The famous Russian revolutionary Zinoviev Grigory (1883-1936 years of life) was also a Soviet statesman and political figure. According to one source, his real name was Radomyslsky Ovsey-Gershon (Yevsey-Gershon) Aronovich; according to other sources, his name is Hirsch (Gersh) Apfelbaum (by mother). A brief biography of Grigory Zinoviev was the subject of our review.
Childhood and family
Zinoviev Grigory Evseevich was born (you will learn about this person briefly from the article) in 1883, September 11 (23), in the city of Elisavetgrad (present-day Kropyvnytsky) of the Kherson province. Since 1924, his hometown for a decade was called Zinovievsk. His father, Aaron Radomyslsky, who owned a dairy farm, gave him primary education.
By the age of 14, Zinoviev was forced to work as an office clerk and give lessons, as his family became impoverished.
The first wife of Grigory Evseevich was a professional revolutionary Ravich Sarah Naumovna, also known under the pseudonym Olga. She was a member of the RSDLP, temporarily replaced the Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Northern Region, and was repeatedly arrested.
The next wife of Zinoviev was Lilina Zlata Ionovna, also known under the pseudonym Zina Levina. She also participated in the RSDLP, worked in the Petrosoviet, collaborated with the newspapers Pravda and Zvezda. Bore a son from Zinoviev - Radomyslsky Stefan Grigoryevich. At the age of 29, he was arrested and sentenced to death.
The third wife of Radomyslsky was Evgenia Yakovlevna Lasman. She spent about 20 years of her life in exile and prisons.
Pre-revolutionary activity
Already at the age of 18 (1901) Zinoviev became a member of the RSDLP and began to participate in the revolutionary movement. He organized worker strikes in New Russia, for which he was persecuted by the police. Avoiding persecution, in 1902 Radomyslsky went to Berlin, and then moved to Paris and Bern during the year. In 1903, it was there that he met with Lenin, and subsequently became very close to him and began to represent in European socialist organizations.
In 1903, Grigory Zinoviev, whose photo you see in the article, joined the Bolsheviks, and at the Second Congress of the RSDLP he supported Lenin. In the same year, the revolutionary returned to Ukraine, where he actively led propaganda.
A year later, due to heart disease, Radomyslsky again left the country, returning to Bern. There he began to study, having entered the university at the Faculty of Chemistry, but a year later he interrupted his studies in order to participate in the revolution (1905-1907). In Russia, he was waiting for membership in the Petersburg City Committee of the RSDLP. A new attack of illness forced Zinoviev to leave for Bern again, but already to study at the law faculty. In the spring of 1906, he returned to St. Petersburg, joined the Central Committee (only Lenin received more votes) and began working as an editor in the Vperyod and Sotsial-Demokrat newspapers (underground editions). For his activities, he is arrested in 1908, due to illness, he is released after three months and leaves for Austrian Galicia with Lenin.
There Zinoviev Grigory Evseevich, whose biography is full of tragedy, received large sums of money for the Bolshevik party through the famous adventurer Parvus. Austrian police believed that Zinoviev was recruited by French intelligence.
Revolution
In April 1917, Zinoviev with his second wife Zlata Lilina, their son Stefan, their first wife Sarah Ravich and Lenin returned to Russia in a sealed carriage. After the July days, Radomyslsky and Lenin hid on the Spill Lake from the Provisional Government (currently a monument is erected there and a real hut is erected every year). They were suspected of espionage and cooperation with Austria-Hungary.
In October 1917, a closed meeting of the Bolshevik Central Committee was held, where Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev declared the premature overthrow of the Provisional Government and did not agree with the Leninist resolution. Their performance in New Life (the Mensheviks) almost led to expulsion from the party, but decided to simply prohibit them from speaking on its behalf.
When the Bolsheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries seized power in Petrograd, Zinoviev with Lev Kamenev, Alexei Rykov and Viktor Nogin advocated negotiations with Vigel and concession to his demand to unite the parties into one socialist government. Lenin and Trotsky stopped these negotiations, and on November 4 this four with Vladimir Milyutin, who joined them, left the Central Committee. In response, Lenin declared them deserters — he even mentioned this in his political will.
Civil War
By the end of 1917, Zinoviev was allowed to return to politics. During the Civil War, he served as chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, the Council of People's Commissars of the Union of Communities of the Northern Region, and the Committee of Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd.
Access to unlimited power corrupted Zinoviev. When everyone was starving around, he arranged chic banquets for his associates. On his initiative, the bourgeoisie and unearned elements were deprived of breadcards. At that time, tens of thousands of people fell into this category. They were literally doomed to starvation.
Zinoviev Grigory Evseevich (a brief biography of which is presented to your attention in the article) at first refused the “red terror" after the attempt on Lenin and the assassination of Volodarsky and Uritsky, for which he was harshly criticized by Lenin. He also protested against the transfer of the capital to Moscow.
Zinoviev regained Lenin’s favor, supporting the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and was soon returned to the Central Committee with membership in the new Politburo. They also entrusted him with the post of chairman of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, where he introduced the concept of "social fascism."
Zinoviev participated in the organization of the “Red Terror” of the intelligentsia of Petrograd, for which he was nicknamed them “Grishka the Third” (in comparison with Otrepiev and Rasputin).
Under the leadership of Petrograd Zinoviev, the population of the city decreased by more than 4 million people. Most of them simply left the city, but a large part died due to starvation and executions. The fuel crisis also affected - in winter, fuel was simply not brought into the city.
It is believed that such actions by Zinoviev were a strategy to reduce the "non-proletarian elements."
At that time, hundreds of people were shot, the repressions of Zinoviev were the most cruel and widespread. There is an opinion that this was dictated by despair, fear for the destruction of the revolution.
Since 1921, Zinoviev was a member of the Politburo and strove for leadership positions. He promoted the Leninist legacy at that time, printed many books - his collected works began to be printed.
Zinoviev actively participated in the persecution of the Orthodox clergy, when the Bolsheviks massively seized church values. In Petrograd, which he then controlled, a trial took place, where 10 clergymen were sentenced to be shot, including Archimandrite Sergius and later venerated Metropolitan Veniamin.
Zinoviev participated in the rise of Stalin, influenced his appointment as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP in 1923. He did this not out of personal sympathy, but with the goal of attracting Trotsky to the fight.
After the death of Lenin
After the death of Lenin, Trotsky and Zinoviev remained the actual contenders for power.
In those years, Zinoviev’s position was very tough. He called for the destruction of the peasantry and the complete robbery of the villages in order to speed up industrialization. It was he who cynically declared that it was necessary to destroy part of the Russian population, since the Bolsheviks could not retrain everyone in their own way.
Zinoviev sought to arrange a world revolution. The Communists tried to seize power in Hungary, Germany, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Finland. All this led to many deaths and unrealistic financial costs.
Through the Comintern, Zinoviev Grigory, a revolutionary, transferred crazy amounts of money to Western banks.
Cult of personality
Although Zinoviev publicly rebuked Stalin, he created his personality cult earlier and inflated it much more. He renamed his hometown in Zinovievsk to perpetuate his name. In many large cities, on his orders, monuments and busts were erected. He published a whole collection of his works (33 volumes).
New opposition
After 2 years, Zinoviev and Kamnev were opposed to Stalin. As a result, he ceases to lead the Executive Committee of the Comintern and the Leningrad City Council, is first removed from the Politburo, and a year later from the Central Committee. The following is an exception to the party and a link.
In 1928, Zinoviev Grigory, whose family also suffered, repented, and he was reinstated in the party, appointing the rector of Kazan University. After four years of literary and journalistic activity, arrest and deportation follow again, but this time for neglect. In this link, he translates Hitler's Mine Kampf (“My Struggle”). In 1933, a limited edition of this translation was published (studied by party workers).
Instead of four years of exile, after a year Zinoviev is again restored to the party and sent to the Central Union. At the party congress, he repents and glorifies Stalin and his associates. It was Zinoviev who called Stalin "a genius of all time."
Sentence and court
In December 1934, Zinoviev was once again arrested, sentenced to 10 years in prison. The accusation was the assistance in the murder of Kirov, according to many historians, this fact was rigged by Stalin. While in the Verkhneuralskiy political isolator, he keeps notes, turning to Stalin with assurances that he is no longer his enemy and is ready to fulfill any requirements.
Stalin and his supporters actively used the origins of Zinoviev and Kamenev, spread rumors that the opposition were Jews and intellectuals.
This time, Zinoviev’s rehabilitation did not follow, and in 1936 the “process of sixteen” took place, where former party leaders were tried. August 24 decided to carry out the execution - the death penalty. A day later, the sentence was executed.
It is noteworthy that in 1988 this sentence was canceled, recognizing the absence of corpus delicti in the action of the convicts.
There is evidence that during the investigation Zinoviev was put forward a demand to return the money of the Comintern. He returned part of the amount that he personally stole and did not have time to spend or invest. After this, Stalin did not need him alive.
Learning about Zinoviev’s behavior before being shot, Stalin scornfully spit on the floor, saying that he was putting others on the wall.
During the arrest, Zinoviev was kept in terrible conditions. In the heat in the chamber, heating was turned on as much as possible. Problems with the kidneys and liver and such conditions brought the prisoner to severe attacks - he rolled on the floor in pain and begged for transfer to the hospital. Instead of the necessary help, doctors gave him medications that exacerbated the disease.
In terrible prison conditions, after a comfortable and prosperous life, Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev broke down and begged with tears Stalin to cancel the trial.
Stalin promised Zinoviev and Kamenev to keep them alive with their families if they agreed in court with all the charges and stipulated some of the old Bolsheviks. This farce took place in court, but did not save the life of the convicted.
Death
Zinoviev was shot on the night of August 26, 1936. This happened in the building of the All-Russian Military Council (Moscow). Witnesses of the execution recalled that Zinoviev humbled himself and asked for mercy, kissed the boots of the executors of the sentence, and in the end he couldn’t even walk, so the last meters simply dragged him. Before the execution, he began to read prayers in his native Hebrew. Kamenev, who was sentenced with him, urged him to stop humiliating himself and die with dignity. There is another version, according to which the execution of Zinoviev had to be carried on a stretcher.
After the rehabilitation of Zinoviev in 1988, he was praised for several years, as if without a fault of the victim during the Stalinist repressions.
Repressions of relatives
All three wives of Zinoviev were repressed. The first wife, Sarah Ravich, was arrested three times, finally rehabilitated and released due to a serious illness only three years before his death, in 1954.
The second wife Zlata Lilina was arrested twice and sent to exile, but unlike her son, she escaped death. Zinoviev’s son died the following year after him. After the execution of Gregory, all the works of Lilina (mainly works on social and labor education) were withdrawn from the libraries.
Zinoviev’s third wife, Evgeny Lyasman, was arrested for almost two decades. She was released only in 1954, and rehabilitated in the next century - in 2006. She wrote memoirs about her husband, but relatives forbade them to publish them.
Cinema
The significance of Zinoviev in historical and political events was repeatedly reflected in films. The first film was October, a silent creation by Eisenstein. It is noteworthy that Zinoviev was played by Apfelbaum - his brother. Among other films, the famous Blue Notebook, In the Days of October, Reds, Red Bells, Lenin. Train ”,“ Stalin ”,“ Under the Sign of the Scorpion ”and the series“ Yesenin ”.
The opinion of contemporaries
A brief biography of Grigory Zinoviev, one way or another, is interesting to many contemporaries. What is the public opinion about this person? Mostly contemporaries were not very well disposed towards Zinoviev. They recognized his intelligence and culture, but also noted that he was a decent coward and schemer.
People close to Zinoviev talked about his lack of endurance, excessive vanity and ambition, noted masterly habits.
Party comrades criticized Zinoviev for being rude in controversy and an unprincipled choice of means in achieving personal and political success.
During the famine in Petrograd, various delicacies were brought to the table of Zinoviev. It was said that the leanness and modest manners of pre-revolutionary Gregory grew into the importance and impudence of the “obese channel”, which squeezed money from a hungry people.
In the memoirs of contemporaries of Zinoviev there are words about the existence in Leningrad of a cult of his personality.