People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Government and administration 1 Economy, finance and planning 2 Social movements and organizing 1
Affiliation

Most people

Any Soviet Unionstate 3 Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 2 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 2 Soviet Ukrainestate 1 Left Opposition 1

All 5 affiliations

Russia

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 2

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 2 ↳ Left Opposition 1 Soviet Unionstate 3

Ukraine

↳ Soviet Ukrainestate 1
Position
Any Left critics of Bolshevism 1 Non-Bolshevik socialists 1 Marxism and communism 2
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 3
Background(set)
Any Russia 188 Ukraine 19 Poland 16 Latvia 12 Belarus 9 Georgia 8 Armenia 4 Lithuania 4 Moldova 4 Germany 3 Kazakhstan 3 Estonia 2 Uzbekistan 2 Azerbaijan 1 Bulgaria 1 France 1
Era(set)
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The old regime and its challengers1905–1917 3 The revolutionary generation1917–1940 3 People of the Stalin era1929–1953 5 People of the thaw and the stagnation1953–1985 1

People of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era

The Revolution and the Napoleonic era1774–1830 2

People of the wider world

The age of the Internationals and empires1820–1917 9 The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 74 The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 37 Scholars of this history1892–현재 2
Background: Germany The revolutionary generation 1917–1940 Clear all

Vladimir Gustavovich Groman

Владимир Густавович Громан
Soviet Union Soviet communism Soviet Union Germany 1874–1940 → Died in prison

The Menshevik statistician who designed Gosplan's early control figures and balance method, leading voice of genetic planning

December 27, 1929, at the All-Union Conference of Marxist Agrarians. Stalin, from the rostrum, aimed directly at Groman's theory that 'the October Revolution gave the peasantry less than the February Revolution.' When a voice from the audience asked 'Who was it?' Stalin answered: 'It was Groman.' In that moment, genetic planning received its political death sentence.

Statistician and economist, born in Moscow to a German father and Russian mother. Joined the RSDLP in 1898 as a Menshevik, co-authoring the agrarian program; as head of the Penza statistical bureau he developed a multi-phase sampling method. After the February Revolution he chaired the Petrograd food-supply commission, and in 1921 joined Gosplan where he headed the Conjunctural Institute, designing the first Control Figures and the balance method. With Bazarov he championed the genetic planning approach; after Stalin's public condemnation he was arrested in 1930 and as lead defendant in the 1931 Menshevik Trial received ten years, dying in the Suzdal camp.

Career timeline
  • 1894–1908Entered Moscow University; expelled for revolutionary activity; graduated externally 1908
  • 1898–1905Joined RSDLP; stayed Menshevik after 2nd Congress; co-authored agrarian program; began statistical work in exile in Vyatka and Yenisei
  • 1909–1914Headed Penza provincial statistical bureau; developed multi-phase sampling method for peasant household surveys
  • 1917–1918After February Revolution: chairman of Petrograd Soviet food commission and Central Food Administration; after October: Northern Regional Food Administration head
  • 1921–1926Headed Gosplan's Conjunctural Institute; designed first Control Figures and the balance method; formulated 'restorative growth' concept
  • 1926–1929Chaired Gosplan agricultural section; with Bazarov championed genetic planning; publicly condemned by Stalin at All-Union Conference of Marxist Agrarians
  • 1930–1940Arrested in 'Union Bureau of Mensheviks' case; 1931 trial: 10 years; died in Suzdal ITL 1940; rehabilitated 1991

Evgenia Bogdanovna Bosch

Евгения Богдановна Бош
Soviet Ukraine Left critics of Bolshevism Soviet Union Germany 1879–1925 ✕ Suicide

First woman to lead a Soviet government, between revolution and terminal illness

As German troops advanced on Kyiv, Bosch refused to abandon the city without a fight. Her comrades had to forcibly evacuate her.

A Bolshevik of German settler background, she became the first woman to head a Soviet government as acting leader of Ukraine's People's Secretariat in 1917. In Swiss exile she opposed Lenin on the national question; later she signed the Left Opposition's Declaration of 46. She died in 1925 after years of incurable illness.

Career timeline
  • 1901Joined RSDLP; active in Bolshevik faction after the 1903 split
  • 1907–1911Underground revolutionary work in Kyiv; secretary of the Kyiv Committee
  • 1912–1914Arrested, exiled to Siberia, escaped via Japan and the US to Switzerland
  • 1914–1917Swiss exile; opposed Lenin on the national question in the 'Baugy group'
  • 1917.04–07Chair of South-Western Regional Party Committee; VI Party Congress delegate
  • 1917.12–1918.03Acting head, People's Secretariat of Ukraine; People's Secretary of Internal Affairs
  • 1918–1919Chair of Penza Party Committee; political commissar on Caspian-Caucasus Front
  • 1923–1924Joined the Left Opposition; signed the Declaration of 46

Vasily Vladimirovich Schmidt

Василий Владимирович Шмидт
Soviet Union Soviet communism Soviet German 1886–1938 ✕ Executed

The labour commissar who steered the statification of Soviet trade unions

Arthur Ransome met him soon after his December 1918 appointment and described "a clean-shaven, intelligent young man, whose attention to business methods is reflected in his Commissariat"; Schmidt said the commissariat was controlled directly by the unions.

Born in Saint Petersburg on 17 (29) December 1886, the son of a domestic servant, and listed as German in the Russian-language biography. He joined the RSDLP in 1905 as a railway fitter, worked as a painter in German emigration from 1907 to 1911, and from 1915 served as secretary of the Petrograd committee. After February 1917 he was secretary of the Petrograd Party Committee and the Central Council of Trade Unions and a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, and was appointed People's Commissar for Labour in November 1917, serving until 1928. He was Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of People's Commissars from 1928 to 1930; arrested in January 1937, sentenced to death by the Military Collegium on 28 January 1938 and shot the same day, and rehabilitated on 30 July 1957.

Career timeline
  • 1905Joined RSDLP; railway fitter
  • 1907–1911Exiled in Germany; worked as a painter
  • 1912–1914Secretary, Petersburg Union of Metalworkers
  • 1915–1916Secretary, Petrograd Committee of RSDLP(b); repeatedly arrested
  • 1917.02–10Secretary of Petrograd Party Committee & Central Trade Union Council; member of Milrevcom
  • 1917–1918Deputy People's Commissar for Labour, RSFSR
  • 1918–1928People's Commissar for Labour (RSFSR, then USSR from 1923); Presidium member & secretary, AUCCTU
  • 1928–1930Deputy Chairman, Sovnarkom & STO USSR
  • 1930–1931Deputy People's Commissar for Agriculture, USSR
  • 1931–1933Chief Arbitrator, Sovnarkom USSR
  • 1933–1937Chairman, Primorye Regional Planning Commission; local economic posts