In Defence of Lenin Glossary
Adler, Victor (1852-1918) — Austrian politician, a leader of the labour movement and founder of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SDAP).
Akimov (Makhnovets), Vladimir, Petrovich (1872-1921) — Social-Democrat, prominent adherent of Economism. A leader of the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad; came out against the Emancipation of Labour Group and afterwards against Iskra. After the Second Congress of the RSDLP he became a spokesman of the extreme right wing of Menshevism.
Alekseyev, Mikhail Vasilyevich (1857-1918) — Imperial Russian Army general during the First World War and the Russian Civil War. Between 1915 and 1917 he served as Tsar Nicholas II’s Chief of Staff of the Stavka, and after the February Revolution was its commander-in-chief under the Russian Provisional Government from March to May 1917. He later played a principal role in founding the Volunteer Army in the Russian Civil War. Died of heart failure while fighting the Bolsheviks in the Volga region.
Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix) (1872-1918) — Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England. Became Tsarina in 1894 by marriage to Tsar Nicholas II. In her last years she became involved in the Rasputin scandals. Executed with husband and family 1918.
Alexinsky, Grigory Alexeyevich (1879-1967): Moscow Bolshevik in the early days. Social-Democratic member of Second Duma of 1907. ‘Otzovist’ after the 1905 Revolution and social-chauvinist in the war. Joined Plekhanov’s Yedinstvo Group during the revolution. After July, a counter-revolutionary. Author of forgeries against Lenin as a German agent. In emigration since April 1918. Joined the counter-revolutionary organisation of General Wrangel.
Andreyeva, Maria Fyodorovna, stage name of Maria Fyodorovna Yurkovskaya (1868 –1953) — Russian/Soviet actress and Bolshevik administrator. Joined RSDLP around 1900 and married Maxim Gorky in 1903. Commissar of Theatres and Public Shows in Petrograd from 1918-21.
Anet, Claude, real name Jean Schopfer (1868 1931) — French writer, journalist and tennis player. Wrote La Révolution Russe after a trip to Russia during the First World War.
Antonov-Ovseenko, Vladimir Alexandrovich (party aliases ‘Bayonet’, ‘Nikita’, literary pseudonym A Gal) (1883-1938) — Joined the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP in 1905. Returned to Russia in 1917 and joined the Bolsheviks. Returned to Petrograd in October 1917 and was appointed secretary of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. After the Bolsheviks seized power, he was appointed to the Military Committee of Sovnarkom. In charge of revolutionary forces in Ukraine and southern Russia. Head of the Political Directorate of the Red Army in 1922. Backed Trotsky in 1922. In 1937 he was arrested and shot at the Kommunarka shooting ground.
Archimedes (c. 287 – c. 212 BC) — Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor.
Aristotle (384–322 BC) — Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.
Armand, Inessa Fyodorovna (Inessa) (1874-1920) — Joined the RSDLP in 1904; Bolshevik; in emigration from 1909; delegate to Zimmerwald conference 1915; returned to Russia 1917; head of Bolshevik Women’s Department (Zhenotdel) from 1918; organised international Communist women’s conference 1920; died of cholera.
Avilov, Boris Vasilievich (1874-1938) — Member of the United Social-Democrat Internationalists. Wanted to bring together the Menshevik-Internationalists and moderate Bolsheviks into a new group; certain influence through the editorial line of their widely-read newspaper Novaya Zhizn in 1917-18. At the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets in October 1917 the group remained at the congress; the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries walked out in protest over the Bolshevik seizure of power.
Axelrod, Pavel Borisovich (1850-1928) — Established a socialist group of students in Kiev after being influenced by the writings of Bakunin. 1877 he joined the Land and Liberty. After it split, Axelrod and Plekhanov established the Black Repartition group that rejected terrorism and supported a socialist propaganda campaign amongst workers and peasants. Went with Plekhanov to Switzerland; in 1883 they established the Liberation of Labour group.
Bakunin, Mikhail (1814 – 1876) — Chief propagator of 19th-century anarchism, a prominent Russian revolutionary agitator, and a prolific political writer. His quarrel with Karl Marx split the anarchist and Marxist wings of the revolutionary socialist movement for many years after their deaths.
Balabanoff, Angelica (1878-1965) — Born in the Ukraine, exposed to radical ideas as a university student in Brussels. Settled in Rome. A leader of the Italian Socialist Party and then the Italian Social Democrats. Continued to stay closely in touch with the Russian revolutionary movement and served on the executive committee of the Union of Women Socialists. Worked with Clara Zetkin on women’s congresses. Soon after 1917 returned to Russia where she served as secretary to the International in 1919. Later became a critic of Bolshevism and returned to Italy. Exiled in Switzerland after the rise of fascism. Edited the Paris Avanti! in 1928.
Balfour, Arthur James (1848-1930) — Conservative Party prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1902-5; foreign secretary between 1916-19.
Baron Ungern-Sternberg, Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von (Roman) (1886-1921) — Anti-communist general in the Russian Civil War and then an independent warlord who intervened in Mongolia against China. A part of the Russian Empire’s Baltic German minority. An ultraconservative, antisemitic, monarchist who aspired to restore the Russian monarchy after the 1917 Russian Revolutions and to revive the Mongol Empire under the rule of the Bogd Khan. 1921, led the Asiatic Cavalry Division, to expel Chinese troops from Mongolia and restore the monarchic power of the Bogd Khan. Imposed order on the capital city, by fear, intimidation and brutal violence against his opponents, particularly the Bolsheviks. In June 1921, he travelled to eastern Siberia to support anti-Bolshevik partisan forces and to head off a joint Red Army-Mongolian rebel invasion. That action ultimately led to his defeat and capture two months later. He was taken prisoner by the Red Army, put on trial and executed.
Bebel, August (1840-1913) — Worker and Marxist revolutionary. Bebel co-founded the German Social-Democratic Party with Wilhelm Liebknecht in 1869. Member of the Reichstag from 1867. Sentenced with Liebknecht to two years imprisonment for “treason” 1872. Merged with the Lassalleans to form Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany (SAPD) in 1875. During the repression under the terms of the Anti-Socialist Laws, Bebel became the leading figure of the social democratic movement in Germany, and from 1892 until his death served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Beer, Moses (Max) (1864-1943) — London correspondent of Vorwärts and Die Neue Zeit, the publications of the German Social-Democrats. Marxist economist, journalist and historian.
Bernstein, Eduard (1850-1932 ) — German Social Democrat; left Germany during the anti-Socialist laws and edited Sozial Demokrat in Switzerland. Expelled from there in 1888, lived in London till 1900. He was a friend of Engels and was named his literary executor. Reichstag Deputy in 1902-1906, 1912-1918,1920-1928. A pacifist-centrist during World War I. Founder of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USID) 1916, but returned to the Social Democratic Party in 1919. 1896 chief exponent of revisionism and reformism. Editor and author of Evolutionary Socialism, 1899. Rejoined the SPD after the war, helped to draw up their programme in the post-war period.
Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold von (1815-1898) — Promoted German unity for the benefit of the House of Prussia and the Junkers. Chancellor of the German empire from its foundation in 1871 until 1890. Nicknamed the ‘Iron Chancellor.’
Blanc, Louis (1811-1882) — French socialist politician, journalist and historian. After the Revolution of 1848 he became a member of the provisional government.
Blanqui, Louis Auguste (1805-1881) — Revolutionary Socialist. Condemned to death in 1840, however his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Released by the 1848 revolution. Blanqui leant towards violent measures, something illustrated in 1870 by two unsuccessful armed demonstrations. Seized power on the 31st of October, afterwards condemned to death. A few days after, the insurrection which established the Commune broke out, and Blanqui was elected a member of the insurgent government.
Blumenfeld, Tsvetov (1865-) — Social-Democrat and active member of the Emancipation of Labour Group. Subsequently joined the Iskra organisation. A compositor by trade, he was the manager of the printing-press and transport department in the Emancipation of Labour Group and Iskra. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. in 1903 he joined the Mensheviks.
Bobrovskaya (Zelikson), Cecilia Samoilovna (Lenochka) (1876-1960) — Joined the RSDLP in 1898. Sided with the Bolshevik faction. She was an agent of Iskra and performed other underground work in various cities throughout Russia. She was involved in the Serpukhov and Moscow party committees during 1917, and participated in the October Revolution. 1919-1920, led the military affairs council of the Bolshevik Party’s Moscow branch. Worked for the Comintern between 1918-1940. Member of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. Wrote the memoir Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik, documenting her role in the revolutionary movement from 1894 to 1914.
Bogdanov, A. (Malinovsky, Alexander Alexandrovich, Werner, Maximov, Rakhmetov, Ryadovoi, Sysoika) (1873-1928) — Social-Democrat, philosopher, sociologist, economist. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. in 1903, he aligned himself with the Bolsheviks. Afterwards headed the Otzovists and was leader of the Vperyod anti-Party group. Expelled from the ranks of the Bolsheviks in 1909. After the October Revolution, he became one of the organisers and leaders of the Proletkult movement.
Bonaparte, Napoleon (1769-1821): France’s great post-revolutionary general and Emperor 1804-1815.
Napoleon I, Bonaparte (1769-1821) — Born in Corsica; educated, largely in military schools in France. Joined the French army in 1785, but took part in the Corsican uprising, an offshoot of the French revolution, i n 1789. Joined the republican Army in 1793, although had already turned against the Jacobins during the bloody purges of 1792. Supported the government of the day, both Montagne and Thermidor. Organised the suppression of the Paris insurrection against the Convention in 1795; promoted to General 1796. Military victory in Italy and Egypt brought him popular support; intervened in the crisis of the Directory through a coup d’etat on 18th Brumaire (November 9th 1799), establishing himself as First Consul, then Consul for Life and finally Emperor. Carried out a series of military campaigns which consolidated the bourgeois revolution in France and led to the final breakdown of feudalism in the rest of Europe.The invasion of Russia proved his downfall. Exiled to Elba 1815; escaped and returned to France but defeated by Wellington at Waterloo. Imprisoned on St.Helena where he died.”The essence of Bonapartism consists in this: basing itself on the struggle of two camps, it ‘saves’ the ‘nation’ with the help of a bureaucratic-military dictatorship’. (Trotsky)
Bordiga, Amadeo (1889-1970) — Joined Italian Socialist Party in 1910; led Communist-Abstentionist faction after the First World War; head of CP from its formation in 1921 to 1926; opposed Comintern’s United Front policy; 4WC delegate; member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International between 1922-28; jailed with Gramsci 1926-30; defended Trotsky 1928; expelled 1930; led a small anti-Stalinist Communist current until his death.
Brailsford, Henry Noel (1873-1958) — British left-wing journalist and writer. Went to Russia in 1920 and again in 1926. He published two books on the subject.
Brandler, Heinrich (1881-1967) — Joined the SPD in 1902; central figure in Chemnitz labour movement from 1914; early member of the Spartacus League; co-founder of German CP; convicted and imprisoned for role during March Action; escaped and went to Moscow November 1921; worked for RILU; central leader of CP 1921-3; made scapegoat for defeat of German workers in 1923; expelled as ‘rightist’ 1929; led Communist Party (Opposition) [KPO] 1929-33; in exile 1933-49; active in Arbeiterpolitik [Workers’ Politics], successor group of KPO, from 1949.
Brassilov, Mexil Alexeyevich (1853-1926) — Czarist General. Led invasion of Galicia 1915-1917. Commander-in-Chief under the Provisional Government between June and July 1917, replacing Alexeyev. Commanded the July offensive. Replaced by Kornilov. Joined the Red Army in 1920. Retired in 1924.
Bruce Lockhart, Sir Robert Hamilton (1887-1970) — British diplomat, journalist, author, and secret agent. His 1932 book Memoirs of a British Agent became an international bestseller and brought him to the world’s attention by telling of his failed effort in 1918 to covertly back a regime change in Revolutionary Russia by assassinating Lenin as a prelude to a coup d’etat.
Bubnov, Andrei (1883-1940) — Bolshevik. 1909 Bubnov was made an agent of the Central Committee, and contributed to Pravda. In 1916 he was arrested and exiled to Siberia. Returned to Moscow after the February Revolution. Elected to the Politburo, and was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Political commissar on the Ukrainian Front in the Red Army. After the war became a member of the Left Opposition. 1924, supported Stalin and was appointed Head of Political Control of the Red Army. Elected to the Central Committee as People’s Commissar for Education. Arrested in 1937. Shot at Kommunarka shooting ground.
Buchanan, Sir George W. (1854-1924) — British ambassador to Russia 1910-1918. Encouraged British intervention against the Bolsheviks.
Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich (1888-1938) — Old Bolshevik, member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau, and author of a number of important theoretical works. Joined the party in 1906. Member of the Moscow Regional Committee in 1908 and chairman of the Bolshevik faction in the Duma. In 1911, after his third arrest, he escaped abroad. He held an internationalist position during the first World War and was arrested in Sweden for anti-militarist propaganda. Made his way to New York in 1916 where he participated with Trotsky in editing the Russian newspaper Novy Mir. After the February revolution returned to Russia and was elected to the Central Committee at the Sixth Party Congress in July 1917. Editor of Pravda after October. A Left Communist at the time of the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, he co-edited their factional journal Kommunist. From 1923 to1927, worked hand in hand with Stalin in the struggle against the Left Opposition; when, in 1928, Stalin broke his coalition with the Right Wing (Bukharin-Rykov and others), he was demoted to a candidate member on the Central Committee, and was removed in 1929 as the editor of Pravda and from his post as chairman of the Comintern. He was removed from the Political Bureau in November 1929. Upon capitulating to Stalin he was assigned to educational work for several years, until 1933 when he was appointed the editor of Izvestia. Expelled from the Party in 1937. He was finally framed and murdered by Stalin in the last of the notorious Moscow Trials in March 1938.
Bullitt Jr., William Christian (1891-1967) — American diplomat, journalist, and novelist. He is known for his special mission to negotiate with Lenin on behalf of the Paris Peace Conference. First U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union;U.S. ambassador to France during World War II.
Burns, John (1858-1943) — Trade union organiser and exponent of ‘Lib‐Labism’. Burns was born in London. Despite little education he became an engineer, and involved himself in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. An accomplished orator, he was one of the organisers of the London dock strike of 1889. In 1884 Burns had joined the Social Democratic Federation, and acquired a reputation as a socialist militant. But by the 1890s he had broken both with Marxism and with trade unionism, supporting instead the furtherance of working‐class interests within the Liberal Party. Elected as an independent Labour MP for Battersea in 1892, in 1905 he accepted office as president of the Local Government Board in the Liberal administration. Burns resigned from the government in 1914, apparently in protest against war with Germany.
Burtsev, Vladimir Lyovich (1862-1942) — Active in revolutionary student movement from early 1880s; arrested and exiled to Siberia 1885; escaped 1888 and went into exile; close to SRs during 1905 revolution; left Soviet Russia 1918 and became leader of White counter-revolutionaries in exile.
Caesar, Gaius Julius (100 BCE-44 BCE) — Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.
Carr, E.H. (1892-1982) British historian, diplomat, journalist. Best known for A History of Soviet Russia, a 14-volume history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1929.
Chernov, Victor Mikhailovich (1876-1952) — Entered politics in the early 1890s. One of the leaders and theoreticians of the Social-Revolutionaries. Emigré 1899-1917. He Participated in the Zimmerwald anti-war Conference. He was the Minister of Agriculture in the Provisional Government May-September 1917 and sanctioned severe repression against peasants who seized landed estates. He was the Chairman in the Constituent Assembly in 1918. After the Revolution he organised anti-Soviet risings and emigrated in 1920.
Chernyshevsky, Nikolay (1828-1889) — Author of the novel ‘What is to be Done’, written whilst incarcerated in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Leading theoretician of Narodniks.1872-1883 exiled to Siberia.
Chkheidze, Nikolai Sesnenovich (1864-1926): Georgian Menshevik. Member of the 3rd and 4th Dumas. Member of the Provisional Committee of Duma. 1st Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet in 1917. He became Chairman of the Central Committee of All-Russian Soviets, as well as chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia in 1918. He emigrated in 1921, afterwards retiring from politics. He committed suicide in 1926.
Cliff, Tony (Ygael Gluckstein) (1917-2000) — Born in Palestine. He became a Trotskyist during the 1930s, moved to Britain and adopted the pseudonym Tony Cliff. In the late 1940s he developed the theory that Russia wasn’t a workers’ state but a form of bureaucratic state capitalism. Excluded from the Fourth International in 1950. Theoretician of British Socialist Workers Party.
Connolly, James (1868-1916) — Born in Scotland; active in the socialist movement in Edinburgh in the early 1890s. He emigrated to Ireland in 1896 and founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party. In 1902 he emigrated to the U.S, becoming a member of Socialist Labour Party (U.S.) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1903. He founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York in 1907 before returning to Ireland in 1910 as organiser for The Socialist Party of Ireland. He became the Commandant of the Irish Citizen Army in 1914 and Commandant General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Republic in 1916. He was executed following the 1916 Uprising.
Frederiks, Count Vladimir (1838-1927) — Minister of the Household and Imperial Court between 1897 and 1917. Having a close relationship with Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, he was responsible for the administration of the Imperial family’s personal affairs and living arrangements, as well as the awarding of Imperial honours and medals.
Panina, Countess Sofia Vladimirovna (1871-1956) — Member of the Kadet party and Central Committee. Vice Minister of State Welfare and Vice Minister of Education in the Provisional Government following the February Revolution 1917. Tried for appropriating the funds of the Ministry of Education after the October Revolution. In 1918, she joined General Denikin in South Russia. In 1919, she represented Denikin in an attempt to get further support from allies for the White Russians.
Marcus Licinius Crassus (115 – 53 BC) was a Roman general and statesman; given special command of the war against Spartacus; played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier; leader of the English bourgeois revolution of the 1640s. Without him, the Revolution would have been betrayed by the big bourgeoisie who continually sought an accommodation with the Crown. It is no accident that Cromwell has been described as the Lenin of the English bourgeois revolution.
Dan, Fyodor Ilyich (1871-1947) – Leading Russian Menshevik. Member of the praesidium of the Petrograd Soviet and a defencist. Hostile to the Bolshevik Revolution. Exiled from Russia in 1922. Afterwards, he lived in Germany and the United States, writing for various Menshevik publications, and in his later years moved towards Stalinism.
Danielson, Nikolai Frantsevich (1844-1918) — Russian socio-political figure, economist, publicist, and one of the theoreticians of liberal populism. Famous for his translations of Das Kapital by Marx.
Danton, Georges Jacques (1759-1794) Right-wing Jacobian leader in the French Revolution. 1790 helped found the revolutionary Cordeliers Club. Assistant procurator Revolutionary Paris Commune. 1792, after insurrection and downfall of the monarchy, appointed Minister of Justice. Undertook the organisation and leadership of the defence of revolutionary France. 1793 Reign of Terror. 1794 came out openly and firmly against the supporters of the Terror. Under the pressure of Robespierre, Danton and his supporters were arrested on March 31, 1974 and accused of dealings with the Girondists and of embezzling state funds. 1794 Danton and his closest sympathisers were guillotined.
Darwin, Charles (1809-1882) — English naturalist who, through the use of dialectics, created the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection. Formulated his theory 1837–39, after returning from a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle. On the Origin of Species published in 1859.
Eugene Victor Debs (1855-1926) — American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.
Leo Deutsch, real name Lev Grigorievich (1855-1941) — Joined a Narodnik group at the age of 18. In 1878 he was a founding member of Black Repartition in St Petersburg. In 1883 he became a founding member of the Marxist Emancipation of Labour group. He was present as an observer at the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903 where he sided with the Menshevik faction. Later, he took part in the publication and distribution of Iskra and Zarya. During the 1905 Revolution he returned to Russia but was arrested and imprisoned. In 1917 he returned to Petrograd where he adopted a “defencist” position during the rule of the Provisional Government and supported Russia’s war efforts. He did not support the October Revolution. After the death of Plekhanov in 1918 he withdrew from political activity.
Deutscher, Isaac (1907 – 1967) Trotskyist historian. Joined the Polish Communist Party in 1926. Broke with the party in 1932 on account of its policy on Germany. London in 1939, as a journalist with The Economist. Wrote on the life of Leon Trotsky; including The Prophet Armed in 1952, The Prophet Unarmed in 1959 and The Prophet Outcast in 1963. In 1948 he wrote a biography of Stalin.
Dreyfus, Alfred (1859-1935) — French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarising political events in modern French history. The incident has gone down in history as the Dreyfus affair, the reverberations from which were felt throughout Europe. It ultimately ended with Dreyfus’ complete exoneration.
Dubrovinsky, I. F. (1877-1913) — Bolshevik; after the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P in 1903 he was co-opted on to the C.C. In 1905 he was one of the organisers and leaders of the armed uprising in Moscow. At the Fifth (London) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. he was elected to the C.C. In 1908 he became a member of the editorial board of Proletary.
Dzerzhinsky, Felix (1877-1926) — Founder of the Polish Social Democratic Party. He was active in the Polish and Russian revolutionary movements. Joined Bolshevik party and played an active role in the October Revolution. After the Russian Revolution he headed the Cheka from its formation in December 1917, and the Supreme Council of National Economy from 1924. He later became a supporter of Stalin. Died of a heart attack.
Eastman, Max (1883-1969) — Born in New York, journalist and writer. In 1912 became editor of the left literary journal The Masses and later The Liberator. In 1922 he went to the Soviet Union. Early supporter of the Left Opposition. Translated several of Trotsky’s books. In the 1940’s he became anti-communist and a supporter of Joe McCarthy.
Eberlein, Hugo (1887-1944) joined SPD in 1906; opposed war in 1914. Member of Spartacus and KPD central committees. Was a delegate to First Congress of Third International, and played a leading role in the Comintern as a supporter of Brandler. He was exiled after 1933 to the USSR, where he was arrested by the GPU during Moscow purge trials. He was supposed to have been handed over to Hitler by Stalin in 1940, but died in prison.
Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925). SPD leader, collaborator of Bebel. Supported chauvinist position during war; Imperial Chancellor in 1918; chairman of Council of People’s Representatives November-December 1918-19; worked with army to crush January rising; president of Germany 1919-25.
Eisenstein, Sergei Mikhailovich (1898-1948) — Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. He was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1928), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958).
Essen, Maria Moiseyevna (1872-1956) — Social-Democrat. Joined the revolutionary movement in the early eighteen nineties. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. she sided with the Bolsheviks and was co-opted onto the Central Committee in 1903. In 1906 she became a member of the Moscow Committee. During the period of reaction (1907–10) retired from active political life.
Father Gapon, Georgy Apollonovich (1870-1906) — Russian Orthodox priest and a popular working-class leader before the 1905 Russian Revolution. Led a peaceful protest for better freedom and living conditions to which the Imperial Army responded by firing upon the crowd; he was discovered to be a police informant and murdered by members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Fedoseyev, Nikolai Yevgrafovich (1871-1898) — Studied at Kazan Gymnasium, where he began studying the writings of Marx. Became a leading figure in revolutionary circles in Kazan, whose members included Lenin, who was a first year student at Kazan University and Aleksei Peshkov (Maxim Gorky). 1889 arrested after police discovered an illegal printing press that he had organised. 1892, settled in Vladimir, made contact with other Marxists, and helped organise a strike in a factory owned by the Morozov family. He was arrested again in 1892; he and Lenin exchanged letters while he was in Vladimir prison. In 1895 he was sent to Siberia. He later committed suicide.
Fels, Joseph (1853-1914) — American soap manufacturer, millionaire, and philanthropist. Gave money to the Russian Social Democratic Party.
Feuerbach, Ludwig Andreas von (1804-1872) — German anthropologist and philosopher. Member of the “Young Hegelians”. Wrote The Essence of Christianity. His thought was influential in the development of historical materialism, where he is often recognised as a bridge between Hegel and Marx.
Fineberg, Joseph (Joe) (1886–1957) was a prominent translator for the Communist International. He produced English translations of works by Bogdanov, Lenin, Tolstoy and others. Joined the Jewish Social Democratic Organisation, a section of the British Socialist Party (BSP). 1918, moved to Russia. Became a translator for the Communist International and joined the Bolshevik British Communist Group in Russia. 1919, was a consultative delegate from the British Communist Group at the Founding Congress of the Comintern in Moscow. Wiki
Fischer, Ruth (1895-1961) – Born Elfriede Eisler. Joined Austrian Social Democrats aged 19; first member Austrian CP, 1918. After moving to Berlin, led ultra-left opposition. Head of KPD 1924-5, expelled 1926, when she formed the Leninbund. Later became anti-communist.
Herbert Trevor Fitch (Constable) (1876-1935) Before joining the London Metropolitan Police, served in Durban and Johannesburg Police. Special Branch detective from 1905 to 1924. 1914 took part in anti-spy work. Wrote Traitors Within: Adventures in the Special Branch, Scotland Yard.
Foerster, Otfrid (1873–1941) German neurologist and neurosurgeon. Soviet government invited him to be Lenin’s personal physician after his strokes; lived in Russia from 1922 to 1924.
Fotieva, Lydia Alexandrovna (Nekrasova) (1881-1975) — Joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1904. In 1904-05 she worked in the Russian Bolshevik section abroad, assisting N. K. Krupskaya in handling the correspondence with underground organisations in Russia. She was a participant in the first Russian revolution of 1905-07 and the October 1917 Revolution. From 1918, she was the Secretary of the Council of People’s Commissars and the Council of Labour and Defence, and simultaneously secretary to Lenin.
Frumkin, Moisei Il’ich (1878 –1938) Member of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP in 1903 and of the Northwestern Committee in 1905 and 1906. 1907 he undertook party work in the Baku trade unions and in 1909 became chairman of the Moscow Central Bureau of Trade Unions. In 1911 he was exiled to Enisei Province. After the February Revolution of 1917, Frumkin engaged in party work in Krasnoiarsk; in December of that year he became a member of the Presidium of the Krai Economic Council of Western Siberia. From 1918 to 1922 he served as a member of the collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Foodstuffs of the RSFSR and as a deputy people’s commissar for foodstuffs; at the same time he served on the administrative board of the Central Cooperative Alliance and was a member of the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(B), the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, and the Southeastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(B). From 1922 to 1929, Frumkin served as deputy people’s commissar for foreign trade of the USSR and deputy people’s commissar of finance. From 1928 to 1930 he took part in the rightwing deviation in the ACP(B). After serving as deputy people’s commissar of foreign trade from 1932 to 1935, he engaged in administrative work. Frumkin was a delegate to the Tenth and Fifteenth Party Congresses.
Gallacher, William (Willie) (1881-1965) — Scottish trade unionist, activist and communist. He was one of the leading figures of the Shop Stewards’ Movement in wartime Glasgow (‘Red Clydeside’) and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He served two terms in the House of Commons as the last Communist Member of Parliament.
Galperin, Lev Yefimovich (Konyagin Valentin) (1872-1951) — Social-Democrat; joined the revolutionary movement in 1898. While in exile, he established contact with Iskra and was sent to Baku as its agent in the spring of 1901, where he worked at setting up the Baku Committee of the RSDLP, and an illegal printing press. He helped in organising the transportation of illegal literature from abroad and its distribution in Russia. After the Second Congress of the RSDLP, he joined the Bolsheviks and for a time represented the editorial board of the Party’s Central Organ on the Party Council. He was afterwards co-opted to the Central Committee. Adopted conciliatory attitude towards Menshevism and was against convening the Third Congress of the Party. He retired from active political work in 1906.
Alexeyev, Mikhail Vasilevitch (1857-1918) — Czarist General. Chief of Staff under Nicholas II, 1915-17. Commander-in-Chief under Provisional Government 1917. Dismissed by Kerensky 1917. Founder of counter-revolutionary Volunteer Army 1918.
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich (1872-1947) — Russian tsarist general; a leader of White Army during the civil war; emigrated 1920.
Kornilov, Lavr Georgevich (1870-1918) — Siberian Cossack. Commander of the South Western Front in 1917. Replaced Brusilov as Commander-in-Chief under the Provisional Government, July 1917. He was arrested on 14th September, after an attempt at counter-revolutionary uprising. Escaped later and led a Volunteer Army. Killed in action.
Krasnov, Pyotr Nikolayevich (1869-1947) — Russian military leader and writer. Served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and later led anti-Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War. After the civil war, he lived in exile. During World War II, Krasnov collaborated with the Germans who mobilised Cossack forces to fight against the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Following the end of the war, Krasnov was repatriated and executed by the Soviet authorities.
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin) ( c.1162–1227) was the founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire, which he ruled from 1206 until his death in 1227; it later became the largest contiguous empire in history. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns, conquering large parts of China and Central Asia.
Gorky, Maxim (1868-1936) — Russian novelist; Bolshevik supporter and financial backer during struggle against tsarism. He had a tense relationship with Soviet Russia under Lenin and lived abroad between 1921-8.
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856-1929) — Russian general in World War I. He was briefly recognised as the Emperor in 1922 in areas controlled by the White Armies movement in the Russian Far East.
Grant, Ted (1913-2006) — See https://www.tedgrant.org for full biography.
Grimm, Robert (1881-1958) — Leader of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party, in 1909-18 was its secretary and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Berner Tag-wacht. From 1911 a Member of Parliament. Attended the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences. Was Chairman of the International Socialist Commission and one of the organisers of the Centrist (2 ½) International.
Guchkov, Alexander Ivanovich (1862-1936): Moscow landowner and industrialist. Founder and leader of “Octobrists” 1905. President 3rd Duma. Minister of War and Navy, March-May 1917. Resigned 31st May 1917. Counter-revolutionary. Emigrated to Berlin.
GUSSEV, Sergei Ivanovich (1874-1933). The pseudonym of Y.D. Drabkin. Old Bolshevik;. A member of the Social Democratic movement from its inception; joined the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1896; became a Bolshevik in 1903. A professional revolutionary, arrested many times. Secretary of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee in 1917, and commander in the Red Army during the Civil War; opposed Trotsky in the Eastern Front dispute of 1919. Elected to Central Committee in 1923 through his support for the Stalinist faction; from 1928 until his death worked on the Executive Committee of the Comintern. Prominent re-writer of military history in favour of Stalin.
Hansen, Arvid Gilbert (1894 – 1966)—1910 joined the Norwegian Social-Democratic Party. 1923 the communists in the Labour Party broke away to form the Communist Party, Hansen became a leading figure. Edited the magazine Proletaren, then the newspaper Norges Kommunistblad. 1929 Arbeideren. 1931 Moscow. 1936 returned to Norway to edit Arbeidet. 1940 to 1945 exiled in Sweden. 1949 excluded from the Communist Party.
Haase, Hugo (1863-1919) – SPD member of Reichstag 1897; co-chair of SPD 1911-16; opposed voting for war credits in 1914 but did so under discipline of parliamentary group; voted against war credits 1916; co-chair of USPD 1917. A member of Council of People’s Representatives November-December 1918, he – was assassinated by a monarchist in 1919.
(1770 – 1831) German philosopher of the first part of the nineteenth century. His outstanding achievement was the systematisation of the dialectic character of development in nature and in society.
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797 – 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. Heine’s later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Marx was an admirer of Heine and his early writings show Heine’s influence. He spent the last 25 years of his life in Paris.
Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715 – 1771) French philosopher.
HENDERSON, Arthur (1863-1935) – Right-wing Labour Politician. General organiser of the Friendly Society of Iron founders from 1902; an active Liberal he supported the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1906, becoming a Labour MP. Member of the National Executive of the Labour Party until his death. In 1914 strongly supported Britain’s part in the war and army recruitment; Minister in Lloyd George’s Wartime Cabinet. In 1917 he went to Russia to persuade the ProvisionalGovernment to uphold the Entente with Britain, but soon afterwards had to resign from the Cabinet for supporting the Stockholm Conference. Prime mover in rejecting the affiliation of the Communist Party to the Labour Party in 1920. Home Secretary in the 1924 Labour Government and thereafter Chief Whip. Foreign Secretary in the 1929 government. Helped to revive the reformist Second International in the 1920s. Strong supporter of MacDonald, he was the only member of the Executive to vote against his expulsion from the party in 1931. Chairman of abortive Geneva disarmament conference 1932-35.
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812 –1870) – Writer and revolutionary democrat in the middle of the 19th century, founder of Russian Narodnikism (Populism). In the reign of Tsar Nicholas 1, exiled to London where he issued the famous revolutionary magazine Kolokol (The Bell), the first emigre Russian newspaper.
Hilferding, Rudolf (10 August 1877 – 11 February 1941) was an Austrian-born, physician Marxist economist, politician and the chief theoretician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. Wrote Finance Capital.
Hitler, Adolf – 1889-1945. Leader of NSDAP, the Nazis.
John Atkinson Hobson (1858 – 1940) English economist and social scientist. Best known for his writing on imperialism, and his theory of underconsumption. The Manchester Guardian correspondent in Second Boer War. Began to form the idea that imperialism was the direct result of the expanding forces of modern capitalism. He believed the mine owners, led by Cecil Rhodes, wanted control of the Transvaal. Accordingly, he believed they manipulated the British into fighting the Boers so that they could maximise their profits from mining. 1919, Hobson joined the Independent Labour Party and wrote for socialist publications such as the New Leader, the Socialist Review and the New Statesman.
Hoffmann, Carl Adolf Maximilian (1869 – 1927). German military strategist. At the end of 1917, he negotiated with Russia to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (1723 –1789), known as d’Holbach, was a Franco-German philosopher, encyclopedist and writer. Born Paul Heinrich Dietrich.
Joffe, Adolf (1883 – 1927) Involved in revolutionary activity while a student in the late 1890s. Joined Social Democratic Party in 1903. 1904 smugged political propaganda to Baku. Moscow during the 1905 Russian Revolution. Exiled to Berlin before being expelled from Germany in 1906. Edited Pravda with Trotsky. 1912 was arrested and exiled to Siberia. 1917 escaped from Siberia and made his way to Petrograd. He was elected to the Petrograd Soviet and the Bolshevik Central Committee. During the October Revolution Joffe was the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee. Went with Trotsky as a member of the Russian delegation at Brest-Litovsk. Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Joined Left Opposition. Committed suicide.
Zelda Kahan (1886 – 1969) British communist. Born in Russia, forced to emigrate. Joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), elected to executive. Joined Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
Kaledin, Alexel Maximovich (1861-1918): Czarist General, Commander 8th Army. Dismissed May 1917. Elected Ataman of Don Cossacks and led counter-revolutionary armies. Suicide February 1918.
Kalinin, Mikhail Ivanovich (1875 – 1946) He served as head of state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946. From 1926, he was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Kamenev, Lev Borisovich (1883-1936) Leading bolshevik, nominated by Lenin as the executor of his will. Member of the Central Committee from 1917. Joined the Social Democratic party while a student in Moscow in 1901, arrested at a demonstration and expelled from university the following year. Went abroad, becoming a Bolshevik in 1903. Returned to Russia and worked in St Petersburg 1905-1907; rearrested 1908 and again emigrated. Married to Olga Davidovna Kameneva, Trotsky’s sister. In 1914 was sent back to Russia to work as editor of Pravda, and to lead the Bolshevik faction in the Duma. Arrested with Duma faction in 1914 and exiled in 1915. Opposed the insurrection of October 1917; took no governmental posts initially but headed the Moscow Party Committee. At the Second Soviet Congress, elected head of State. Lenin’s Politbureau deputy. From 1923-25, together with Stalin and Zinoviev, formed the anti-Trotsky ‘Troika’; he and Zinoviev broke with Stalin and went over to the Opposition, becoming with Trotsky, the main leaders of the Joint Opposition. Expelled from the party at the 15th Congress in 1927. Capitulated to Stalin the following year. Expelled again in 1932, arrested and sent to Siberia; brought back to Moscow in 1933. After the assassination of Kirov in December 1934 was again arrested, charged with inspiring the crime, and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Sentenced to death in 1936 at the first of Stalin’s Moscow Trials, and shot in the same year.
Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804): German idealist philosopher.
Kautsky, Karl (1854-1938) – One of the leading theoreticians of the Social Democratic Party and the Second International. By the outbreak of the First World War, he had abandoned revolutionary Marxism and took up an indecisive position between revolutionary opposition to the war and patriotic support for the German bourgeoisie. As such he became the theoretician of ‘centrism’ in the socialist movement, and a bitter opponent of the Russian Revolution.
Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton (1895 – 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and director,] best known for his silent film work
KERENSKY, Alexander Fyodorovich (1881-1970) – Lawyer, member of the Social-Revolutionary party in 1917; elected a deputy to the Fourth Duma in 1912. After the February revolution of 1917 which overthrew the Tzar, became the outstanding representative of petty-bourgeois conciliationism: first Minister of Justice, then War Minister. Headed the Provisional government from July to October 1917, when he fled the country. “Kerenskyism” has become the term for a transitional period between bourgeois democracy and the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship.
Keynes, John Maynard (1883-1946) English economist, journalist, and financier, best known for his “”Keynesian economics”” and theories on the causes of prolonged unemployment. The Economic Consequences of the Peace after the Versailles peace treaty negotiations. His most important work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1935-36), advocated a remedy for economic recession based on a government-sponsored policy of full employment.
Kolchak, Alexander V. (1873-1920) Vice-Admiral in command of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, later supreme ruler and commander-in-chief of Siberia.
Kollontai, Alexandra Mikhailovna (1872-1952) Joined RSDLP 1899; cooperated with Mensheviks from 1906; specialised in work among proletarian women; lived in emigration 1908-17; joined Bolsheviks 1915; returned to Russia 1917 and became member of Bolshevik CC and editor of its women’s journal; commissar of social welfare after October Revolution; head of Women’s Section of Central Committee 1920-2; leader of Workers Opposition 1921-2, giving report on its behalf to Third World Congress; subsequently worked in Soviet diplomatic service until her death.
Kornilov, Lavr Georgevich (1870-1918): Siberian Cossack. Commander South Western Front 1917. Replaced Brussilov as Commander-in-Chief under Provisional Government, July 1917. Arrested 14th September, after attempt at counter-revolutionary uprising 7th-l2th September. Escaped later and led Volunteer Army. Killed in action April 18, 1918.
Krymov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich (1871 – 1917) was a Russian Imperial Lieutenant General, a military commander of, World War I, and the Russian Revolution era. Shot himself.
Nadai Konstantinovna (1869-1939) – Lenin’s companion, played a large role in the illegal organisation of the Bolshevik Party. Met Lenin when active in workers’ education circles, was exiled to Siberia with him and there married.Main field of activity was education. After Lenin’s death, participated in the Joint Opposition between 1925-1926; under extreme pressure, capitulated to Stalin.
Krylenko, Nikolai Vasilievich (Abram, Abramchik) (1885- 1938) Joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1904. Active participant in the October Revolution. Was in the first Soviet Government as member of the Committee for Military and Naval Affairs, later Supreme Commander-in-Chief. From 1918 held posts in the Department of Justice. Appointed State Prosecutor in 1928, and acted as prosecutor in the first three show trials. Shot in 1938.
Krzhizhanovsky, Gleb Maximilianovich (Brutus, Travinsky) (1872-1959)—joined R.S.D.L.P. 1893; an organiser of St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Member of Organising Committee for convening the Second Congress; elected to C.C. Took an active part in the revolution of 1905-07. After October Revolution worked on development of Moscow’s power economy; headed the State Commission for the Electrification of Russia (GOELRO).
Kugelmann, Ludwig (1830-1902) —German Social-Democrat, friend of Marx, participant in the 1848-49 revolution in Germany, member of the First International. From 1862 to 1874 carried on a correspondence with Marx, whom he kept informed of the state of affairs in Germany. Marx’s letters to Kugelmann were first published in 1902 in Die Neue Zeit; in 1907 they were published in Russian with a preface by Lenin.
Kun, Bela (1886-1939) Joined Hungarian Social Democrats aged 16; joined Bolsheviks while prisoner of war in Russia; founded Hungarian CP 1918; head of Hungarian Soviet government March-June 1919. In exile in Russia, became Red Army commissar; supporter of ultra-left group, he was sent to Germany 1921 and inspired March Action. Worked in Comintern apparatus until 1937; arrested and killed without trial during Moscow frame-ups.
Kuprin, Aleksandr Ivanovich (1870 – 1938). Russian writer best known for his novels The Duel (1905) and Yama: The Pit (1915), as well as Moloch (1896), Olesya (1898), “Captain Ribnikov” (1906), “Emerald” (1907).
Kuznetsov, N. V.—see Sapozhkov, N. I.
Lafargue, Paul (1842 1911) born in Cuba. Follower of Proudhon. Became a Marxist after meeting Marx and Engels at the First International. Married Marx’s daughter, Laura Marx. One of the founders of the Marxist wing of the French Workers Party. After the fall of the Commune he fled to Spain. Committed suicide in 1911.
Larin, Yuri Aleksandrovich (1882 – 1932), born in Simferopol as Mikhail Aleksandrovich Lurie. Joined RSDLP in 1900. Arrested 1903 escaped, returned to Russia. 1906 wrote A Broad Labour Party and a Labour Congress which Lenin replied in depth. Joined Bolsheviks in 1917. Held several government posts. Larin was an outspoken critic of Trotsky and the Left Opposition.
Lashevich, Mikhail (1884-1928) 1901 joined the Social Democratic Labour Party. Joined Bolshevik faction. Conscripted into the Russian Army during WW1. Active in the Petrograd Soviet and helped plan the capture of the Winter Palace and the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Senior commander in Red Army during Civil War. 1923 elected to Central Committee, critical of Stalin and sent to Harbin to act as chairman of the Chinese Eastern Railway. 1927 expelled from the Party, together with other Trotskyists. 1928 recanted and party membership was restored.
Lassalle, Ferdinand (1825-1864) Participant in 1848-9 revolution in Germany; founder and first president of General German Workers Association 1863; campaigner for suffrage and workers’ rights; killed in duel; followers joined with Marxists in 1875 to form Socialist German Workers Party, predecessor of SPD.
(1823 – 1900): developed Populist theory of peasant movements; edited Vperyod (‘Forward’).
Lazimir, Pavel Evgen’evich (1891 – 1920) Prominent Left Socialist-Revolutionary, he later joined the Bolsheviks and headed a soldier section of the Petrograd Soviet and was the Chairman of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee during the October Revolution. Prior to being elected to the Petrograd Soviet, he served as a physician assistant at the Petrograd military hospital.
Ledebour, Georg (1850–1947). Teacher, actor, then journalist. Reichstag deputy, pre-war radical, centrist during war, hostile to Bolsheviks and Spartacists. 1915 stood on the moderate wing at Zimmerwald. Member of USPD in 1917 and its Berlin organisation in 1918, leader of circle of revolutionary stewards. Joint Chairman of Revolutionary Committee in January 1919, charged with high treason, accused of putschism by Communists. Broke with USPD Left in 1920 on question of joining Comintern. Stayed in USPD in 1920, returned to SPD in 1922.
Levi, Paul (1883-1930) Member of SPD from 1906; revolutionary opponent of war; worked with Lenin in Switzerland during war; member of Spartacus League and KPD central committee, central leader after Jogiches’s murder in 1919. Opposed ultra-left 1919, president of VKPD 1920; he resigned in 1921 and was expelled for publicly denouncing the March Action in 1921. Joined USPD 1922, then SPD, where he organised a left opposition until his death.
Leviné, Eugen (1883-1919) Took part in 1905 Russian revolution as Social Revolutionary. Joined SPD, then USPD, then Spartacus League during war; leader of KPD. Reorganised Bavarian CP 1919; leader of second Bavarian council republic. Executed by Social Democratic government after its overthrow.
Lieber, M.I. (Mikhail Issakovich Goldman) (1885-1937): Leader of Jewish Bund. Exiled and escaped several times. Later joined Mensheviks and was a close associate of Dan. As Member Central Executive Committee of Soviets, favoured Coalition. Anti-Bolshevik. Shot in 1937. ewish Bund at 2nd congress.
Liebknecht, Karl (1871-1919) Founder of the German communist movement. In 1914, together with Luxemburg, Mehring and Zetkin, he publicly opposed the Social Democratic Party’s support for the war. Organised the Spartacus League from 1915 and expelled from the SDP parliamentary group the following year. Imprisoned for anti-war agitation. Freed from prison by the 1918 revolution; inspired by October, he fought for the immediate transfer of power to the Soviets formed by the German working class; led the Berlin uprising of January 1919 and on its suppression by the German Social Democratic government, was arrested and assassinated by a squad of counter-revolutionary officers given free rein by Ebert and Noske.
Lloyd-George, David (1863-1945): Liberal Welsh MP since 1890. Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908-1915. Minister of Munitions 1915-1916. Secretary of State for War 1916. Premier 1916-1922. Co-author of Versailles Treaty and active anti-Soviet interventionist.
Lomov (Oppokov), Georgy (1888-1938) Supported Lenin’s position prior to his return to Petrograd in 1917. After the Revolution, he became Commissar for Justice in the Council of People’s Commissars. Member of the Bolshevik Party Central Committee and the Supreme Council of National Economy. Resigned all his government and party posts after Brest-Litovsk. In the 1920s, became for a time a member of the Left Opposition. In 1921-23, he was based in Siberia, as a member of the economic council. In 1923, he was appointed head of the Oil Syndicate. 1927 Central Committee. 1931-34 deputy head of Gosplan. 1937 arrested, 1938 shot. Mia/wiki
Louis XIV (1638 – 1715), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715.
Ludendorff, Erich Friedrich Wilhelm (1865 –1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. Following his appointment as First Quartermaster-general in 1916, became the chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship that dominated Germany for the rest of the war. Organised the sealed train, which Lenin and others returned to Russia in 1917. Brest-Litovsk. Later contributed to the Nazis’ rise to power.
Lukomsky, Alexander Sergeyevich (1868 – 1939) was a Russian military commander, General Staff, Lieutenant-General (April 1916). He fought for the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War and was one of the organisers of Volunteer army during the Russian Civil War.
Lunacharsky, Anatolii Vasilevich (1875-1933) – intellectual of considerable stature. Joined the Social Democratic movement in 1890’s, becoming a Bolshevik after the split and carrying out journalistic work in the Party press. Came into conflict with Lenin after 1908, belonging to the group of so-called ‘God-seekers’ (Bogatsvo). After February revolution returned to Russia and rejoined the Bolsheviks as a member of the Inter-District tendency; named People’s Commissar for Public Instruction from 1917-1929. Totally demoralised by the Stalinist degeneration, accepted post of Soviet diplomatic representative in Spain in 1933.
Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919) Joined movement in Poland in 1887; exiled in 1889; leader of SDKP (Polish Social Democrats); joined SDP in Germany 1898; on Second International bureau from 1903; leader of left wing against revisionist right and, after 1910, against Kautskyist group; leading revolutionary opponent of war; founder of Spartacus group. In prison for most of the war, she became the chief writer for Die Rote Fahne November 1918-January 1919. Founder and leader of the KPD; she opposed the call for the January rising, although this was not reflected in her articles. Her arrest was ordered by the Social Democratic government for her participation in the uprising, and she was brutally murdered by the SDP-instigated Freikorps at the same time as Liebknecht.
Lyadov (Mandelshtam), Martyn Nikolayevich (Lidin, M. N., Mikhail Mironovich, Rusalka) (1872-1947)—at the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (1903) an Iskrist of the majority, after the Congress an agent of the C.C. Took an active part in the revolution of 1905-07. In 1907-10 adhered to the otzovists; in 1909 a member of the anti-Party Vperyod group and a lecturer at the Capri factional school. After the February Revolution of 1917 took a Menshevik stand. In 1920 was reinstated in membership of the R.C.P.(B.)
Makhno, Nestor Ivanovychwas (1888–1934) Industrial worker, guerrilla leader, anarchist. Took part in 1905 revolution. Arrested in 1908, released by the February Revolution; returned to Ukraine Founded Black Army. Built this into a fighting force of up to 15,000 soldiers. 1919, inflicted a heavy defeat on General Denikin in Unam, He refused to integrate his forces into the Red Army and eventually they were broken up by the Soviet government. Mia/bk
Maklakov, Vasily Alekseyevich. (1869-1970): Moscow landowner and leading lawyer. Right Wing Cadet. Member 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dumas. Ambassador of Provisional Government to Paris. Emigré.
Marchlewski, Julian ( Karski and Johannes Kämpfer) (1866–1925). Born in Poland dye-worker. Underground activist in 1888, emigrated, took part in formation of Polish Social-Democratic Party with Luxemburg. Member of Spartacist nucleus, imprisoned during 1916–18, freed as Russian citizen abroad at request of Soviet government, returned February 1919 and advised Commission of the Nine in the Ruhr. Escaped, returned to Russia, then to Poland, where he was in leadership of Communist Party. Declined offer in 1921 of leading position in KPD. Settled in Moscow, leader of Workers’ Relief International. Broue
Martov, Yuri Osipovich (L, J.G. Tsederbaum, Julius, Alexei, Berg, Gamma, Martushka) (1873-1913): The ideological leader of menshevism; began his political career in 1895 working with Lenin in the St Petersburg ‘League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Classes’; collaborated in founding Iskra but broke with Lenin in 1903 on the question of the party rules. At the time of the October Revolution he held a ‘left’ position in the Menshevik ranks, remaining in the Second Congress of the Soviets after the Right SRs and Mensheviks had departed. He was nonetheless an irreconcilable opponent of the Soviet order. Permitted to emigrate, he went to Berlin and founded Sotsialistichesky Vestnik, the central publication of the Mensheviks in emigration.
William McLaine (1891–1960) was an engineer, Marxist and trade union activist. Joined British Socialist Party (BSP) and was elected to its central committee in 1918. Attended 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, representing the BSP which shortly afterwards became part of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Whilst in Moscow McLaine was appointed to the Provisional International Bureau and the Executive Committee of Kultintern. Resigned from it in 1929..
Maclean, John(1879 – 1923) Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist of the Red Clydeside era. Arrested for opposition to World War I. 1918 arrested for sedition. Formed the Scottish Workers Republican Party and a Scottish Communist Party. 1918 was elected to the chair of the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets and appointed Bolshevik consul in Scotland
Meakin, Walter (1878-1940) Born in Newthorpe, Nottinghamshire. After working for the Midland Railway from 1894 to 1903 he became a journalist and from 1905 to 1911 he was in charge of the Leeds edition of the ‘Yorkshire Observer’. Took a leading role in the founding of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), serving on its executive committee from 1908, running its employment bureau and holding the post of wages secretary up to 1918. In 1920 he became the union arbitrator, securing the award to London journalists of their first minimum wage (£4 per week). In March 1923 he was elected NUJ president. In 1911 he joined the ‘Manchester Guardian’. In March 1913 he helped to avert a threatened railway strike through an interview with a sacked railway guard called Richardson which was published in the ‘Manchester Guardian’ and other papers. Between 1913 and 1921 he made frequent visits to Ireland to cover events including the Easter Rising 1916 for the ‘Manchester Guardian’ and ‘Daily News’. In 1917 he joined the ‘Daily News’ in London as labour and industrial correspondent. In 1918 he also acted as the parliamentary correspondent. In 1920 he visited the Soviet Union as a journalist accompanying the Trades Union Congress British Labour Delegation. In 1927 he made a tour of German coalfields for the ‘Daily News’, and in 1928 the book resulting from this visit, ‘The New Industrial Revolution’, was published. He left the ‘Daily News’ when it is taken over by the ‘News Chronicle’, moving to the publicity department of the Labour Party. From June 1931 until his death he was secretary of the Press Fund. He died on 17 September 1940. Biography by Stephen Musgrave, 2008
Mekhonoshin, Konstantin Aleksandrovich (1889-1938). Was Deputy People’s Commissar for Military Affairs in 1918. Died in arrested in November 1937 and executed at the Kommunarka shooting ground. as a result of the purges
Mehring, Franz (1846-1919) Became German radical democrat in 1870s, sympathetic to Lassalleanism; won to Marxism and joined SPD 1891; chief editor of Leipziger Volkszeitung 1902-7; a leading contributor to Die Neue Zeit; author of History of German Social-Democracy and biography of Marx; close collaborator of Rosa Luxemburg from 1912; founding member of Spartacus current 1914-15, and CP 1918.
Nikolai Mikhailovsky (1842-1904) developed the political theory of ‘critical populism’ (looked to peasant commune to provide a form of small-scale democracy in opposition to large scale industrialism; opposed both the terrorists and Marxists; writings had an influence in the right wing of the SR party.
Miliutin, Vladimir Pavlovich see Milyutin, Vladimir Pavlovich
Milyukov, Pavel Nikolayevich (1859- 1943)—leader of the Cadet Party, ideologue of the imperialist bourgeoisie, deputy to the Third and Fourth Dumas. In 1917 Foreign Minister in the first cabinet of the bourgeois Provisional Government
Milyutin, Nikolay Alexandrovich, (Miliutin) (1889 – 1942) was a Russian trade union and Bolshevik activist, participant in the October Revolution in Petrograd and Soviet statesman and architect. After the revolution held various executive appointments related to social security, urban and central planning and finance; reaching that of Commissar of Finance of the RSFSR in 1924–1929.
Milyutin, Vladimir Pavlovich (sometimes transliterated as Miliutin) (1884 – 1937) was a Russian Bolshevik leader, Soviet statesman, economist and statistician who was People’s Commissar for Agriculture in the original soviet government formed on the day of the Bolshevik Revolution, and later director of the Central Statistical Administration.MiA
Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (1890-1986) (Scriabin) – old Bolshevik, started his political career when at school in Kazan. Arrested at the age of 19 and, exiled for two years, returning to St, Petersburg where he worked in Bolshevik organisations and newspapers. In 1914, when working illegally in Moscow was arrested and again exiled, returning illegally to Petrograd in 1916 to lead the Bolshevik organisation together with Shlyapnikov. Published Pravda, from which he was sacked after Stalin and Kamenev returned from Siberia. Held several Party posts before being elected to the Central Committee in1920 and rejoining the Stalinist faction. Rose to become Party Secretary in 1921, member of Politbureau in 1924, and President of the Comintern during the ultra-left ‘Third Period’ policy of Stalin. Succeeded Litvinov as People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs in1939; negotiated Nazi-Soviet pact, returned to post of First Deputy Prime Minister in 1949. Opposed Khruschev’s so-called ‘destalinisation’ policy and was expelled from the CC in 1957 as a member of the ‘Anti-Party group’. Made ambassador to Outer Mongolia; expelled from the Party in1961.
Monatte, Pierre (1881-1960). Entered politics as an anarchist, founded revolutionary syndicalist La Vie Ouvrière. French delegate to Zimmerwald. Editor at l’Humanité. After October 1917 joined the PCF. Expelled in 1924 for his opposition to Stalinism. Returned to revolutionary syndicalism. 1930 member of Committee of 22 for Labor Union Unity. This caused break with Trotsky.
Muranov, Matvei Konstantinovich (No. 5) (1873- 1959)— joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1904. Deputy to the Fourth Duma from the workers of the Kharkov gubernia, member of the Bolshevik Duma group. From 1917 to 1934 held Party posts.
Mussolini, Benito (1883-1945) Initially socialist; editor of SP’s Avanti 1912; switched to chauvinist, pro-war position and was expelled from SP 1915; founded Fascist movement 1919; organised Fascist war against workers’ movement; prime minister from October, 1922; became Europe’s first Fascist dictator; executed by resistance forces.
See Bonarparte, Napoleon
NAPOLEON III, Louis B. (1808-1873) – Nephew of Bonaparte, gained the imperial throne on the crest of French bourgeois reaction after the 1848 revolution. Basing himself on the financial and industrial capitalists, he supported reaction in other countries; attempted to colonise Mexico but ended in débâcle, seized N. African territory. During his rule the corruption of bourgeois democracy was graphically revealed (see K. Marx, The I8th Brumaire).
Neratov, Anatoly Anatolyevich (1863 – 1938) was a Russian diplomat and an official of the Russian foreign ministry. He was deputy to five foreign ministers of the Tsarist and the Provisional Government. During the Russian Civil War Nerotov advised the “White” movement.
See Grand Duke Nicholas
Nogin, Viktor Pavlovich (1894-1926) Central Committee member of the Bolsheviks. In 1910, responsible for setting up an illegal Bolshevik organisation in Russia. Opposed calling for the overthrow of the Provisional Government, and resigned from both the Central Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars, subsequently supported Lenin’s policy for an insurrection. 1917 member of first Council of People’s Commissars, and People’s Commissar for Commerce and Industry.
Noske, Gustav (1868-1946) Right wing SPD leader; member of Council of People’s Representatives 1918-19; minister of war in Social Democrat governments December 1918-March 1920; organised suppression of January 1919 uprising; resigned after the Kapp putsch and became president of province of Hanover until dismissed by Nazis in 1933; imprisoned twice by the Nazis, once in 1939 and once after Generals’ Plot.
James Bronterre O’Brien (1805 – 1864) was an Irish Chartist leader, reformer and journalist.
Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (1882-1960) 1903 Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). 1906 prison sentence for her political activities. 1914 expelled WSPU (Suffragettes) when they turned from a socialist programme. Joined Labour Party. 1921 attended Second Congress of the Communist International where she identified with the Left.
Pannekoek, Anton (1873-1960) Joined Dutch Social Democratic Workers Party [SDAP] 1899; helped found De Tribune 1907; expelled from SDAP and was founding member of left-wing SDP 1909, which became CP in 1918; theoretician of left-wing communism and of German KAPD; his current broke from Comintern 1921; worked with ultra left groups in Netherlands and US; prominent astronomer
“Parvus, Alexander Helphand (1869 – 1924) (Israel Lazarevich Gelfand)
Prominent Marxist theoretician in Russia and Germany; reached conclusions similar to Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution. Trotsky broke with him in 1914 when Parvus became a leader in a pro-war (WWI) sect of the German Social Democracy. In 1917 he failed to reconcile the German party with the Bolsheviks and later the Independent Socialists with the Ebert-Noske leadership. “
Dmitry Pavlov Skilled worker and employed at factories in Petrograd. Made the acquaintance of Maxim Gorky. Took part in the 1905 revolution in Nizhny Novgorod, and formed fighting detachments there to combat forces sent to quell the workers. Later involved in the Russian revolutionary movement. During the war part of the Vyborg District Committee of the Bolshevik Party. (Dr James D. White. Glasgow University)
Pestkowski, Stanisław (1882 – 1937) was a Polish Bolshevik active in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1917, he went to Russia where he became Commissar for Telegraphs in the Bolshevik government. From 1917 he People’s Commissariat of Nationalities. He was a delegate to the Second Congress of the Communist International held in August 1920. From 1919 to 1920 Secretary of the Kirghiz Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1924 to 1926 he was Soviet ambassador to Mexico. He disappeared in Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937.
Petlyura, Symon (1879-1926), One of the founders of the Ukrainian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party in 1905. Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People’s Army (UNA) Elected head of military in Ukrainian People’s Republic after the 1917 February Revolution. 1917 the Germans occupied Ukraine and established a puppet government. When the Germans withdrew at the end of the war, Petlyura assumed a leading role in Ukraine’s movement for independence, becoming commander in chief of the Ukrainian army. Petlyura’s government then had to confront hostile Soviet Russian armies as well as forces of the anti-Bolshevik White Russians. When the White armies, which had occupied Ukraine and replaced Petlyura’s government at the end of 1918, withdrew in the autumn of 1919, Ukraine fell under Soviet authority.To overthrow the Soviet regime. Concluded a treaty of alliance with Józef Piłsudski, head of the Polish state, in April 1920 and supported the Poles in their war against Soviet Russia (Russo-Polish War of 1919–20). Although the Poles repulsed the Soviet army, they were unable to secure independence for Ukraine when they concluded the Treaty of Riga with the Bolsheviks 1921. Ukraine subsequently remained under Soviet control, and Petlyura, after spending some months in Warsaw, moved with his government to Paris, where, several years later, he was fatally shot in revenge for the deaths of Jews during pogroms staged by members of Petlyura’s army.
Platten, Friedrich (Fritz) (1883-1942)—Swiss Left Social-Democrat, one of the organisers of the Swiss Communist Party. In April 1917 rendered great assistance in arranging Lenin’s return journey to Russia from Switzerland. In 1919 took part in founding the Third, Communist International, was a member of the Comintern Bureau. In 1921- 23 secretary of the Swiss Communist Party. From 1923 onwards lived in Russia. Arrested 1938. Shot.
Plekhanov, George Valentinovich (1856-1918): Founder of Russian Marxism. Emigré since 1883. Edited Iskra and Zarya. During the Revolution opposed the Bolsheviks. Edited Yedinstvo and headed the Group. Died in Finland.
Podvoisky, Nikolai Ilyich (1880 – 1948) 1913 Organised smuggling of Bolshevik literature into Russia. 1917 co-opted onto the Petrograd Bolshevik committee, head of the Bolshevik Military Organisation. One of People’s Commissar for Defence, replaced by Trotsky in 1918.1920 Chairman of the Supreme Council of Physical Culture.1924-30, member of the Central Control Commission.1935 he was retired.
Polovstev, P.: Colonel, later General. Military Governor of Petrograd under the Provisional Government. Crushed the July uprising.
Potresov, Alexander Nikolayevich (A. N. Arsenyev, New Acquaintance, Starover) (1869- 1934)—in the nineties aligned with the Marxists. Took part in founding Iskra and Zarya. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. he became a leader of the Mensheviks. After the October Revolution emigrated
Preobrazhensky, Yevgeny (1886-1937)—Born in Russia; economist; joined RSDLP 1903; Bolshevik; alternate member CC 1917; full member 1920; headed CP committee on finances and led transition to New Economic Policy 1921; critic of Stalinist economic policy and a leader of Left Opposition in CP 1923-28; expelled 1927 and exiled to Siberia 1928; readmitted 1930; expelled again and arrested during Stalin frame-up purges 1933 and 1936; refused to confess and was shot.
Prince Lvov, Georgy Yevgenyevich (1861–1925)—Constitutional Democrat (Kadet); first prime minister of Russian Republic from March to July 1917. Led the Provisional Government after the February Revolution led after abolition of the Russian monarchy.
Prince Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy (1790 –1860)—was one of the organisers of the Decembrist movement declared the group’s leader on the eve of the December uprising in 1825; failed to appear, and instead sought refuge in the Austrian embassy.
Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev (c. 1742 – 1775)—was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks and the leader of the Pugachev’s Rebellion, a major popular uprising in the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great.
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799 –1837)—Russian poet, playwright, and novelist.
Pyatakov, Yuri Leonidovich (1890-1937)—Joined RSDLP 1910; lived in Switzerland and then Sweden 1914-17; after October Revolution member of government of soviet Ukraine; became deputy head of State Planning Commission 1922 and then deputy chairman of Supreme Council of National Economy; member Left Opposition 1923-7; capitulated 1927; condemned at Moscow frame-up trial and executed. communists
Quelch, Harry (1858-1913)—a prominent leader of the British and international labour movement. Delegate to a number of international congresses of the Second International, member of the International Socialist Bureau. Active trade unionist. Editor of Justice, and manager of the Twentieth Century Press in Clerkenwell. Helped in organising the printing of Iskra (1902-1903).
Salvador Seguí Rubinat (1887 – 1923), known as El noi del sucre (“the sugar boy” in Catalan) for his habit of eating the sugar cubes served him with his coffee, was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions. Secretary General of the CNT in Catalonia in 1918. Assassinated by gunshot at the hands of gunmen working for the Catalan employers’ organisation under protection of Catalonia’s Civil Governor, Martínez Anido.
Radek, Karl (1885-1939) Born in Austrian Poland; joined revolutionary movement in Austrian Poland before 1905; a leader of left wing of Polish and German workers’ movement; internationalist during War, collaborator of Lenin and supporter of Zimmerwald Left during War; joined Bolsheviks 1917; member of Bolshevik CC 1917-24; vice-commissar for foreign affairs 1918; Bolshevik and Soviet emissary to Germany 1918-19; member ECCI 1920-4 and its Presidium 1921-4; reporter at Third World Congress; with Trotsky, a leader of Left Opposition in Russian CP and Comintern from 1923; expelled and exiled 1927; capitulated 1929; Soviet journalist 1930-7; arrested 1936; convicted in Moscow trial 1937; killed by police agent in prison
RAKOVSKY, Christian Georgievich (1873-1941) – Old revolutionist, one of the leaders of the Left Opposition. From 1885 prominent in the social-democratic movement in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, France and Rumania. Became close friend of Trotsky. Took an internationalist stand in the First World War, one of the Zimmerwald Left, for which he was imprisoned. After the October revolution, was chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars for the Ukraine and carried out important work in consolidating Soviet power. Appointed Soviet ambassador to Britain in 1923 and to France in 1925, returning to Russiain 1927. As a leading Left Oppositionist, was expelled from the Party at the 15th Congress and deported to Astrakhan, then to Barnaul; was recaptured after an escape attempt. After 6 years exile, finally capitulated to Stalin in 1934, only to be framed in the Third Moscow Trial of 1938 and condemned to 20 years hard labour. Died in imprisonment in 1941.
F F Raskolnikov (Fyodor Fyodorovich Ilyin) (1892-1943) a Bolshevik militant from the days of illegality, member of the party’s military organisation, a naval officer in the Baltic fleet during the war, a leader of the Kronstadt Soviet in 1917, jailed under Kerensky following the July days, and a fighter in October. Later represented the USSR in Afghanistan and elsewhere. [Author of a notable ‘open letter’ denouncing Stalin as a traitor to the revolution, published in 1939]; died in exile in 1943. Wrote Tales of Sub-Lieutenant Ilyin and Kronstadt and Petrograd in 1917
Rasputin, G. Y. (1872-1916) A peasant mystic who acquired a strong influence over the Tsarina of Russia between 1911 and 1916. Much envied, suspected of being a German agent, and successful in obtaining high state office for his nominees, in 1916 he was assassinated by a group of aristocrats led by Prince Yusupov
Razin, Stepan(1630 – 1671), known as Stenka Razin, was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and tsarist bureaucracy in southern Russia in 1670–1671
John “Jack” Silas Reed (1887–1920) American journalist, poet, and communist activist; war correspondent during the Mexican Revolution and World War I for. Covered October Revolution in Petrograd; Ten Days That Shook the World in 1919.; supported the Soviet takeover of Russia, even briefly taking up arms to join the Red Guards in 1918. He hoped for a similar Communist revolution in the United States, and co-founded the short-lived Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. He died in Moscow of spotted typhus in 1920 and was given a hero’s burial by the Soviet Union; one of only three Americans buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Robespierre, Maximilien (1758-1794): Leader of the Jacobins in the Great French Revolution.
Rodzyanko, Mikhail Vladimirovich (1859 – 1924) Russian reactionary politician; a large landowner and one of the leaders of the Octobrist party. Served as the chairman for the Third and Fourth Dumas. In 1917, he supported Kornilov revolt. After the October Revolution, worked to unite the counter-revolutionary groups in Russia, both foreign and local, but met with no success. He later became a White emigré.
Roland-Holst, Henriette (1869-1952) – Dutch poet and writer; joined Dutch socialist movement 1897; belonged to left wing of Social Democratic Workers Party [SDAP]; joined left-wing SDP 1916; member of Zimmerwald Left during War; founding member of Dutch CP 1918; Third World Congress delegate; left CP 1927; continued to write as socialist; active in resistance during Nazi occupation; advocate of colonial freedom until last years.
Romanovsky, Ivan Pavlovich (1877 – 1920) general in the Imperial Russian Army and one of the leaders of the counter-revolutionary White movement during the Russian Civil War. Served as chief of staff of the Volunteer Army and later the Armed Forces of South Russia.
Roosevelt, Theodore Jr. (Teddy) (1858–1919)—American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, and writer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously held various positions in New York politics, rising up the ranks to serve as the state’s 33rd governor for two years. As President, Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies. Wiki
Rosmer, Alfred (1877-1964) Proofreader; French revolutionary syndicalist; leader in France of internationalist opposition to War; French delegate Zimmerwald; member ECCI in Moscow 1920-21; leader of Left current in French CP; 4WC delegate; expelled for opposition to anti-Trotsky campaign 1924; organiser of pro-Trotsky Left Opposition 1929-31; broke with Trotsky 1931 but collaborated with him and with Movement for Fourth International after 1936.
Rothstein, Theodore (1871-1953) —Left Russia for England in 1890 where he joined the Social-Democratic Federation. Journalist for The Tribune, Daily News and The Manchester Guardian. Joined Russian Social Democratic and Labour Party as a British member in 1901, siding with the Bolshevik faction against the Mensheviks. Became a close comrade of Lenin, who often stayed at his house on Clapton Square in Hackney. 1920, returned to Russia. 1921 first soviet ambassador to Iran. From 1922 on was a member of the “Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs”. Appointed director of the Institute of World Economy and Politics in Moscow.
Rozmirovich, Yelena (1886-1953) – Member of RSDLP 1904; member Bolshevik CC by 1913; took part in international socialist women’s conference in Bern 1915; chair of investigating commission of Soviet supreme court 1918-22; held other leading posts through 1930s.
Ruge, Arnold (1802 – 1880) Young Hegelian. Editor of Hallische Jahrbücher, then published Marx’s first really comprehensive political treatise. With Marx, Feuerbach, and Bakunin, founded the newspaper Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. Broke with Marx in quarrel over Herwegh.
Rumyantsev, P. P. (Schmidt) (1870- 1925)—joined the Social-Democratic movement in 1891. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (1903) a Bolshevik, member of the Bureau of Majority Committees, dele- gate to the Party’s Third Congress. In June 1905 co-opted to the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. In 1905 an editor and contributor to the first legal Bolshevik paper Novaya Zhizn. In 1907-10 retired from political activities
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 – 1970);: son of Viscount Ambeleya; British mathematician, philosopher, logician; ‘Socialist’.
Rutgers, Sebald Justinus (1879-1961) Engineer; joined Dutch SP 1899; member left-socialist SDP from 1909; moved to U.S. during War and joined SP left; moved to Russia 1918; delegate to Comintern founding congress 1919; took part in left-communist Comintern bureau in Amsterdam 1920; 4WC delegate; headed international cooperative in Kuzbas, Siberia, 1922-26; returned to Netherlands at height of Stalin purges 1938; remained in CP until death. Masses/MIA
RYKOV, AlexeiIvanovich (1881-1938) – Old Bolshevik. Joined theRSDLP in 1900 when a student at Kazan University; arrested in 1901, from 1902 on illegal party work. Moscow delegate to the London party congress (1903); elected to the first Bolshevik Central Committee. Participated in the 1905 revolution in Moscow; arrested many times; director of Bolshevik faction in the Moscow Soviet. One of Lenin’s closest collaborators after the October Revolution. President of the Supreme Economic Council; member of the Politbureau from 1919-1929; President of the Council of People’s Commissars. Together with Bukharin and Tomsky, led the Right-wing tendency in the Politbureau which allied with Stalin after the ousting of Kamenev and Zinoviev, only to be destroyed by him in 1929. Designated a ‘terrorist’ in the First Moscow Trial of 1936 and expelled from the Party; later rehabilitated only to be framed and sentenced to death in the Third Moscow Trial. Shot in 1938.
Sapozhkov, N. I. (Kuznetsov, N. V., Nik. Vas.) (1881- 1917)—joined the revolutionary movement in 1904. At the end of 1911 emigrated to Paris.
Sapronov, Timofei Vladimirovich (1887 – 1937) was a Russian revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and socialist militant who was one of the leaders of the Left Opposition in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.1912, he learnt about the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP from reading Pravda, and created a Bolshevik group. 1916 drafted into the Russian army, for the war with Germany. Became a Bolshevik organiser. Based in Moscow during 1917, where he was a member of the military committee of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP, a delegate to the short-lived Constituent Assembly, and chairman of the provincial executive from October 1917 to December 1919. 1918, supported the Left Communists, who opposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 1920–21, chairman of the Building Workers’ Union. 1921–23, deputy chairman of the Supreme Economic Council. 1922–24 member of Central Committee. Founder of the Moscow-based group known as the Democratic Centralists, or ‘Dec-ists’. Member of the Central Executive Committee and a pall-bearer at Lenin’s funeral. Joined the Left Opposition Arrested and executed during the Great Purge.
Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich (Ropshin, V.) (1879-1925) A leader of Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party; minister in Provisional Government 1917; led armed actions against Soviet government during Civil War; organised anti-Soviet detachments in Poland 1920-21; reentered Soviet republic 1924 and died in Soviet custody. Masses/MIA
Scheidemann, Philipp (1865-1939) Joined German Social Democracy 1883; member SPD executive 1911; co-chair of Reichstag fraction 1913; social chauvinist during War; led in suppressing workers’ revolution 1918-19; German prime minister February to June 1919; forced by Nazis into emigration 1933. Masses MI
Dr Semashko, Nikolai Alexandrovich (Alexandrov) (1874-1949) —joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1893. In 1905 took an active part in the armed uprising in Nizhni-Novgorod, then emigrated. Was secretary and treasurer of the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee Bureau Abroad. At the outbreak of the imperialist world war was interned in Bulgaria. Returned to Russia in September 1917. Took an active part in the armed uprising in Moscow in October 1917. Became People’s Commissar of Public Health in 1918, and served in that role until 1930. He directed the autopsy on Lenin’s corpse. He was one of the organizers of the health system in the Soviet Union (often called the Semashko system), an academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1944) and of the Russian SFSR (1945)
SERGE, Victor (1889-1947) – Pseudonym of Kibalchich, a member of the Left Opposition. As a young man was active in the anarchist movement in Paris, was imprisoned for five years in connection with the Bonnot case. Interned in 1917, released and came to Petrograd in 1919. Edited the journal Communist International. Participated in the Left Opposition, was expelled from the party and imprisoned in 1928. Following his release, concentrated on writing novels and historical works. In 1933 was arrested again and deported to Central Asia. Released after an international campaign by literary figures, left Russia in 1936. Broke with Trotsky over the question of the Spanish Civil War, died in exile in Mexico. His many books include Memoirs of a Revolutionary, Year One of the Russian Revolution, From Lenin to Stalin, The Case of Comrade Tulayev, Birth of Our Power, and Men in Prison.
Serrati, Giacinto Menotti (1874–1926). Became Socialist activist at very young age, pioneer of Italian Socialism. Leader of maximalist wing during War, Chief Editor of Avanti in 1915, delegate to Zimmerwald and Kienthal. Arrested in 1917, supporter of break with Second International and of joining Third International from 1919. Elected at Second Comintern Congress to ECCI, resisted application of Twenty-One Conditions by his party. Remained with Italian Socialist Party after Livorno Congress. Was readmitted with some of his supporters to Comintern and Italian Communist Party in 1924, member of latter’s Central Committee until he died.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) was a British writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets; A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views.
Shlyapnikov, Aleksandr Gavrilovich (Belenin) (1885-1937) – Joined RSDLP 1901; active in European labour movement in exile 1908-14; in 1915-16 organised Bolsheviks’ Russian Bureau and travelled abroad on political assignment; member of Petrograd Bolshevik Committee during 1917; Soviet commissar of labour 1917-18; leader of Workers Opposition 1920-2; expelled from party 1933; arrested 1935 and later executed.
Shulgin, Vasily Vitalyevich (Basil) (1878 – 1976). Russian conservative politician, monarchist and member of the White movement. Wiki
Skobelev, Matvey Ivanovich (1885 – 1937) social-democrat from 1903, siding with the Mensheviks. Elected to 4th Duma in 1912. Minister of Labour in Provisional Government From May to September 1917; June 1917 elected deputy chairman of Executive Committee. Opposed to Bolshevik regime; joined Russian Communist Party (b) 1922. Worked in Soviet foreign trade system until his arrest and execution in 1938 during the Great Purge.
Skoropadskyi, Pavlo Petrovych (1873 – 1945) was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military and state leader decorated Imperial Russian Army and Ukrainian Army general. Became Hetman of all Ukraine following a coup in April 1918. During his term, the Communist Party was prohibited in Ukraine. Exiled to Germany December 1918.
Skvortsov-Stepanov, Ivan Ivanovich (1870–1928)—one of the oldest participants in the Russian revolutionary movement, a Marxist writer. Joined the revolutionary movement in 1892; 1904 joined the Bolsheviks. In 1906 a delegate to the Fourth (Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., at which he adopted a Leninist stand. In the period of reaction (1907–10) adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the Vperyod faction, but under the influence of Lenin rectified these errors. He was repeatedly arrested and exiled for his revolutionary activities. Supported the triumvirate of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev against Trotsky. Backed Stalin in 1926, was elected to the CPSU Central Committee.
Smilga, Ivar Tenisovich (1892-1938). Chairman of the Regional Committee of the Russian Soviets in Finland in 1917, and at the time of the October Revolution was the leader of the Bolsheviks in the Baltic Fleet, a confidant of Lenin. Elected to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party in April 1917 and Military Revolutionary Committee. With Tukhachevsky, led Seventh Army against the Polish Army of Pilsudski in 1921. Vice-chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy 1921 to 1928, Planning Commission 1924 to 1926. Member of the Left Opposition, reconciled with Stalin 1929. Expelled from Central Committee and Party. Arrested in 1933 and condemned as a terrorist during the first Moscow Trial.
Sokolnikov, Grigori Yakovlevich (born Hirsch Brilliant or Girsh Yankelevich Brilliant; (1888 – 1939) Bolshevik 1905. Exiled in France then Switzerland; contributed to newspaper Nashe Slovo. April 1917, passenger in sealed train which took Lenin and other Bolsheviks across Germany to Russia. July edited Bolshevik newspaper with Stalin. Delegate to Brest-Litovsk. Supervised the seizure of Russian banks, and creation of new centralised banking system. Civil War Political commissar with Army. Deputy People’s Commissar of Finance 1922. Arrested in 1936 and assassinated in prison.
Souvarine, Boris (Varine) (1895 – 1984). A founding member of the French Communist Party. Member of the Comintern. Wrote the first biography of Joseph Stalin, published in 1935. Conveyed the French Communist Party’s support for Trotsky to the Bolsheviks’ 13th Congress in 1924. He became associated with the communist opposition against Stalin. Removed from his official roles in the French Communist Party in early 1924 and was expelled by the Comintern in July. Founder of the Institute of Social History and an author, historian, publisher and journalist.
Spartacus (c. 109 BC-71 BCE) threatened the might of Rome. Spartacus was the leader (or possibly one of several leaders) of the massive slave uprising known as the Third Servile War. Under his leadership, a tiny band of rebel gladiators grew into a huge revolutionary army, numbering about 100,000. In the end the full force of the Roman army was needed to crush the revolt.
Spiridonova, Maria Alexandrovna (1884–1941). 1906, joined Socialists-Revolutionaries (SRs). Assassinated a security official. Freed from prison in 1917 after the February Revolution. Joined the left SR’s after October and sided with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Appointed head of the Peasant Section of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Soviet of Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ Deputies (VTsIK). Broke with the Bolsheviks in 1918. Shot in 1941 in Medvedev Forest massacre.
Stalin, Josef (Jugashvili), Djugashvili, Joseph Vissarionovich (Vasilyev, Koba) (1879-1953)—A Georgian who joined the Bolsheviks after the split with the Mensheviks in 1903. In 1912, Stalin was appointed editor of the Bolshevik paper Pravda. Stalin played little role in the Revolution, at first sceptical of the prospects of insurrection, but followed Lenin in favour of insurrection. During the Civil War his undisciplined experiments in irregular warfare brought him close to court martial. As General Secretary of the Party, he became very powerful after the end of the Civil War and became a spokesperson for “socialism in one country”. He isolated Lenin during his last days and eventually gained the ascendancy in the Party after the international setbacks of 1923. During the Moscow Trials, he systematically eliminated all the Old Bolsheviks and instituted personal rule over the Party. After having executed all the experienced military cadre of the Red Army and making a Pact with Hitler in 1940, he brought the Soviet Union close to defeat, but emerged after World War Two more powerful than ever. He was denounced by Nikita Khrushchev only after his death in 1953.
Stasova, Elena (1873-1966) Taught at a workers’ evening school in St. Petersburg. Jjoined the Social Democratic Labour Party and in 1900 became a full-time agent distributing Iskra. 1912 Stasova was one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. After February Revolution she served as secretary to the Central Committee and continued to work for the government after the October Revolution.
Steffens, Lincoln Austin (1866 –1936) was an American investigative journalist. From 1914 to 1915, he covered the Mexican Revolution. In March 1919, he accompanied William C. Bullitt, a low-level State Department official, on a three-week visit to Soviet Russia. After his return, he promoted his view of the Soviet Revolution and in the course of campaigning for U.S. food aid for Russia made his famous remark about the new Soviet society: “I have seen the future, and it works”.
Steklov, Yuri Mikhailovich (Nakhamkis, Nevzorov) (1873- 1941)—joined Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1893. Bolshevik after Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (1903) a. In 1907- 14 wrote for Sotsial-Demokrat, and Zvezda and Pravda. After October Revolution editor of Izvestia; from 1929 Deputy Chairman of the Academic Committee. Wrote biographies of Lenin,Marx, and Bukunin. Arrested in 1938 amid the Great Purge. After the outbreak of World War II on the Eastern Front, he was transferred to the Saratov prison, where he died. 1941.
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin (1862 – 1911) One of the largest feudal landowners. Russian Minister of the Interior then Prime Minister in the period of counter-revolutionary terror after 1905 Revolution. Initiated agrarian reforms of private land ownership to the rich peasants. Assassinated 1911.
Peter (or Pyotr or Petr) Berngardovich Struve 1870 – 1944 was a Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor. He started his career as a Marxist, later became a liberal and after the Bolshevik Revolution joined the White movement. From 1920, he lived in exile in Paris, where he was a prominent critic of Russian Communism.
Nikolai Sukhanov (1882 1939) Joined Socialist Revolutionary Party, arrested in 1904 in possession of illegal literature. Participated in 1905 Revolution. 1910 arrested, exiled to Archangel. Released 1913 became editor of Sovremennik (Contemporary) and Letopis (Chronicle).
February Revolution, member of the Petrograd Soviet and helped to negotiate the formation of Provisional Government. After October Revolution, became a strong critic of the Bolshevik government. Between 1919 and 1921 wrote a seven-volume memoir, Russian Revolution of 1917: A Personal Record. Published in Berlin in 1922, but suppressed under Stalin in the 1930s. Worked at the Agrarian Institute, dismissed in 1930. 1939 arrested and shot on the orders of Stalin .Spatacist international wiki”
Sverdlov, Yakov Mikhailovich (Andrei) (1885- 1919)—joined the R.S.D.L.P. in 1901. After the Sixth (Prague) Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. in January 1912 elected to the Central Committee of the Party and elected to the Bureau of the C.C., R.S.D.L.P. in Russia. Member of the editorial board of Pravda. Took an active part in preparing and carrying out the October Revolution. Member of the Petrograd Revolutionary Military Committee and the Revolutionary Military Centre for leadership of the uprising, which were set up by the Central Committee of the Party. On November 8 (21) elected Chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee. Wrote the Constitution of the R.S.F.S.R.
Svinhufvud, Pehr Evind af Qvalstad (1861-1944) Lawyer, judge, and politician in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was at that time an autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Played major role in the movement for Finnish independence. 1917 was the first head of government of independent Finland as Chairman of the Senate. Led the White government during the Finnish Civil War. After the war, served as Finland’s first temporary head of state with the title of Regent during the project to establish a German-aligned monarchy in the country. 1918. Prime Minister from 1930 to 1931, 1931 president. Conservative and nationalist who was strong in his opposition to communism and the left in general.
See Yakubova, Apollinaria Alexandrovna
Takhtarev Constantine (known as Strakhova) (1871‒1925) – sociologist, historian. In 1890’s and 1900’s active in revolutionary movement in Russia. 1898 attended Zurich Congress of League of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad. 1900 edited Economist newspaper “Rabochaya mysl”. Attended Paris Congress of 2nd International. Delegation at 2nd Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party Congress in London. Did agitation and propaganda work for Party. 1896 arrested, lived abroad. 1907 returned to Russia. 1917 Petrograd University. 1924 curator Institute of Marx and Engels.
Tanner, Frederick John Shirley known as Jack (1889–1965) was a British trade unionist.. Joined the Social Democratic Federation and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Helped found the National Federation of Women Workers. 1910 leading syndicalist, active in the Industrial Syndicalist Education League, and jointly chaired the First International Syndicalist Congress. During World War I, Tanner worked as an engineer in France and was active in the then-syndicalist Confédération Générale du Travail. He returned to London in 1917 and became active in the Shop Stewards’ Movement. 1920 attended the Second Congress of the Communist International. Joined Communist Party of Great Britain but left after only eight months.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1856 – 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was one of the first management consultants. Summed up his efficiency techniques in his book The Principles of Scientific Management. As a result, scientific management is referred to as Taylorism.
Tereshchenko, Mykhailo Ivanovych (1886 –1956) Kadet. Minister of Foreign Affairs in the reconstructed Provisional Government following Miliukov’s resignation. Also major Ukrainian landowner, proprietor of several sugar factories, and financier.
Thalheimer, August (1884–1948). In SPD in 1904, Chief Editor in Göppingen in 1909. Member of Internationale group, active in Spartacus group during War, conscripted during 1916–18, played important role in November Revolution in Stuttgart, and was for short time member of Land government. Fought ultra-Left in 1919–20, but in 1921 defended theory of the offensive. Member of Zentrale since 1918. Theoretician of KPD in 1923, sceptical about chances of Revolution. Held responsible by Moscow, with Brandler, for the defeat. Moscow 1924–8, where he worked for Comintern, Marx-Engels Institute. at Sun-Yat-Sen University. Expelled in 1929, co-founder of KPO (Communist Party Opposition). Exiled to France in 1933, interned in 1939, found refuge in Cuba in 1941.
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 –1910) Russian writer.
TOMSKY, Mikhail Pavlovich (1880-1936) – Old Bolshevik. A printing worker, joined the Party in 1904 and took part in the London Congress. Party work in St. Petersburg and Moscow; spent ten years in prison and exile. After the February revolution, a member of the Petrograd Executive Committee. Leader of the Soviet Trade Unions from 1917-1929, Soviet representative on the Anglo-Russian TU Unity Committee; elected to the CC at the 8th Party Congress; a member of the Politbureau from1922. One of the Right-wing opposition to Stalin, with Bukharin and Rykov, capitulated in 1929. Made Director of the State Publishing House. After being cited at the 1936 Moscow Trial as a ‘right deviationist’, he committed suicide
Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov (1850 – 1906) was Head of the Moscow police, Governor-General of St. Petersburg with extraordinary powers, and Assistant Interior Minister with full control of the police. His attempts to restore order were overwhelmed by the revolution of 1905; he retained influence with the Tsar Nicholas II, when appointed as the Commandant of the Imperial Palace. Shot and wounded by Zasluch in 1878 after the Trial of the 193.
Trotsky, Leon (Lev Davidovich Bronstein, pero, “pen”) (1879-1940) Born in Ukraine; joined socialist movement 1897; supported Mensheviks at RSDLP congress 1903; internationalist and supporter of Zimmerwald movement during War; joined Bolsheviks and elected to CC 1917; people’s commissar of foreign affairs 1917-18 and of war 1918-25; a leader of Comintern; gave major report at Third World Congress; leader of Left Opposition in Russian CP and Comintern from 1923; expelled 1927; exiled abroad 1929; called for new International 1933; main target of 1936-8 Stalin frame-up trials; founding leader of Fourth International 1938; murdered by agent of Stalin.
Alexander II (1818 –1881): tsar from 1855 until assassinated by members of Narodnaya Volya; Alexander’s most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia’s serfs in 1861; new ‘liberal’ rules over censorship were introduced, overseen by tribunals; reorganising the judicial system, abolishing corporal punishment, local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education
Alexander III (1845 –1894; tsar from 1881; highly reactionary in domestic affairs and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father,; under influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev he opposed any socio-economic moves that limited his autocratic rule; Russia fought no major wars during his reign; known as the “crowned idiot” and the “august imbecile” by the nobles.
Nicholas I (1796 – 1855): reign began with the failed Decembrist revolt; mainly remembered as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, centralisation of administrative policies and repression of dissent.
Nicholas II (1868 – 17 July 1918); last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917.
Tseretelli, Irakili Georgevich (1882-1959): Georgian Menshevik. Member 2nd Duma. Exiled to Siberia by Tsar. Member Executive Committee of Petrograd Soviet 1917. Minister of Posts March-August 1917; of the Interior, July-August 1917. Member Georgian Republican Government. Executive Committee member 2nd International. Emigrated.
Tugan-Baranovsky, Mikhail (1865-1919) – Russian Marxist, Economist and follower of Bernstein. Later remained a socialist, but rejected Marxism. Wrote well-known works relating to the crisis of capitalism and Russian factories.
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818 – 1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and populariser of Russian literature in the West.”Ministry of the Interior clamped down on all unofficial information about the funeral on 9 October; workers’ organisations were forbidden to identify themselves on the wreaths, and a gathering at which Tolstoy was to have paid tribute to his friend (and rival) was cancelled by government decree.
Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov (1866 –1887) Russian revolutionary and political activist. Lenin’s elder brother. Member of Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) party. He was one of the authors of the party’s programme. Executed for the attempted assassination of Alexander III.
Ulyanova, Maria Ilyinichna (Medveshonok). (1878-1937)—Lenin’s younger sister, professional revolutionary, Bolshevik. Carried on Party work in Russia and abroad.
1874-1943 Lenin’s brother
Uritsky, Moisei Solomonovich (1873 – 1918) During his law studies at Kiev University he joined the Social Democratic Party and organized a network for importing and distributing political literature. In 1897 came arrest and exile for running an illegal mimeograph press. At the Party split in 1903 Uritsky sided with the Mensheviks; his activities in Petersburg during the 1905 revolution earned him a further term of exile. In 1914 he emigrated to France and contributed to the Party newspaper Our Word. Russia in 1917 membership to the Bolshevik Party, he was elected in July 1917. Uritsky played a leading part in the Bolsheviks’ armed take-over in October. Appointed chairman of the Petrograd Cheka (secret police) in 1918, Uritsky was shot on 30 August by an SR named Leonid Kannegiesser. (Kannegisser)
Vandervelde, Émile (1866-1938) Leader of Belgian Workers Party; chairman of Brussels office of Second International 1900-14; member of Belgian council of ministers 1916-21, 1925-7, 1936-7; chairman of Belgian Workers Party 1933-8; president of Socialist International 1929-36. MIA Mass
Volsky, Stanislav (1880-1936?)—Social-Democrat. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (1903) joined the Bolsheviks. Afterwards became a leader of the otzovists, took part in the organisation and work of the factional schools on Capri and at Bologna (Italy).
Voroshilov, Kliment Yefremovich popularly known as Klim Voroshilov (1881 – 1969). Born in Ukraine. 1917 took part in Russian Revolution. Served at the Battle of Tsaritsyn. Central Committee 1921. 1925 People’s Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs (later People’s Commissar for Defence). 1926 full member of the Politburo. 1935 Marshal of the Soviet Union. At the outbreak of World War II, replaced as Defense Commissar. Following the German invasion 1941 appointed to State Defense Committee. Relieved from his command in September 1941. 1953, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Resigned 1960.
Vorovsky, Vatslav Vatslavovich (1871-1923) Joined Russian socialist movement 1894; Bolshevik from1903; worked in Bolshevik underground in St. Petersburg 1905-7, and Odessa 1907-12; Soviet diplomatic representative to Scandinavia 1917-19; secretary of First World Congress 1919; Soviet representative in Italy 1921-3; assassinated in Lausanne by White émigré.
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice – Founders of the Fabian Society and the major British theoreticians of gradualist socialism. In the 1930’s the Webbs became apologists for Stalin.
Wells H. G. (Herbert George) (1866 – 1946) English novelist, journalist and historian, famous for his works of science fiction. Wells was a member of the Fabian Society.He stood as a Labour Party candidate in the 1922 and 1923 general elections. Wells visited Russia three times: 1914, 1920 and 1934 and met Lenin and interviewed Stalin.
Field Marshal Wilson, Sir Henry Hughes, 1st Baronet, (1864–1922) was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician. 1917 informal military advisor to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He was assassinated by two IRA gunmen.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924) President of the United States from 1913 to 1921; member of the Democratic Party; led the United States into World War I in 1917; leading architect of the League of Nations
Zimmerwald
Bertram David Wolfe (1896–1977) was an American scholar, leading communist, and later a leading anti-communist. He authored many works related to communism, including biographical studies of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and Diego Rivera.
Wollenberg, Erich (1892 –1973) (Pseudonyms: Walter, Eugen Hardt, Martin Hart) Leading member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) until 1933. Journalist and publicist. In 1918 joined the USPD and the Spartacus League. Played a leading role in the November Revolution in Königsberg. 1918 led a group of Red sailors in Konigsberg and was one of the military leaders of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet, commanding the infantry of the Dachau Army Group. One of the chief military experts of the Communist movement in Germany and internationally. His part in preparing for the rising of 1923 forced him to leave Germany. 1929 wrote Als Rotarmist von Munchen describing his experiences. Emigrated to the Soviet Union at the end of 1932. 1933 Joined the Soviet army and held high command. In Moscow became a Red Army instructor. He fell foul of Stalinism and was forced to quit the Soviet Union. He was unable to return to his native Germany where he was a wanted man. He took refuge in France and then in North Africa. Wrote The Red Army in 1937.
Wrangel, Pyotr Nikolaevich (1878-1928) Russian general; commander of White forces in southern Russia 1919-20; emigrated to Yugoslavia 1920; subsequently led White exile army.
Yagoda, Genrikh Grigoryevich, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda; (1891–1938) Soviet secret police official who served as director of the NKVD, from 1934 to 1936. Yagoda supervised arrests, show trials, and executions of Kamenev and Zinoviev during the Great Purge. Also supervised construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal with Naftaly Frenkel, using penal labor from the gulag system, during which 12,000–25,000 laborers died. Like many Soviet NKVD officers who conducted political repression, Yagoda himself ultimately became a victim of the Purge. He was demoted from the directorship of the NKVD in favor of Nikolai Yezhov in 1936 and arrested in 1937. Charged with crimes of wrecking, espionage, Trotskyism and conspiracy, Yagoda was a defendant at the Trial of the Twenty-One, the last of the major Soviet show trials of the 1930s. Following his confession at the trial, Yagoda was found guilty and shot.
Yakubova, Apollinaria Alexandrovna (Yuzhin) (1870-1917)—joined the Social- Democratic movement in 1893, adherent of Economism. A member of the St. Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class. Emigrated in the summer of 1899. Assisted in the organisation of the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (1903) which she attended as a non-voting delegate. After the split in the Party sympathised with the Mensheviks. After 1905 retired from political activities, worked in workers’ educational organisations
(1870 – 1917) Delegate 1903
Yaroslavsky, Yemelyan Mikhailovich (1878 – 1943) Joined the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party in 1898 and organized party cells on the Trans-Baikal (Zabaikalsky) Railroad. 1901, correspondent for Iskra. 1903 joined Bolshevik faction. Arrested in 1904, released on the outbreak of 1905 Revolution. Delegate to the party conferences in Tammerfors in 1905, Stockholm 1906, London 1907. Exiled to Eastern Siberia. 1917 February revolution edited a Bolshevik newspaper. After October Revolution associated with Left Communist tendency, Political commissar with the Red Army in Moscow. Supported the ‘Military Opposition’, Candidate member 1919 Candidate member of Central Committee. Appointed one of three secretaries of the Central Committee. Held the title of Central Committee secretary until 1922. 1923 left Central Committee Appointed Secretary of the Central Control Commission and Rabkrin. Backed Stalin in all factional disputes following Lenin’s incapacity and death. 1918 biography of Lenin. Member of the directorate of the Lenin Institute. 1924 wrote The Life and Work of V.I. Lenin. Came under attack in 1931. Wrote biography of Stalin that magnified his role in early Bolshevik history. Chairman of the Society of Old Bolsheviks in 1931. Member of the Party Control Commission in 1934-39. From 1939, he was a member of the Central Committee.
Mark Yelizarov (1863–1919) Lenin’s brother-in-law, married to Anna Ulyanova. Became Soviet Russia’s first People’s Commissar for Transport (in office, 1917–1918).
Yelizarova-Ulyanova, Anna Ilyinichna (1864-1935) Sister of V.I. Lenin; member RSDLP 1898; Lenin’s sister; joined the revolutionary movement in 1886. Leading party activist within Russia before 1917; contributor to Rabotnitsa (Woman Worker): active in education and mother/child care after 1917; wrote works on party history.
Yonov Ilya I. Zinovievite Oppositionist, Head of the literary publishing house of the State Press. Zinoviev’s brother-in-law, an Executive member of the Soviet.
Yudenich, Nikolai Nikolayevich (1862 – 1933) was a commander of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. Infantry General. Leader of the anti-communist White movement in northwestern Russia during the Civil War.
Yurenev, Konstantin Konstantinovich (1888–1938) Came with Trotsky from Petrograd Inter-District Committee – the Mezhraiontsy. Played an active part in the February Revolution, and was elected to the executive of the Petrograd soviet. Played a leading role in the Bolshevik Revolution as a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, and Chief of Staff of the Red Guards. He helped found the Red Army. Member of the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs 1920 to 1921. Diplomat. Arrested during the Great Purge. Named during the third Moscow show trial (March 19380 as an alleged Trotskyite and Japanese spy. Executed.
Yurkovskaya, Maria Fyodorovna see Andreyeva, Maria Fyodorovna
Zalutsky, Pyotr Antonovich (1887 – 1937) Joined the revolutionary movement in 1904, took part in the 1905 revolution, and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1907. He worked for the party, illegally, in Vladivostok, before moving to St. Petersburg in 1911, member of the Petersburg Bolshevik organisation helped organise distribution of the illegal newspapers, Pravda and Zvezda. 1905 member of the three-man executive of the Petrograd committee of the Bolshevik organisation, the most senior Bolsheviks at liberty in the capital, they ran the party until more senior figures returned from exile.Hostile to the Provisional Government. Overruled by Stalin and Kamenev. When Lenin arrived from Europe, backed the hard line that Zalutsky had taken. Political commissar with the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. 1921 appointed secretary of the Petrograd committee of the CPSU. 1923 elected to the Central Committee. Ally of Zinoviev. 1925 removed from position as provincial party secretary. Removed from the Central Committee at CPSU party congress in 1925. Expelled from CPSU, with other members of the United Opposition in 1927. Party membership restored. 1928-34 worked for the economic council for the Lower Volga. Arrested 1934 Sentenced to death at a secret hearing.
Zasulich, Vera (1851-1919) Russian socialist; as a young student joined the Narodniki. In 1880 she emigrated and from then onwards worked with Plekhanov. Together with him she was one of the founders of the first Marxist group in the Russian workers’ movement (the Emancipation of Labour group – 1885) which began the struggle against the Narodniki for the creation of a proletarian revolutionary party. Zasulich was commissioned by the Emancipation of Labour group to translate a number of Marx’s works into Russian. With Lenin and Plekhanov she was a member of the editorial board of Iskra. After the split in the Russian Social-Democratic Party she soon went over to the Mensheviks. During WWI she was a social chauvinist. She held a hostile attitude to the Soviet government.
Zemlyachka Rozalia Samoilovna (Zalkind, R. S., Demon, Osipov) (1876-1947)—joined the revolutionary movement in 1893, a member of the Kiev Committee of the R.S.D.L.P., as an Iskra agent carried on work in Odessa and Yekaterinoslav. After the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. was co-opted to the C.C. from the Bolsheviks; took an active part in fighting the Mensheviks. In August 1904 elected to the Majority Com- mittees Bureau. Worked as secretary of the St. Petersburg Party organisation and was its delegate to the Third Congress of the Party. During the revolution of 1905-07 was secretary of the Moscow Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. After the October Revolution held Party and administrative posts. As one of relatively few Old Bolsheviks to survive the Great Purge, received a major promotion in May 1939, when she was appointed Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission and a Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers.
Zenzinov, Vladimir Mikhailovich (1880 — 1953) Joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR) in 1901. Arrested at the beginning of the Revolution of 1905 and sentenced to five years banishment in Siberia. He participated in the February Revolution of 1917, played various roles in the All-Russian Soviet of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Deputies and supported the Provisional Government under Kerensky. Opposed the October Revolution. Elected as an SR deputy to the one-day Constituent Assembly, dispersed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Joined the rump Constituent Assembly government in Samara in 1918. Arrested during a military coup by Admiral Kolchak in November 1918. Lived in Berlin until Hitler came to power then moved to Paris. 1940 emigrated to the United States.
Zetkin, Clara (1857-1933) Joined German socialist movement 1878; driven into exile by Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Laws 1882-90; co-founder of Second International 1889; a leader of its Marxist wing; campaigner for women’s emancipation; close associate of Rosa Luxemburg in SPD left wing; organised internationalist conference of socialist women 1915; joined German CP 1919; opposed ultraleftism in CP during March Action 1921 and thereafter; member ECCI from 1922; attended Second through Sixth World Congresses; headed Communist Women’s Movement 1921-6; opposed ‘Bolshevisation’ campaign 1924-5 and Stalin’s ultraleft turn from 1928; remained prominent figure in German CP and Comintern, without recanting, until her death in Moscow.
Clara Zetkin (1857 – 1933) A prominent figure in the German and international workers’ movement, most notably in the struggles womens workers’ movement. From 1895, a National Executive member of the German SPD, and on its left-wing; member of the Bookbinders Union in Stuttgart, and active in the Tailors and Seamstresses Union, becoming its provisional International Secretary in 1896, despite the fact that it was illegal for women to be members of trade unions in Germany at that time. As Secretary of the International Bureau of Socialist Women, Zetkin organised the Socialist Women’s Conference in March 1915. Along with Alexandre Kollontai, Zetkin fought for unrestricted suffrage, and against the ‘bourgeois feminist’ position supporting the restriction of the vote by property or income. Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg led the left-wing and waged a fierce struggle against revisionism as well as the center represented by Kautsky. During the War joined the Spartacists along with Luxemburg and Liebknecht. A founding member of the German Communist Party in 1918 along with comrades including Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Became a delegate to the Reichstag from 1920; secretary of the International Women’s Secretariat and member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International from 1921, but lived in Russia from 1924 until her death in 1933.
Zhitomirsky, Jacob (Yakov) (Party alias Otsov; Okhrana aliases Andre and Daudet) (b. 1880). A prominent Bolshevik best known for being a secret agent of the Okhrana. He was recruited by Okhrana in 1902, while studying at the University of Berlin. Active in Berlin RSPLP group, reporting its activities to the Russian police, until 1907 when the Bolsheviks were expelled from Berlin. Moved to Paris. Attended 5th RSDLP Congress in London. 1908 he was given twenty 500-ruble notes by the people involved in the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery. Passed this money to Vissarionov, vice-director of the Russian Department of Police in Paris. World War I he served as a doctor with the Russian Expeditionary Force in France and reported about revolutionary propaganda among the Russian troops. Wiki/LCW
Zinoviev, Grigorii Evseyevich (1883-1936) -Founding member of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin’s closest collaborator in exile before and during the First World War. Started work as a teacher at the age of 15, active in strikes 1900-1901. Joined the RSDLP in 1901 and the Bolsheviks in 1903, immediately after the Second Party Congress. From 1902-1905 in emigration, active in St. Petersburg during the 1905 revolution; arrested, and again in exile from 1907-1917, acting as Lenin’s personal assistant. Elected to the CC at the Fifth Party Congress (1907) and on the editorial board of Proletari and Sotsial-Demokrat. Participated in the Zimmerwald and Kienthal conferences; member of the Bureau of the Zimmerwald Left; co-author with Lenin of the book Against the Stream. Returned to Russia with Lenin after the February revolution: at first opposed his April theses, also opposed the seizure of power in October, along with Kamenev and Stalin, as well as the Brest-Litovsk peace. After October 1917 was chairman of the Petrograd Soviet; on Lenin’s motion, Chairman of the Comintern from its foundation until 1926. After Lenin’s death, formed a triumvirate (the Troika), together with Kamenev and Stalin, against Trotsky; broke with Stalin in 1925, went over to the Opposition and led the Joint Opposition with Trotsky. Expelled from the party at the 15th Congress in November 1927 with the whole Opposition, deported to Siberia. Capitulated in 1928 and was given work in the Co-operative movement; again expelled and deported in October 1932, capitulated in 1933 and was brought back to Moscow. In January 1935, after the assassination of S.M. Kirov, was sentenced to 10 years jail on trumped up charges. Again framed and finally murdered in August 1936 in the first of the Moscow Trials.