Vladimirsky Mikhail Fyodorovich (February 20 [March 4], 1874, Arzamas — April 2, 1951, Moscow) was a Soviet party and government figure, a professional revolutionary, and a physician by training. A native of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, in 1903–1905 he worked in Nizhny Novgorod, where he belonged to a circle of revolutionaries who later formed the core of Soviet power. In 1930–1934 he was People's Commissar of Health of the RSFSR, and in 1927–1951 he was Chairman of the Central Auditing Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[1]

Origins and Education

He was born into a priest's family.[4] He first became acquainted with the revolutionary movement and Marxism in Nizhny Novgorod study circles in the early 1890s.[3] From 1895, while a student in the medical faculty of Moscow University, he took part in Social Democratic circles and conducted propaganda work among workers. He completed his medical education at the University of Berlin; in 1903 he received a diploma from Kazan University.[4]

Revolutionary Activity

In 1896 he was arrested and exiled for taking part in the creation of the "Moscow Workers' Union"; in 1898 he returned to Moscow and again joined the work of the Social Democratic organization, and in the spring of 1899 he was exiled a second time. After that he went abroad, where he collaborated in the organization of Iskra.[4] In 1906, having been arrested and put on trial for taking part in the December armed uprising of 1905 in Moscow, he emigrated to France before the trial, where he worked in the Paris group of Bolsheviks and the Committee of Foreign Organizations until 1917.[1]

Returning to Russia in July 1917, he became a member of the bureau of the Moscow Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks). In October 1917 he was a member of the party's combat center directing the uprising in Moscow.[4]

The Nizhny Novgorod Period

In 1903–1905 Vladimirsky lived and worked in Nizhny Novgorod: he was listed as a zemstvo physician, or, according to other sources, a sanitary physician, while at the same time carrying out illegal party work in the local organization of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.[2][4] During this period he grew close to a number of revolutionaries who later held prominent posts: Nikolay Semashko, Aleksey Rykov, Platon Kerzhentsev, and others.[2] In the autumn of 1905 he moved to Moscow, where, as a member of the Moscow Committee of the party, he took an active part in the December events.[3]

Government Career

After the October Revolution, he worked in the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet. At the 7th Congress of the RCP(b) in 1918, he was elected a member of the Central Committee.[1] In March 1919, after the death of Yakov Sverdlov, he temporarily served as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK).[2] From 1919 to 1921, he was a member of the VTsIK Presidium and deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR. From 1922 to 1925, he worked in Ukraine, holding the posts of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR, secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U, chairman of the Central Control Commission of the CP(b)U, and People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the Ukrainian SSR. From 1926 to 1927, he was deputy chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee (Gosplan), and from 1927 to 1929, chairman of the Union of Unions of Agricultural Cooperation.[4]

From 1930 to 1934, he headed the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. During this period, he was implicated in repressions against doctors: he made accusations against the scientific groups of S. G. Levit and V. A. Obukh, and initiated the "Case of the Chief Physicians of Moscow Hospitals" (1931) and the "Case of the Counterrevolutionary Organization of Doctors of the Moscow Region" (1933).[2] From 1927 to 1951, he was chairman of the Central Auditing Commission of the VKP(b); he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 3rd convocation (1950–1951).[1] He was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1945, 1946).[4]

He was the author of works on Soviet state-building and public health, including the book "The Organization of Soviet Power in the Localities" (1919, 1921), as well as articles in the journal "Vlast Sovetov" ("Power of the Soviets").[3]

Legacy

His urn with ashes is interred in the Kremlin Wall on Red Square in Moscow.[1] In 1951, Vladimirsky's name was given to the Moscow Regional Research Clinical Institute (MONIKI).[2]

Sources

  1. names52.ru — Vladimirsky Mikhail Fyodorovich
  2. historymed.ru — 100 Years of the Main Directorate of State Health Care of Russia
  3. dic.academic.ru — Vladimirsky, Mikhail Fyodorovich — Who Was Vladimirsky, Mikhail Fyodorovich?
  4. booksite.ru — Vladimirsky
Materials from the following articles were used (3)

In progress, Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhaylovich, Semashko Nikolay Aleksandrovich