Ilya Matveyevich Weinstock (exact years of birth and death not established) was a revolutionary propagandist active in Kulebaki in the early 20th century; one of the founders of the local revolutionary organization. Son of the forestry specialist Matvey (Moisei) Ilyich Weinstock, who worked at the Kulebaki mining works.[1]
Origin and family
Ilya's father, Matvey (Moisei) Ilyich Weinstock, was a graduate of the Novo-Aleksandriysk Institute of Agriculture and Forestry (in present-day Poland), a native of the Kingdom of Poland, of merchant origin. Together with his wife Rebecca Lvovna, he professed Judaism, though he recorded their names in the Russian manner. Matvey Weinstock was invited to the Kulebaki mining works as a forstmeister (a peat and forestry specialist) with the support of director L. A. Truskovsky and chief engineer I. A. Besser. From the autumn of 1873 he took part in land surveys and peat-bog research, and in the spring of 1874 he headed the newly created Forestry and Peat Section at the works, working there until the end of the 19th century. Thus the Weinstock name was well known in Kulebaki long before the revolutionary events.[1]
Revolutionary activity
Ilya Weinstock was exiled to Siberia and returned from there to Kulebaki in 1903, receiving the nickname "the Student" in the local revolutionary milieu. According to the recollections of L. Parodnya (Panteleyeva), a participant in the Kulebaki revolutionary movement, it was precisely his arrival in 1903 that marked the founding of the Kulebaki revolutionary organization.[1]
Weinstock developed propaganda work within the local circle, gradually preparing its members for work among the factory workers. In that same year, 1903, the organization acquired a primitive printing device — a hectograph — and it began producing its own literature. Weinstock set up a correspondents' bureau for Nizhegorodsky Listok)" newspaper and ensured that the publication was distributed not only among party members but also among non-party residents of the factory settlement.[1]
Memory
Ilya Weinstock's name is mentioned on memorial plaques dedicated to the revolutionary events in Kulebaki. Local history publications have repeatedly cited the recollections of Parodnya (Panteleyeva), in which his role was romanticized.[1]
Sources
- vk.ru — Forgotten Names. The Weinstock Family
- silverage.ru — Georgy Chulkov, Years of Wandering, Under Open Surveillance — a Silver Age silhouette... (archived)