Fyodor Sergeyev

For other uses, see Artyom (disambiguation).

Statue of Artyom in Donetsk

Fyodor Sergeyev Фёдор Серге́ев
Leader of Bolsheviks at Kharkiv city council
In office 1917–1917
Narkom of Trade and Industry in Ukraine
In office 1917–1919
Chairmen of Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Government
In office February 14, 1918 – February 17, 1919
Preceded by	position created
Succeeded by	position liquidated
Narkom of Public Economy in Donetsk
In office February 14, 1918 – February 17, 1919
Preceded by	position created
Succeeded by	position liquidated
Chairman of Donetsk Governorate
In office April 26, 1920 – 1920
President	Grigoriy Petrovskiy
Preceded by	V.Antonov-Saratovsky
Head of CVRK in Ukraine
In office September 18, 1918 – March 10, 1919
Preceded by	Andrei Bubnov
Succeeded by	Grigoriy Petrovskiy as head of CIKUk
Personal details
Born	Fyodor Andreyevich Sergeyev March 19, 1883(1883-03-19) Glebovo, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	July 24, 1921(1921-07-24) (aged 38) Tula Governorate, Russian SFSR
Nationality	Russian
Political party	Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (1902-1921)
Spouse(s)	Yelizaveta Lvovna Repelskaya
Children	Artyom Sergeyev (adopted son of Stalin)
Alma mater	Bauman Moscow State Technical University
Occupation	revolutionary, politician, Communist agitator

Fyodor Andreyevich Sergeyev (Russian: Фёдор Андре́евич Серге́ев, Ukrainian: Федір Андрійович Сергєєв; March 19, 1883– July 24, 1921), better known as Comrade Artyom (това́рищ Артём), was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, agitator, and journalist. He was a close friend of Sergei Kirov and Stalin. Sergeyev was an ideologist of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic.

Biography

Sergeyev was born in the village of Glebovo, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire near the city of Fatezh in a family of a peasants. In 1901 he finished the Yekaterinoslav realschule. He attended the Moscow Imperial Moscow Technical College, but was expelled after throwing a protest on the school campus.

From 1902 he was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, later remaining with the Bolshevik faction of the party. He was a prominent party agitator in Yekaterinoslav, Kursk, and the Ural mountains region. In 1905 Sergeyev participated in the armed uprising in Kharkiv. In 1906 for a short time he headed the Perm party committee. Sergeyev was a member of the 5th congress of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party after which he was arrested and sentenced to the Nikolayev detention companies, later substituted by an exile to Siberia.

In 1910 he escaped to Brisbane, Australia where he organized the Union of Russian Emmigrants. In 1912 Sergeyev receiving a British citizenship was a chief-editor of "Echo of Australia" and was better known as "Big Tom". He joined the Australian Socialist Party and was involved in trade-unionist opposition to the first world war. In 1917, after the February revolution, he returned to Russian becoming a leader of the Bolshevik faction in the Kharkiv council.

In October 1917 he was organizer of a military coup-d'etat in Kharkiv and the whole Donets basin region. At the 1st congress of Soviets in Ukraine he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine and later appointed the Ukrainian Narkom of Trade and Industry. Sergeyev was a chairman of the Sovnarkom of the unrecognized Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic in Ukraine and Narkom of Public Economy. His actions secured the nationalization of industrial centers concentrated in the eastern Ukraine. Sergeyev became one of the organizers of Ukrainian Central Military-Revolutionary Committee in resistance to Central powers and Kaledin's Cossacks. On March 27 he organized the Donetsk Army by the order of Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, however by the end of April 1918 that army was integrated into the 5th Army of Red Army headed by Kliment Voroshilov.

Fyodor Sergeyev perished in 1921 during the test of Aerowagon.

The city of Bahmut, former center of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, was renamed in his honor as Artemivsk in 1924. His infant son Artyom Fyodorovich was adopted by Joseph Stalin.