Lenin’s oldest friend and most principled adversary
In 1918 Martov published an exposé revealing that Stalin had been expelled from the party in 1907. Stalin sued him for libel, and the revolutionary tribunal sentenced Martov to 'public censure.'
He built Iskra alongside Lenin, then split with him in 1903 over a single clause on party membership and led the Mensheviks. After October he stayed, fighting to keep a legal opposition alive, and in 1920 was permitted to leave. He died of tuberculosis in Berlin. It is told that the dying Lenin asked after him.
Career timeline
- 1895Co-founds the Petersburg League of Struggle with Lenin
- 1900–1903On Iskra; leads the Mensheviks after the split
- 1914–1917Anti-war internationalist
- 1917–1920Leads the Menshevik Internationalists; tries legal opposition
- 1921–1923Founds the Socialist Courier in Berlin
Gallipoli commander who led the national movement and founded the Republic of Turkey as its first president
Born in Salonica, he joined the Young Turk movement and made his name defending Gallipoli in the First World War. After the defeat he landed at Samsun in May 1919 to organise the national movement against occupation, and in 1920 convened the Grand National Assembly in Ankara. With gold and arms from the Bolshevik government he defeated the Greek army, and the Treaty of Lausanne recognised the victory. In these years the ethnic cleansing of Anatolia’s Armenians and Greeks was completed through massacres, deportations and population exchange. He abolished the sultanate in 1922 and in 1923 became the first president of the republic, pursuing secularising reforms and Turkification under one-party rule. He died in 1938.
Career timeline
- 1915Commander of the 19th Division at Gallipoli
- 1919Landed at Samsun and organised the national movement
- 1920Speaker of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara
- 1921–1922Victories at the Sakarya and Dumlupınar
- 1923–1938First president of the Republic of Turkey
Eastern Front commander of the Turkish War of Independence who invaded Armenia in 1920 and imposed the Treaty of Alexandropol
Born in Istanbul in 1882, he graduated at the top of his class from the Ottoman Military College and fought at Gallipoli, at Kut and on the Caucasus front in the First World War. Joining Mustafa Kemal’s national movement, he commanded the Eastern Front in the War of Independence. He invaded Armenia in September 1920 and took Kars and Alexandropol; during the campaign his army displaced and massacred tens of thousands of Armenian civilians. He signed the Treaty of Alexandropol in December and the Treaty of Kars in 1921. In 1924 he founded the Progressive Republican Party, the first opposition party, which was closed; elected speaker of the Grand National Assembly in 1946, he died in office in 1948.
Career timeline
- 1915Commander of the 14th Division at Gallipoli
- 1918Commander of the 15th Army Corps, Erzurum
- 1920Invasion of Armenia; signed the Treaty of Alexandropol
- 1921Signed the Treaty of Kars
- 1924–1925Founder and leader of the Progressive Republican Party
- 1946–1948Speaker of the Grand National Assembly
