Before the 1917 Revolution (1901–1917) mugshot, 1908 Grigory Zinoviev was born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky () in Yelizavetgrad,
Russian Empire (now
Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine), the eldest son of
Jewish dairy farmers Aron and Reizy Radomyslsky, who educated him at home. Between 1924 and 1934 the city was known as Zinovyevsk ( ). Grigory Zinoviev was also known in early life under the name Hirsch. He later adopted several designations, such as Shatski, Grigoriev, Grigori and Zinoviev, by the two last of which he is most frequently called. Zinoviev studied philosophy, literature and history, and became interested in politics, joining the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1901. He was a member of its
Bolshevik faction from the time of its creation in 1903. Between 1903 and the fall of the
Russian Empire in February 1917, he was a leading Bolshevik and one of
Vladimir Lenin's closest associates, working both within Russia during the
1905 Revolution and abroad as he moved across Europe. Zinoviev was elected to the RSDLP's Central Committee in 1907 and sided with Lenin in 1908 when the Bolshevik faction split into Lenin's supporters and
Alexander Bogdanov's followers. He left for Western Europe to support Lenin in matters of propaganda and party organization. Zinoviev remained Lenin's constant aide-de-camp and representative in various
socialist organizations until 1917.
1917 , among
the Political Commissars in 1918 Zinoviev spent the first three years of
World War I in
Switzerland. After the
Russian monarchy was overthrown during the
February Revolution, he returned to Russia in April 1917 in a
sealed train with Lenin and other revolutionaries opposed to the war. He remained a part of the Bolshevik leadership throughout most of that year and spent time with Lenin after being forced into hiding in the period following the
July Days. However, Zinoviev and Lenin soon had a falling out over Zinoviev's opposition to Lenin's call for an open rebellion against the Provisional Government. On 10 October 1917 (Julian calendar), he and
Lev Kamenev were the only two
Central Committee members to vote against an armed revolt. Their publication of an open letter opposing the use of force enraged Lenin, who demanded their expulsion from the party. On 29 October 1917 (Julian calendar), immediately after the Bolshevik seizure of power during the
October Revolution, the executive committee of the national railroad labour union,
Vikzhel, threatened a national strike unless the Bolsheviks shared power with other
socialist parties and dropped Lenin and
Leon Trotsky from the government. Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their allies in the Bolshevik Central Committee argued that the Bolsheviks had no choice but to start negotiations since a railroad strike would cripple their government's ability to fight the forces that were still loyal to the overthrown
Provisional Government. Negotiations were started but Zinoviev and Kamenev had the support of a Central Committee majority only briefly as a quick collapse of the anti-Bolshevik forces outside
Petrograd allowed Lenin and Trotsky to convince the Central Committee to abandon the negotiating process. In response, Zinoviev, Kamenev,
Alexei Rykov,
Vladimir Milyutin, and
Victor Nogin resigned from the Central Committee on 4 November 1917 (
Julian calendar). The following day, Lenin wrote a proclamation calling Zinoviev and Kamenev "deserters". He never forgot this conflict, eventually making an ambiguous reference to their "October episode" in his
Testament.
The Civil War (1918–1920) , addresses the crowd on the
first International Workers' Day after the
October Uprising (the Bolshevik Revolution), 1 May 1918. Zinoviev soon returned to the fold and was once again elected to the Central Committee at the
VII Party Congress on 8 March 1918. He was put in charge of the
Petrograd (Saint Petersburg before 1914,
Leningrad 1924–91) city and regional government. Sometime in 1918, while Ukraine was under German occupation, the rabbis of Odessa ceremonially anathematized (pronounced
herem against) Trotsky, Zinoviev, and other Bolshevik leaders of Jewish descent in the synagogue. Shortly after the assassination of
Petrograd Cheka leader
Moisei Uritsky in August 1918 and the commencement of the five-year
Red Terror period of political repression and mass killings, Zinoviev said: He became a non-voting member of the ruling
Politburo when it was created after the
VIII Congress on 25 March 1919. He also became the Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the
Comintern when it was created in March 1919. It was in this capacity he presided over the
Congress of the Peoples of the East in
Baku in September 1920 and gave his famous four-hour speech in German at the
Halle congress of the
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany in October 1920. Zinoviev was responsible for Petrograd's defence during two periods of intense clashes with
White forces in 1919. Trotsky, who was in overall charge of the
Red Army during the
Russian Civil War, thought little of Zinoviev's leadership, which aggravated their strained relationship.
Rise to the top (1921–1923) In early 1921, when the Communist Party was split into several factions, and policy disagreements were threatening the unity of the Party, Zinoviev supported Lenin's faction. As a result, Zinoviev was made a full member of the Politburo after the
Xth Party Congress on 16 March 1921, while members of other factions, such as
Nikolai Krestinsky, were dropped from the Politburo and the
Secretariat. Zinoviev was one of the most influential figures in the Soviet leadership during Lenin's final illness in 1922–23 and immediately after his death in January 1924. He delivered the Central Committee's reports to the
XIIth and
XIIIth Party Congresses in 1923 and 1924, respectively, something that Lenin had previously done. He was also considered one of the Communist Party's leading theoreticians. One of the main functions of the Comintern was
Bolshevization, whereby the proletarian revolution was postponed, and an emphasis was put on unconditional support for the Kremlin's foreign policy. The Comintern closely supervised many national parties, and reorganized them along Soviet lines, with a healthy dose of Soviet political rhetoric as well. Trotsky attributed Stalin's appointment to the initial recommendation of Zinoviev. This view has been supported by several historians. According to Russian historian
Vadim Rogovin, Stalin's election occurred after the
Eleventh Party Congress (March–April 1922), in which Lenin, due to his poor health, participated only sporadically, and only attended four of the twelve sessions of the Congress.
With Stalin and Kamenev against Trotsky (1923–1924) among the delegates to the second congress of
the Comintern at the
Uritsky Palace in Petrograd, 1920 During Lenin's final illness, Zinoviev, his close associate Kamenev and
Joseph Stalin formed a ruling
Triumvirate (also known by its Russian name
Troika) in the
Communist Party, playing a key role in marginalization of
Leon Trotsky. According to political scientist, Michael Reiman, Zinoviev was unable to assert a dominant position in the party on his own and that position passed onto Stalin. The triumvirate carefully managed the intra-party debate and delegate-selection process in autumn 1923, during the run-up to the XIIIth Party Conference, and secured the vast majority of the seats. The Conference, held in January 1924 just before Lenin's death, denounced Trotsky and
Trotskyism. Some of Trotsky's supporters suffered demotion or reassignment in the wake of his defeat, and Zinoviev's power and influence seemed at its zenith. However, as subsequent events showed, his real power base was limited to the Petrograd/Leningrad Party organization, while the rest of the Communist Party apparatus came increasingly under Stalin's control. After Trotsky's defeat at the XIIIth Conference, tensions between Zinoviev and Kamenev, on the one hand, and Stalin on the other became more pronounced and threatened to end their alliance. Nevertheless, Zinoviev and Kamenev helped Stalin retain his position as
General Secretary of the Central Committee at the
XIIIth Party Congress in May–June 1924 during the first
Lenin's Testament controversy. (first on the right), Grigory Zinoviev (third from the right),
Avel Enukidze (fourth from the right) and
Nikolai Antipov (fifth from the right), June 1924 After a brief lull in the summer of 1924, Trotsky published
Lessons of October, an extensive summary of the events of 1917. In the article, Trotsky described Zinoviev's and Kamenev's opposition to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, something that the two would have preferred left unmentioned. This started a new round of intra-party struggle, with Zinoviev and Kamenev once again allied with Stalin against Trotsky. They and their supporters accused Trotsky of various mistakes during the
Russian Civil War in order to damage his reputation, and alleged that he was plotting a military coup. This campaign prompted Trotsky to resign in protest as
People's Commissar of Army and Fleet Affairs and Chairman of the
Revolutionary Military Council in January 1925, stating that the constant political attacks made it impossible to carry out his duties as military leader. Zinoviev further demanded Trotsky's expulsion from the Communist Party, but Stalin refused to go along at that time and played the role of a mediator.
Break with Stalin (1925) With Trotsky finally on the sidelines, the Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin triumvirate began to crumble early in 1925. The two sides spent most of the year lining up support behind the scenes. Stalin struck an alliance with a Communist Party theoretician and
Pravda editor
Nikolai Bukharin and Soviet prime minister
Alexei Rykov. Zinoviev and Kamenev allied with Lenin's widow,
Nadezhda Krupskaya, and
Grigory Sokolnikov, the Soviet Commissar of
Finance and a non-voting Politburo member. The struggle became open at the September 1925 meeting of the Central Committee and came to a head at the
XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. With only the Leningrad delegation behind them, Zinoviev and Kamenev found themselves in a tiny minority and were soundly defeated. Zinoviev was re-elected to the Politburo, but his ally Kamenev was demoted from a full member to a non-voting member and Sokolnikov was dropped altogether, while Stalin had more of his allies elected to the Politburo. Within weeks of the Congress, Stalin wrested control of the Leningrad party organization and government from Zinoviev and had him dismissed from all regional posts, leaving only the Comintern as a possible power base for Zinoviev. According to historian Vadim Rogovin, Zinoviev would later lambast Stalin with the words, "Does comrade Stalin know what gratitude is?", as a reminder that Kamenev and himself had saved him from political downfall with the censure of Lenin's testament during the
Thirteenth Congress. Stalin responded with the words: "But of course I know, I know very well - it's an illness that afflicts dogs".
With Trotsky and Kamenev against Stalin (1926–1927) During a lull in the intra-party fighting in the spring of 1926, Zinoviev, Kamenev and their supporters gravitated closer to Trotsky's supporters and the two groups soon formed an alliance, which also incorporated some smaller opposition groups within the Communist Party. The alliance became known as the
United Opposition. In May 1926, Stalin, weighing his options in a letter to
Vyacheslav Molotov, directed his supporters to concentrate their attacks on Zinoviev since the latter was intimately familiar with Stalin's methods from their time together in the triumvirate. Following Stalin's orders, his supporters accused Zinoviev of using the Comintern apparatus in support of factional activities (the
Lashevich Affair) and Zinoviev was dismissed from the Politburo after a tumultuous Central Committee meeting in July 1926. Soon thereafter the office of the Comintern Chairman was abolished, and Zinoviev lost his last important post. Zinoviev remained in opposition to Stalin throughout 1926 and 1927, resulting in his expulsion from the Central Committee in October 1927. When the United Opposition tried to organize independent demonstrations commemorating the 10th anniversary of the October revolution in November 1927, the demonstrators were dispersed by force and Zinoviev and Trotsky were expelled from the Communist Party on 12 November. Their leading supporters, from Kamenev down, were expelled in December 1927 by the
XVth Party Congress, which paved the way for mass expulsions of rank-and-file oppositionists as well as internal exile of opposition leaders in early 1928.
Submission to Stalin (1928–1934) , General Secretary of the Communist Party;
Alexei Rykov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Prime Minister);
Lev Kamenev, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Deputy Prime Minister); Grigory Zinoviev, Chairman of the Comintern's Executive Committee While Trotsky remained firm in his opposition to Stalin after his expulsion from the Party and subsequent exile, Zinoviev and Kamenev capitulated almost immediately and called on their supporters to follow suit. They wrote open letters acknowledging their mistakes and were readmitted to the Communist Party after a six-month cooling off period. They never regained their Central Committee seats, but they were given mid-level positions within the Soviet bureaucracy. Bukharin, then at the beginning of his short and ill-fated struggle with Stalin, courted Kamenev and, indirectly, Zinoviev during the summer of 1928. This was soon reported to Stalin and used against Bukharin as proof of his factionalism. After once more admitting their supposed mistakes, they were readmitted to the Party in December 1933. They were forced to make self-flagellating speeches at the
XVIIth Party Congress in January 1934, with Stalin parading his erstwhile political opponents, now defeated and outwardly contrite.
The Moscow trials (1935–1936) After the murder of
Sergei Kirov on 1 December 1934 (which served as one of the triggers for the
Great Purge of the Soviet Communist Party), Zinoviev, Kamenev and their closest associates were once again expelled from the party and arrested the same month. They were tried in January 1935 and forced to admit "moral complicity" in Kirov's assassination. Zinoviev was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his supporters to various prison terms. In August 1936, after months of rehearsals in secret police prisons, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others, mostly
Old Bolsheviks, were put on trial again. This time, the charges included forming a terrorist organization that killed Kirov and tried to kill Stalin and other leaders of the Soviet government. This
Trial of the Sixteen (or the trial of the "Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Center") was the first
Moscow Show Trial and set the stage for subsequent show trials where Old Bolsheviks confessed to increasingly elaborate and egregious crimes, including espionage, poisoning and sabotage. Zinoviev and the other defendants were found guilty on 24 August 1936. Before the trial, Zinoviev and Kamenev had agreed to plead guilty to the false charges on the condition that they not be executed, a condition that Stalin accepted, stating "that goes without saying". A few hours after their conviction, Stalin ordered their execution that night. Shortly after midnight, on the morning of 25 August, Zinoviev and Kamenev were executed by firing squad. in prison in 1936. Accounts of Zinoviev's execution vary, with some having him beg and plead for his life, prompting the stoic Kamenev to tell Zinoviev to "quiet down and
die with dignity". Zinoviev allegedly struggled against the guards escorting him so fiercely that instead of taking him to the appointed execution room, he was simply dragged into a nearby cell and shot there. Zinoviev's futile pleading was later re-enacted and mocked by Stalin's personal bodyguard,
Karl Pauker. Stalin was described to have "laughed immoderately on seeing an imitation of the old Bolshevik leader Grigori Zinoviev being dragged to his execution, making pleas for mercy with obscenities". Stalin was told Zinoviev's last words were "
Hear, O Israel ..." Pauker would himself later perish in the purges. The execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev and their associates was a sensational news event in the USSR and around the world, paving the way for the mass arrests and executions of the
Great Purge of 1937–1938. In 1988, during
perestroika, Zinoviev and his co-defendants were formally
rehabilitated by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. == "Zinoviev Letter" ==