Old Bolsheviks
Old Bolshevik (Russian: ста́рый большеви́к, stary bolshevik), also called Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Many Old Bolsheviks became leading politicians and bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and the ruling Communist Party. Most died over the years from natural causes, but a number were removed from power or executed in the late 1930s, as a result of the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin.
Overview
Definition
Initially, the term "Old Bolshevik" (ста́рый большеви́к, stary 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] 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 <9% joined in 1917.[3]
Vladimir Lenin wrote about the "enormous, undivided authority of that thinnest layer, which can be called the old party guard".[4] 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).
Over time the definition of "Old Bolsheviks" became more lax. For example, according to a 1972 Soviet book by D. A. Chygayev, in 1922 there were as many as 44,148 Old Bolsheviks.[5][verification needed]
Presence in 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.
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
Note that CC stands for Central Committee of the Communist Party.
Died before the Purge
| Born | Died | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Lenin | 1870 | 1924 | Main Bolshevik leader |
| Yakov Sverdlov | 1885 | 1919 | Chairman of the Secretariat of the Bolshevik Party |
| Stepan Shaumian | 1878 | 1918 | founder of several newspapers, had the title of "Caucasian Lenin" |
| Mashadi Azizbeyov | 1876 | 1918 | Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Caucasus, occupied several positions |
| Mikhail Olminsky | 1863 | 1933 | One of Lenin's closest confidants as early as 1904 |
| Anatoly Lunacharsky | 1875 | 1933 | Occupied several positions, joined the Bolsheviks soon after the split with the Mensheviks |
| Simon Kamo | 1882 | 1922 | Central role in bank robberies |
| Roman Malinovsky | 1876 | 1918 | Early member of the CC and Okhrana infiltrator |
| Suren Spandaryan | 1882 | 1916 | |
| Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov | 1870 | 1928 | |
| Viktor Nogin | 1878 | 1924 | |
| Leonid Krasin | 1870 | 1926 | Elected member of the CC in 1903 |
| Lev Karpov | 1879 | 1921 | Elected member of the CC in 1904 |
Some of those executed in the Purge
| Born | Died | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nikolai Bukharin | 1888 | 1938 | Prominent bolshevik leader, founder of the Right Opposition |
| Grigori Zinoviev | 1883 | 1936 | |
| Lev Kamenev | 1883 | 1936 | |
| Béla Kun | 1886 | 1938 | Leader of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 |
| Alexei Rykov | 1881 | 1938 | |
| Karl Radek | 1885 | 1939 | |
| Mikhail Tomsky | 1880 | 1936 | Committed suicide before his trial |
| Martemyan Ryutin | 1890 | 1937 | |
| Ivan Smirnov | 1881 | 1936 | |
| Ivar Smilga | 1892 | 1938 | |
| Arkady Rosengolts | 1889 | 1938 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1905, military leader during the 1917 revolution |
| Yevgeni Preobrazhensky | 1886 | 1937 | |
| Aleksandr Smirnov | 1877 | 1938 | |
| Nikolay Krestinsky | 1883 | 1938 | Elected member of the CC in early 1917 |
| Alexander Shliapnikov | 1885 | 1937 | |
| Andrei Bubnov | 1883 | 1938 | |
| Varvara Yakovleva | 1884 | 1941 | Elected member of the CC in 1917 |
| Alexander Shotman | 1880 | 1937 | Elected member of the CC in 1913 |
| Alexander Beloborodov | 1891 | 1938 | |
| Lev Karakhan | 1889 | 1937 | Joined the Bolsheviks in May 1917 |
| Jan Sten | 1899 | 1937 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1914 |
Survived
| Born | Died | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Stalin | 1878 | 1953 | Leader of the USSR during 1924–1953 |
| Mikhail Kalinin | 1875 | 1946 | |
| Vyacheslav Molotov | 1890 | 1986 | |
| Kliment Voroshilov | 1881 | 1969 | |
| Lazar Kaganovich | 1893 | 1991 | The last surviving Old Bolshevik |
| Anastas Mikoyan | 1895 | 1978 | |
| Elena Stasova | 1873 | 1966 | One of the main leaders of the party when Lenin was alive |
| Alexandra Kollontai | 1872 | 1952 | |
| Nadezhda Krupskaya | 1869 | 1939 | Deputy Commissar for Education from 1929 to 1939 and widely regarded as the architect of the Soviet education system. Wife of Lenin |
| Nikolai Shvernik | 1888 | 1970 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1905, in 1910 he was a member of the board of the Union of Metalworkers in St. Petersburg |
| Andrey Andreyev | 1895 | 1971 | Member of the Petrograd committee of the Bolsheviks in 1915-16 |
| Maxim Litvinov | 1876 | 1951 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903 and talked with Lenin personally, later helped the Tiflis bank robbery |
| Alexander Poskrebyshev | 1891 | 1965 | Secretary of the local division of the Bolshevik party in early 1917 |
| Cecilia Bobrovskaya | 1873 | 1960 | Knew Lenin and worked at Iskra. Was involved in the Serpukhov and Moscow party committees during 1917 |
| Klavdiya Nikolayeva | 1893 | 1944 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1909, editor of Rabotnitsa, who rallied women against capitalism |
| Ivan Belostotsky | 1882 | 1968 | Elected member of the CC in 1912 |
| Matvei Muranov | 1873 | 1959 | Elected member of the CC in 1917 |
| Aleksei Badayev | 1883 | 1951 | Elected member of the CC in 1914 |
| Rosalia Zemlyachka | 1876 | 1947 | Elected member of the CC in 1903 |
| Grigory Petrovsky | 1878 | 1958 | Elected member of the CC in 1913 |
| Nikolai Semashko | 1878 | 1949 | Elected member of the CC in 1907 |
| Nikolai Zezyulinsky | 1879 | 1959 | In spring 1907, he was delegated to the 5th Congress of the RSDRP and translated the speeches of the Bolsheviks |
| Dora Lazurkina | 1884 | 1974 |
See also
- Alter Kämpfer
- Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
- Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
References
- ^ Rogovin, Vadim. Was There An Alternative?.
- ^ "Obshchestvo starykh bol'shevikov" Общество старых большевиков [Society of Old Bolsheviks]. Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian).
- ^ Rogovin, Vadim. Was There An Alternative?.
- ^ «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
- ^ 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) - ^ 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)
- ^ 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"
- ^ Tucker, Robert C. (1992). "Letter of an Old Bolshevik". Slavic Review. 51 (4): 782–785.