People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 27 Government and administration 17 Monarchs and royalty 4 Military command 32 Security, intelligence and policing 6 Economy, finance and planning 3 Industry and production 2 Agriculture and land policy 2 Ideology and propaganda 2 Social movements and organizing 27 Scholarship and theory 23 Science and technology 3 Literature and arts 10 Religion 4 Law and justice 8
Affiliation

Most people

Any Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 1

All 1 affiliations

Russia

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 1
Position
Any Imperial establishment and White movement 1
Citizenship
Any Russia 2
Background
Any Russia 2
Era(set)
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The old regime and its challengers1905–1917 2 The revolutionary generation1917–1940 4 People of the Stalin era1929–1953 43 People of the thaw and the stagnation1953–1985 39 The last generation1985–1991 15

People of the wider world

The revolutionary wave and the world war1917–1945 4 The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 3
Industry and production The old regime and its challengers 1905–1917 Clear all

Alexander Ivanovich Konovalov

Александр Иванович Коновалов
Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) Imperial establishment and White movement Russia Russia 1875–1949 ○ Natural causes

The capitalist who gave his workers a nine-hour day and built the Progressive Bloc to challenge the autocracy

On 16 May 1917, addressing the congress of military-industrial committees, he warned: "Anti-state tendencies, masking their true essence under a slogan hypnotizing the masses, are leading Russia in giant strides toward catastrophe."

One of Russia's largest textile magnates, he was a pioneering industrialist who introduced a nine-hour working day, worker housing, schools, and hospitals as early as 1900. As founder of the Progressist Party and Deputy Chairman of the Fourth Duma, he organized the Progressive Bloc during World War I, making himself the parliamentary opposition's central figure against the tsarist autocracy. After the February Revolution he served twice as Minister of Trade and Industry in the Provisional Government and, as Kerensky's deputy premier, chaired the cabinet meeting that was arrested at the Winter Palace on the day of the October Revolution. He spent his later decades in French emigration as chairman of Milyukov's newspaper Последние новости and a leading voice of left-liberal émigré politics.

Career timeline
  • 1897–1905Heads family textile firm; introduces 9-hour day, worker housing, schools, hospital in 1900
  • 1905–1912Co-founds Trade-Industrial Party; deputy chairman, Moscow Stock Exchange Committee
  • 1912–1914Co-founds Progressist Party; IV Duma deputy (Kostroma); Deputy Chairman of the Duma
  • 1915–1917.02Deputy chair, Central Military-Industrial Committee; organizes Progressive Bloc; Duma Provisional Committee
  • 1917.03–05Minister of Trade and Industry (first cabinet); resigns over labour-capital dispute
  • 1917.09–10Deputy PM and Trade Minister; chairs last cabinet meeting, arrested at Winter Palace, 25 Oct
  • 1918–1940Émigré in France; chairman of Последние новости; leads left-liberal émigré organizations
  • 1941–1949Resides in US; returns to Paris; dies 1949

Nikolai Pavlovich Shmit

Николай Павлович Шмит
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) Russian Empire Russian 1883–1907 ✕ Suspicious death in prison

The young furniture-factory heir whose plant became the heart of the Presnya uprising

Arrested and taken to the Semyonovsky regiment camp, Shmit was stood against a wall and threatened with execution on the spot; broken by days of sleep deprivation and interrogation, he finally confessed.

Heir to a Moscow furniture factory who threw himself into the 1905 Revolution, turning his plant into an arsenal, hospital, and morgue for workers' fighting squads and providing the material base for the Presnya armed uprising. He introduced a nine-hour workday and wage increases, and gave 20,000 rubles to the RSDLP for arming the workers. Arrested after the December uprising was crushed, he was tortured and died under suspicious circumstances in Butyrka prison; his inheritance of about 280,000 rubles became a critical financial foundation for the Bolsheviks.

Career timeline
  • 1902Father's death; inherited the furniture factory
  • 1904Came of age, assumed full control of the factory
  • 1905Introduced 9-hour workday and wage rises; gave 20,000 rubles to RSDLP; turned factory into a revolutionary stronghold
  • 1905.12Presnya uprising: factory served as arsenal, hospital and morgue, destroyed by Semyonovsky regiment artillery
  • 1905.12.18Arrested, tortured and threatened with execution
  • 1907.02.13Died under suspicious circumstances in Butyrka prison