector of Timiryazev Agricultural Academy
- 1927Expelled from party after 15th Congress speech; exiled to Siberia
- 1936–1937Arrested; second Moscow Trial and execution
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905Barricade fighter in the Moscow armed uprisingHe fought on the barricades of the Presnya district during the Moscow December 1905 armed uprising and remained active in Bolshevik military-combat work thereafter.
- 1917.10–1918.01The October Revolutionmember of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee and leader of the armed uprising
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionFirst commander of the Moscow Military District
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTargetA revolutionary soldier of the civil war, condemned as a defendant in the second Moscow Trial and executed in 1937.
Speech at the 15th Party Congress and Left Opposition Activity
Muralov joined the Left Opposition in October 1923 by signing the Declaration of the 46, which criticized the decline of intra-party democracy and the growth of bureaucracy. When comrades urged him to leave the opposition, he replied: "I support the old Bolsheviks, not Trotsky. Stalin does not act like a Leninist." Trotsky recalled him in his memoirs as "a fearless marshal of the revolutionary war… in the most difficult situations he radiated calm, warmth, and confidence."
At the 15th Party Congress in December 1927, Muralov took the floor on behalf of the Left Opposition but was shouted down with cries of "Down with him!" He protested that "measures unheard of in our party" had been taken against dissenters, and that "old, dedicated party members" were being accused of being "agents of Chamberlain." The Congress expelled him from the party. In a joint statement with Christian Rakovsky immediately afterward, he declared that to renounce their views without being convinced of their incorrectness "would really be a renunciation of the most elementary duty to the Party and the working class."
In a June 1928 letter to Trotsky, Muralov wrote: "I would rather be drawn and quartered than write a confession." In 1930, together with Rakovsky, Kasparova, and Kosior, he submitted a statement to the Central Committee criticizing forced collectivization as "the most grotesque deviation from socialism" and a violation of "the most basic principles of Marxism and Lenin's warnings about collectivization, the middle peasants, and the NEP." After years of refusing to renounce his views, Muralov finally submitted a reluctant request for party reinstatement in January 1936; he was arrested three months later.