Yakov Sverdlov - Biography

Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov (Я́ков Миха́йлович Свердло́в); known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.

Early life

He was born in Nizhny Novgorod to Jewish parents. His father was an engraver. He was adopted by Maxim Gorky. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902, and then the Bolshevik faction, supporting Vladimir Lenin. He was involved in the 1905 revolution.

After his arrest in June 1906, for most of the time until 1917 he was either imprisoned or exiled. During the period 1914-1916 he was in internal exile in Turukhansk, Siberia, along with Joseph Stalin.

Work

After the 1917 February Revolution he returned to Petrograd from exile and was re-elected to the Central Committee. He played an important role in planning the October Revolution. Research in 1990 by the Moscow playwright and historian Edvard Radzinsky uncovered Sverdlov's role in the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Sverdlov ordered their execution on July 16, 1918, which took place in the city of Yekaterinburg.

A close ally of Vladimir Lenin, Sverdlov played an important role in persuading leading Bolsheviks to accept the controversial decisions to close down the Constituent Assembly and to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was claimed that Lenin provided the theories and Sverdlov made sure they worked. Later their relationship suffered as Lenin appeared to be too theoretical for practical Sverdlov, who at that time was the chief architect of the Red Terror.

He is sometimes referred to as the first head of state of the Soviet Union but this is not correct since the Soviet Union came into existence in 1922, three years after Sverdlov's death. However, as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) he was the de jure head of state of the Russian SFSR from shortly after the October Revolution until the time of his death.

Death

An official version is that Sverdlov died of influenza in Oryol during the 1918 flu pandemic, while returning to Moscow from Kharkiv. He is buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, in Moscow. Another version is that he died of tuberculosis. According to Paganuzzi, on March 16, 1919, he visited Morozov's factory in Moscow where a worker hit him on his head with a heavy object at around four in the afternoon.. Historian Arkadi Waksberg claimed that there were reliable rumours that Sverdlov was beaten to death by workers in Oryol, due to his Jewish origin and the whole affair was covered up to prevent anti-semitic outburst. Another speculation is that he was eliminated due to his involvement in an attempt to assassinate Lenin.

In 1924 Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlovsk in his honor. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin began reverting pre-Soviet names in Russia, and Sverdlovsk was changed back to Yekaterinburg.

His son Andrei had a long career as an officer for the Soviet security organs (NKVD, OGPU). His niece Ida married NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda

The Imperial Russian Navy destroyer leader Novik (commissioned in 1913) was renamed Yakov Sverdlov in 1923. The first ship of Sverdlov class cruisers was also named after him.

See also

• Zinovy Peshkov (Zinovy Sverdlov), Yakov's brother

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External links

• Leon Trotsky: Jacob Sverdlov — 1925 memorial essay