Zinoviev biography

If Zinoviev had his hands on the levers of power within Russia, it was in Comintern activity that his influence was most strongly felt. Indeed, he was relieved of national administrative posts so that he might devote the maximum attention to the international revolutionary movement.

Zinoviev biography: Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev was a Russian

Until November he was the chairman of the Comintern's executive committee and the driving force of its presidium. His ideological pronouncements constituted the major premises for the strategy and tactics of Communists everywhere. During —20 his role was especially prominent, with the Comintern character and structure molded largely by him.

However, the retreat of the international revolutionary wave, beginning indimmed his luster.

Zinoviev biography: Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev was a

The collapse of the "March Action" in Germanyfor which he was largely responsible, and the defeat of the revolution in Germany in Octobercontributed to the decline of his international image. Although he did not possess Lenin's decisive leadership abilities and strong will, Grigori Zinoviev was a man of intense ambition. An indefatigable and brilliant public speaker, he used his skills in collaboration with V.

Lenin throughout the prerevolutionary era. To a large extent his senior position within the party elite rested on his reputation as Lenin's closest supporter during the dark and hungry days after the failure of the Revolution of and before the outbreak of the Revolution of Zinoviev, whose real family name was Radomyslsky, was born in the southern Russian town of Elizavetgrad Kirovgrad.

His parents were middle-class Jews able to provide him zinoviev biography an exceptionally good education as well as a financial headstart. In spite of this, as early as he made his first contacts with the illegal Russian Social Democratic Workers' party. By he had become a close disciple of Lenin. From that time until the Revolution ofZinoviev is generally believed to have followed Lenin more closely than any other member of the Bolshevik political leadership.

Early Career As a consequence of his zinoviev biography affiliation with Lenin and other leading Bolsheviks, Zinoviev was at the center of decision making during the Revolution of For example, together with Leon TrotskyJoseph Stalinand others, he was a member of the first Politburo of the Communist party. They never regained their Central Committee seats, but they were given mid-level positions within the Soviet bureaucracy.

Bukharin, then at the beginning of his short and ill-fated struggle with Stalin, courted Kamenev and, indirectly, Zinoviev during the summer of This was soon reported to Stalin and used against Bukharin as proof of his factionalism. After once more admitting their supposed mistakes, they were readmitted to the Party in December They were forced to make self-flagellating speeches at the XVIIth Party Congress in Januarywith Stalin parading his erstwhile political opponents, now defeated and outwardly contrite.

The Moscow trials — [ edit ] After the murder of Sergei Kirov on 1 December which served as one of the triggers for the Great Purge of the Soviet Communist Party ,[ citation needed ] Zinoviev, Kamenev and their closest associates were once again expelled from the party and arrested in December They were tried in January and forced to admit "moral complicity" in Kirov's assassination.

Zinoviev biography: 11 September] – 25 August )

Zinoviev was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his supporters to various prison terms. In Augustafter months of rehearsals in secret police prisons, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others, mostly Old Bolshevikswere put on trial again. This time, the charges included forming a terrorist organization that killed Kirov and tried to kill Stalin and other leaders of the Soviet government.

This Trial of the Sixteen or the trial of the "Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Center" was the first Moscow Show Trial and set the stage for subsequent show trials where Old Bolsheviks confessed to increasingly elaborate and egregious crimes, including espionage, poisoning and sabotage. Zinoviev and the other defendants were found guilty on 24 August Before the trial, Zinoviev and Kamenev had agreed to plead guilty to the false charges on the condition that they not be executed, a condition that Stalin accepted, stating "that goes without saying".

A few hours after their conviction, Stalin ordered their zinoviev biography that night. Accounts of Zinoviev's execution vary, with some having him beg and plead for his life, prompting the stoic Kamenev to tell Zinoviev to "quiet down and die with dignity ". Zinoviev allegedly struggled against the guards escorting him so fiercely that instead of taking him to the appointed execution room, he was simply dragged into a nearby cell and shot there.

Induring perestroikaZinoviev and his co-defendants were formally rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.

Zinoviev biography: Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev was

The letter called on British Communists to prepare for revolution. This document is now generally accepted to have been a fabricationvalidating the declaration that Zinoviev made in a letter dated 27 October The letter of 15 Septemberwhich has been attributed to me, is from the first to the last word, a forgery. A party member sincehe left to Geneva for 8 years where he became closely associated with Lenin, Kamenev and Plekhanov.

He helped publish Iskra and Vperyod newspapers. October Revolution He and Kamenev were in brief opposition with Lenin over the plan of armed rebellion in Petrograd. That was later greatly used against them by political opponents. After the July Days he and Lenin were hiding briefly in a hay hut near Razliv.