Early life and first exile Steinberg was born in Dvinsk,
Russian Empire (today
Daugavpils,
Latvia), into a family of
Orthodox Jewish merchants. He was raised in a traditional religious home. In 1906, Steinberg entered
Moscow University, where he studied law. He joined the
Socialist Revolutionary Party (also known as SRs). He was arrested in 1908 and sent to
Tobolsk province for 2 years. After exile he left for
Germany and studied at the
University of Heidelberg, graduating with a
master's degree. On December 19, 1917, he signed an “Instruction” to the
Revolutionary Tribunal on the termination of systematic repressions against individuals, institutions and the press and sent a corresponding telegram to the Soviets at all levels. From December 1917 - January 1918, the Council of People's Commissars examined Steinberg's claims against the
Cheka several times. On December 31, 1917, the
Sovnarkom, on his initiative, decided to delimit the functions of the Cheka under the
Petrograd Soviet. After the scandal caused by the murder of
Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev and
Fyodor Kokoshkin on the night of January 6–7, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars, after hearing the report of Steinberg, instructed the NKJ to “as soon as possible verify the thoroughness of the detention of political prisoners ... all those who cannot be charged within 48 hours should be released”. On February 18, 1918, he released
Vladimir Burtsev from prison. In March–April 1918, Steinberg confronted
Felix Dzerzhinsky. In the spring of 1918 he saved
Prince George Lvov, who was about to be executed by the Ural Bolsheviks under
Filipp Goloshchekin, with Steinberg ordering Lvov's release along with two other prisoners under a written undertaking not to leave Yekaterinburg. On March 15, 1918, he resigned his post and left the SNK in protest against the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On March 19, as part of the southern delegation of the Left SR Central Committee, he went to
Kursk to organize partisan detachments. From there he went to the south of the country, visited
Kharkov,
Rostov-on-Don, and took part in the
All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in
Yekaterinoslav. Steinberg was elected to the All-Ukrainian Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. Together with
Boris Kamkov and
Vladimir Karelin, he became the organizer of the Main Military Headquarters of the Left SRs in
Taganrog. In the spring of 1918, he actively participated in the Second Congress of the Left SRs. He delivered a speech approving the withdrawal of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries from the SNK and warned of the danger of the Soviet bureaucracy. He was arrested by the Cheka on February 10, 1919 and spent four and a half months in custody. In 1923, having been warned that he was in danger of assassination, Steinberg again moved to
Germany and took his young family to live with him in
Berlin. Steinberg based his campaign on the officially declared need to populate northern Australia. On 23 May 1939 he arrived in
Perth and by early 1940 gained substantial public support, but also encountered opposition. Steinberg left
Australia in June 1943 to rejoin his family in
Canada. On 15 July 1944 he was informed by the Australian Prime Minister
John Curtin that the Australian government would not "depart from the
long-established policy in regard to alien settlement in Australia" and could not "entertain the proposal for a group settlement of the exclusive type contemplated by the Freeland League". Steinberg was an Orthodox Jew; it is rumored that during his short tenure as Commissar of Justice he refused to work on
Sabbath, much to Lenin's dismay. Isaac Steinberg died in New York in 1957. His son was the distinguished art historian
Leo Steinberg. ==Political views==