Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov (May 23 [June 4], 1885, Nizhny Novgorod — March 16, 1919, Moscow) was a party and Soviet statesman, the first chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). A native of Nizhny Novgorod, he spent his childhood, youth, and the start of his revolutionary career there.[2]

The Nizhny Novgorod Years

Sverdlov was born on May 23, 1885, in Nizhny Novgorod into the family of a craftsman. In the early 1890s the family moved to house No. 6 on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, where his childhood and youth were spent. From 1896 to 1900 he studied at the Nizhny Novgorod City Gymnasium. In 1901 he joined the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party) and carried out revolutionary work in Nizhny Novgorod, and then in Kostroma, Yaroslavl, and Kazan.[2] During his Nizhny Novgorod period Sverdlov became acquainted with a number of future prominent figures of Soviet power — N. Semashko, A. Rykov, P. Kerzhentsev, and other revolutionaries.[2]

Revolutionary Activity

After leaving Nizhny Novgorod, from July 1905 Sverdlov conducted underground work in the Urals — in Perm, Yekaterinburg, and at the region's factories. In February 1906 he led the Urals Regional Party Conference and was elected chairman of the regional committee. That same year he was arrested in Perm and was released from prison in 1909. He was subsequently arrested many times and escaped from exile more than once. In February 1913 he was betrayed to the Okhrana (the tsarist secret police) by the provocateur Malinovsky and exiled to the Turukhansk Territory, which he left after the February Revolution.[2]

In April 1917 he led the First Urals Free Conference of the Bolsheviks. At the VII All-Russian (April) Conference of the RSDLP(b) he was elected a member of the Central Committee and headed its Secretariat. He took part in preparing and carrying out the October armed uprising, was a member of the Military Revolutionary Center and the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee. He was chairman of the Bolshevik faction at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.[2]

As Head of the VTsIK

From November 8 (21), 1917, Sverdlov served as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). From April 1918 he headed the commission that drafted the Constitution of the RSFSR; it was he who signed the fundamental law of the Soviet state adopted in 1918.[1][2] In January 1919 he joined the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee. Sverdlov was one of the organizers of the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, of the curtailment of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries' positions in government structures, and was also implicated in the decision to execute the tsar's family and in the policy of "de-Cossackization."[2]

He died on March 16, 1919, in Moscow. V. I. Lenin delivered a speech in Sverdlov's memory at an emergency session of VTsIK on March 18, 1919.[2]

Remembrance in Nizhny Novgorod

In Nizhny Novgorod, a monument to Sverdlov stands in the park at the corner of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street and Oktyabrskaya Street, in close proximity to the house where he spent his childhood. The question of its creation was raised at a session of the Provincial Executive Committee as early as April 27, 1920. The monument's authors were the sculptors P. I. Gusev and N. M. Chugurin; the architect was V. N. Rymarenko. In Soviet times Yekaterinburg was named after Sverdlov (Sverdlovsk), as were a number of streets and squares throughout the country. The politician's selected works were published in three volumes (Moscow, 1957–1960).[2]

Sources

  1. esbirky.cz — Ústava RSFSR (neúplné) — eSbírky
  2. ural.academic.ru — Sverdlov, Yakov (Yankel) Mikhaylovich — what is it? What is Sverdlov, Yakov (Yankel) Mikhaylovich?
Materials from (2) articles used

Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhaylovich, Semashko Nikolay Aleksandrovich