Left SR People's Commissar in the first Soviet coalition: 'the core of the party'
'Proshyan succeeded in doing more to strengthen the Soviet power before July 1918 than he did after July 1918 to undermine it.' — Lenin, 'In Memory of Comrade Proshyan,' December 1918
Core leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party and People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs in the first Soviet coalition government, serving alongside Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin on the Provisional Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars (February 1918). As commissar (December 1917–March 1918) he broke the postal-telegraph sabotage and normalized communications, while also serving as political commissar to the Supreme Military Council and member of the VTsIK Presidium. He resigned in protest against the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and became one of the leaders of the July 1918 Left SR uprising; he died of typhus while underground. Maria Spiridonova called him 'the internal builder, the main spring, the core of the Left SR party.'
Career Timeline
- 1903Joined SR Party at Odessa University; student organizer
- 1905Arrested for attempting to free political prisoners from Odessa prison; 6 years katorga
- 1910–1913Escaped settlement, recaptured, 3 more years hard labor; exiled to Siberia, fled abroad
- 1917Returned after February Revolution; Left SR leader in Helsingfors, editor of Socialist-Revolutionary; elected to VTsIK at Second Congress of Soviets
- 1917.12Appointed People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs
- 1918.2–3Member of Provisional Executive Committee of Sovnarkom; Political Commissar to Supreme Military Council
- 1918.3Resigned from Sovnarkom in protest against Brest-Litovsk Treaty
- 1918.7Participated in Left SR uprising leadership; went underground after suppression, sentenced to 3 years in absentia