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Old Bolsheviks

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For other uses, see Old Bolshevik (disambiguation).
The founders of the Bolshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903)
Geneva Group of Bolsheviks (1904–1905)

The Old Bolsheviks (Russian: ста́рый большеви́к, romanized: stary bolshevik), also called the Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, were members of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Many Old Bolsheviks became leading politicians and bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and the ruling Communist Party. While some died over the years from natural causes, many were removed from power, imprisoned in gulags or executed by the late 1930s, as a result of the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin.

Overview

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Definition

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Initially, the term "Old Bolshevik" referred to Bolsheviks who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party before 1905. On February 13, 1922, under the chairmanship of the Old Bolshevik historian Mikhail Olminsky, the Society of Old Bolsheviks (Общество старых большевиков) at the Istpart (Commission on the Study of the History of the October Revolution and RCP(b)) was established. The first Statute required membership before January 1, 1905, with admission in some cases of other Social Democrats with the same career time who later joined the Bolsheviks.[1] Initially there were 64 members. Later it was renamed the All-Union Society. The 1931 Statute had a requirement of a continuous party membership of at least 18 years, with exceptions to be granted by the Society Presidium (approved by the Society Council). By 1934, there were over 2,000 members. The All-Union Society was self-dissolved in 1935, announcing that "it has completed its tasks".[2] Vladimir Lenin wrote about the "enormous, undivided authority of that thinnest layer, which can be called the old party guard".[3] Old Bolsheviks that were part of Lenin's inner circle or directly worked with him formed a sub-designation known as the "Lenin Guard" (Ленинская гвардия, leninskaya gvardiya).

Vadim Rogovin cites the statistics published by the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that, in 1924, of 600,000 Party members, 0.6% joined before 1905, 2% joined in 1906–1916 and less than 9% joined in 1917.[1] Over time the definition of "Old Bolsheviks" loosened. For example, according to a 1972 Soviet book by D. A. Chygayev, in 1922 there were as many as 44,148 Old Bolsheviks.[4][verification needed]

Presence in the Soviet Union

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Lazar Kaganovich (1893–1991) joined the Bolsheviks in 1911, survived Stalin's purge, and died only five months before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

By the end of the Russian Revolution in 1923, Old Bolsheviks filled many of the powerful positions in the state apparatus of the Soviet Union, its constituent republics, and the ruling All-Union Communist Party. By the mid-1930s, General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the upper ranks of the party were predicting that major social upheaval would occur in the aftermath of the forced collectivization process since 1928 and the subsequent Soviet famine of 1932–1933.

Stalin, himself an Old Bolshevik, became paranoid of challenges to his rule from within the party, fearing that Old Bolsheviks were potential usurpers who could exploit the upheaval and use their prestige to depose him. Stalin used the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934 as a pretext to purge the party and removed a great part of the surviving Old Bolsheviks from positions of power during the Great Purge from 1936 to 1938. Purged Old Bolsheviks were condemned in a series of show trials known as the Moscow Trials, and then executed for treason or sent as prisoners to the Gulag system of labor camps. By 1938, the number of Old Bolsheviks who remained in power (other than Stalin himself) was small, and the vacant positions were filled by a younger generation of party members who were considered to be more loyal to Stalin himself.[citation needed] In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among the Old Bolsheviks and leading figures in the military and scientific fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation.[5]

Various things in the Soviet Union had the name Old Bolshevik, such as a publishing house, several steamships, motorboats, kolkhozes and populated places.[6][7][8]

Fate of some of the Old Bolsheviks

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This list lists Old Bolsheviks according to the original definition, i.e. those who joined Bolshevik faction before 1 January 1905.

Died before the end of the purges

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Born Died Notes
Nikolai Chuzhak 1876 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9] Died of natural causes in 1937.
Mikhail Frunze 1885 1925 Bolshevik since 1903.
Sergey Ivanovich Gusev 1874 1933 Member of the SBORK since 1896. Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Founding member of the Bolshevik faction in 1903.
Simon Kamo 1882 1922 Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. Died in a traffic accident.
Lev Karpov 1879 1921 Member of the SBORK. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904.
Sergei Kirov 1886 1934 Joined Bolsheviks in 1904.[9] Kirov's assassination was used as a pretext for Stalin's Great Purge. [citation needed]
Leonid Krasin 1870 1926 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1903.
Valerian Kuybyshev 1888 1935 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904.[9]
Mikhail Lashevich 1884 1928 Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903.
Vladimir Lenin 1870 1924 Leader of SBORK since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Main founder and leader of the Bolsheviks since 1903.
Anatoly Lunacharsky 1875 1933 Joined Bolsheviks in 1904.
Viktor Nogin 1878 1924 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Mikhail Olminsky 1863 1933 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. First President of the Society of Old Bolsheviks (1922–1931).
Stepan Shaumian 1878 1918 Member of the RSDLP since 1900. Bolshevik since 1903.
Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov 1870 1928 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined Bolsheviks in 1904.
Pyotr Smidovich 1874 1935 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9]
Sofia Smidovich 1872 1934 Member of the RSDLP since 1898, sided with Bolsheviks in 1903.
Suren Spandaryan 1882 1916 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.
Pēteris Stučka 1865 1932 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Supported Bolsheviks in 1903.
Yakov Sverdlov 1885 1919 Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Bolshevik since 1903.
Alexander Tsiurupa 1870 1928 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Anna Ulyanova 1864 1935 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Sister of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova.
Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova 1878 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Sister of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and Anna Ulyanova.
Vatslav Vorovsky 1871 1923 Founding member of the Bolshevik faction in 1903. Assassinated by a White émigré.
Vladimir Zagorsky 1883 1919 Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Joined Bolsheviks in Geneva in 1904. Killed by a bomb planted by an anarchist group.

Died in the Stalinist purges

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Born Died Notes
Sultan Majid Afandiyev 1887 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9] Sentenced to death and executed.
Alexander Bekzadyan 1879 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9] Arrested in 1937. Sentenced to death and executed in 1938.
Andrei Bubnov 1883 1938 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the same day.
Semyon Dimanstein 1886 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9] Arrested in February 1938. Sentenced to death and shot in August.
Yuri Petrovich Figatner 1889 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the same day.
Gaia Gai 1887 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9] Arrested in 1935 and shot in 1937.
Nikolai Glebov-Avilov 1887 1937 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Sentenced to death and shot in March 1937.
Filipp Goloshchyokin 1876 1941 Bolshevik since 1903.[9] Participant at the Prague Conference (1912). Shot without trial by the NKVD in 1941.
Lev Kamenev 1883 1936 Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death at the Trial of the Sixteen and executed.
Olga Kameneva 1883 1941 Sister of Leon Trotsky and the first wife of Lev Kamenev. Arrested and killed in the Medvedev Forest massacre.
Semyon Kanatchikov 1879 1940 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Arrested by the NKVD in 1936 and sentenced to 8 years. Died in a Gulag.
Aleksei Kiselyov 1879 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Arrested and shot in 1937.
Nikolai Krylenko 1885 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9] Sentenced to death and shot.
Nikolai Kuzmin 1883 1938 Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and shot on 8 February 1938.
Polikarp Mdivani 1877 1937 Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and executed.
Alexei Medvedev 1884 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1899.[9] Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. Arrested in August 1937 and shot in October.
Nikolay Muralov 1877 1937 Bolshevik since 1903.[9] Found guilty in the Trial of the Seventeen and executed.
Vladimir Nevsky 1876 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the next day.
Georgy Oppokov 1888 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9] Arrested in June 1937, and shot in September.
Mamia Orakhelashvili 1881 1937 Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death in a private trial and executed.
Sergo Ordzhonikidze 1886 1937 Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Committed suicide after being searched by the NKVD.
Jēkabs Peterss 1886 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Аrrested and executed during the Latvian Operation of the NKVD.
Osip Piatnitsky 1882 1938 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death and executed.
Olga Pilatskaya 1884 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Arrested and shot.
Pavel Postyshev 1887 1939 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Sentenced to death and shot.
Boris Pozern 1882 1939 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Arrested in July 1938 and executed in February 1939.
Karl Radek 1885 1939 Sentenced to 10 years at the Trial of the Seventeen in 1937. Killed in prison.
Alexei Rykov 1881 1938 Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Found guilty in the Trial of the Twenty-One and executed.
Alexander Serebrovsky 1884 1938 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9] Sentenced to death and shot two days later.
Alexander Shliapnikov 1885 1937 Switched from the Mensheviks to the Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and executed.
Alexander Shotman 1880 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1899.[9] Sided with Lenin at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903). Sentenced to death and shot in September 1937.
Boris Shumyatsky 1886 1938 Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death and executed by firing squad.
Mykola Skrypnyk 1872 1933 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Delegate at the 3rd Congress of the RSDL Party (1905). Committed suicide after being removed from power.
Ivan Smirnov 1881 1936 Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Arrested in 1933 and shot in 1936.
Aleksandr Smirnov 1877 1938 Bolshevik since 1903.[9] Sentenced to death and executed.
Mikhail Tomsky 1880 1936 Bolshevik since 1904. Committed suicide before his trial.
Valentin Trifonov 1888 1938 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Arrested and executed during the Great Purge.
Ilya Tsivtsivadze 1881 1938 Bolshevik since 1903.[9] Arrested in 1937. Sentenced to death and shot in March 1938.
Varvara Yakovleva 1884 1941 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Sentenced to 20 years at a secret trial. Killed in the Medvedev Forest massacre.
Avel Yenukidze 1877 1937 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death in a private trial and executed.
Tengiz Zhghenti 1887 1937 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9] Committed suicide during the Great Purge.
Grigory Zinoviev 1883 1936 Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death at the Trial of the Sixteen and executed.

Survived the purges

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Born Died Notes
Vladimir Adoratsky 1878 1945 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9]
Aleksei Badayev 1883 1951 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.
Cecilia Bobrovskaya 1873 1960 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.
Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich 1873 1955 Member of the Moscow Workers' Union since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.
Feodor Chuchin 1883 1942 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9]
Pauls Dauge 1869 1946 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9] Arrested during the Great Purge, but survived.
Lydia Fotiyeva 1881 1975 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904.[9]
Serafima Hopner 1880 1966 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9]
Mikhail Kalinin 1875 1946 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903.
Platon Kerzhentsev 1881 1940 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9]
Pyotr Kobozev 1878 1941 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9]
Nadezhda Kolesnikova 1882 1964 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9]
Pyotr Krasikov 1870 1939 Member of the Emancipation of Labour since 1892. Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Bolshevik since 1903. Died of illness.
Nadezhda Krupskaya 1869 1939 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Bolshevik since 1903. Wife of Lenin.
Gleb Krzhizhanovsky 1872 1959 Member of the SBORK since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Dora Lazurkina 1884 1974 Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Spent 17 years in Gulag, but survived.[10]
Olga Lepeshinskaya 1871 1963 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Maxim Litvinov 1876 1951 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903.
Martyn Liadov 1872 1947 Member of the RSDLP faction since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Ivan Lychev 1881 1972 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9]
Dmitry Manuilsky 1883 1959 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9]
Nikolai Meshcheryakov 1865 1942 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9]
Matvei Muranov 1873 1959 Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904.
Grigory Petrovsky 1878 1958 Member of the SBORK since 1897. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Elected member of the 4th State Duma at the 1912 Russian legislative election.
Nikolai Podvoisky 1880 1948 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9]
Viktor Radus Zenkovich 1877 1967 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Vladimir Antonov-Saratovsky 1884 1965 Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.
Maximilian Saveliev 1884 1939 Bolshevik since 1903.[9]
Nikolai Semashko 1878 1949 Bolshevik since 1904. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1907.
Andrey Shestakov 1877 1941 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9]
Konstantin Shvedchikov 1884 1952 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9]
Aaron Soltz 1872 1945 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Sent to a psychiatric clinic during the Great Purge, but survived.
Joseph Stalin 1878 1953 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Leader of the USSR during 1924–1953.
Elena Stasova 1873 1966 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Adolf Taimi 1881 1955 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903.[9]
Mikhail Tskhakaya 1865 1950 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov 1874 1943 Bolshevik since 1903.[9] Brother of Vladimir Lenin, Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova and Anna Ulyanova.
Alexander Vinokurov 1869 1944 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903.[9]
Mikhail Vladimirsky 1874 1951 Member of the Moscow Workers' Union since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903.
Boris Volin 1886 1957 Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904.[9]
Yemelyan Yaroslavsky 1878 1943 Member of the RSDLP since 1898.[9] Bolshevik since 1903. President of the Society of Old Bolsheviks (1931–1935).
Rosalia Zemlyachka 1876 1947 Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1903.
Konstantin Zharnovetsky 1881 1941 Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Died during the Siege of Leningrad.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Rogovin, Vadim. Was There An Alternative?.
  2. ^ "Obshchestvo starykh bol'shevikov" Общество старых большевиков [Society of Old Bolsheviks]. Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian).
  3. ^ «Если не закрывать себе глаза на действительность, то надо признать, что в настоящее время пролетарская политика партии определяется не ее составом, а громадным, безраздельным авторитетом того тончайшего слоя, который можно назвать старой партийной гвардией. Достаточно небольшой внутренней борьбы в этом слое, и авторитет его будет если не подорван, то во всяком случае ослаблен настолько, что решение будет уже зависеть не от него», V.Lenin, March 26, 1922
  4. ^ Deutsch, Mark (2003). "Shameless Classic". Moskovsky Komsomolets. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03, citing Д.А.Чугаев, "Коммунистическая партия – организатор СССР".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  5. ^ Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich; Khrushchev, Serge (2004). Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Penn State Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-271-02861-3.
  6. ^ Подвиг экипажа парохода "Старый Большевик" Victory of crew of "Stari Bolshevik" (in Russian) (Article about one of 5 steamships called "Old Bolshevik" or "Stari Bolshevik)
  7. ^ Печать в Москве в 1917 году : отражение борьбы партий в печати[permanent dead link] (in Russian). Example of book edited by "Stari Bolshevik" or "Old Bolshevik"
  8. ^ Tucker, Robert C. (1992). "Letter of an Old Bolshevik". Slavic Review. 51 (4): 782–785. doi:10.2307/2500138. JSTOR 2500138.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay https://nkvd.tomsk.ru/content/editor/SPISKI/SSSR/Ih-zvali-starye-bolsheviki-converted.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  10. ^ "УКЛАЊАЊЕ СТАЉИНОВОГ ГРОБА ИЗ ЛЕЊИНОВОГ МАУЗОЛЕЈА". Borba: 1–2. 31 October 1961.
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