Back Jakof Swerdlof Afrikaans ياكوف سفيردلوف Arabic ياكوف سفيردلوف ARZ Yakov Sverdlov Azerbaijani Свердлов Яков Михайлович Bashkir Якаў Міхайлавіч Свярдлоў Byelorussian Яков Свердлов Bulgarian Iàkov Sverdlov Catalan Jakov Sverdlov Czech Jakow Michailowitsch Swerdlow German
Yakov Sverdlov | |
|---|---|
| Яков Свердлов | |
 Sverdlov in 1918 | |
| Acting Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR | |
| In office 30 August 1918 – 14 October 1918 | |
| Preceded by | Vladimir Lenin |
| Succeeded by | Vladimir Lenin |
| Chairman of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) | |
| In office 8 March 1918 – 16 March 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Elena Stasova (as Responsible Secretary) |
| Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets | |
| In office 21 November 1917 – 16 March 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Lev Kamenev |
| Succeeded by | Mikhail Vladimirsky (acting) |
| Member of the Russian Constituent Assembly | |
| In office 25 November 1917 – 20 January 1918[a] | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Simbirsk |
| Member of the 6th, 7th Bureau | |
| In office 29 November 1917 – 16 March 1919 | |
| Member of the 6th, 7th Secretariat | |
| In office 6 August 1917 – 16 March 1919 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 June 1885 Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 16 March 1919 (aged 33) Moscow, Russian SFSR |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow |
| Nationality | |
| Political party | RSDLP (1902–1912) Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1912–1919) |
| Spouse | Klavdia Novgorodtseva |
| Children | Andrei, Vera |
| Relatives | Zinovy Peshkov (brother) Venyamin Sverdlov (brother) Leopold Averbakh (nephew) Ida Averbakh (niece) |
Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov[b] (3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1885 – 16 March 1919) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A key Bolshevik organizer of the October Revolution of 1917, Sverdlov served as chairman of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party from 1918 until his death in 1919, and as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (head of state) from 1917 until his death.
Born in Nizhny Novgorod to a Jewish family active in revolutionary politics, Sverdlov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902 and supported Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction from 1903. He was active in the Urals during the failed Revolution of 1905, and over the next decade was subjected to constant imprisonment and exile. After the 1917 February Revolution overthrew the monarchy, Sverdlov returned to Petrograd and was appointed a secretary of the party's central committee. In this capacity, he played a key role in planning the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks came to power. Sverdlov became one of most powerful figures in the Soviet regime, with Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin.
In November 1917, Sverdlov was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the de facto head of state. He worked to consolidate Bolshevik control of the new regime and supported the Red Terror campaign and decossackization policies. He played major roles in the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, in persuading party members to support the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with the Central Powers that March, and in authorising the execution of the Romanov family that July. He also served as the acting chairman of the Soviet government after an assassination attempt on Lenin in 1918.
In March 1919, Sverdlov died at age 33 of the Spanish flu, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The city of Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) and Theatre Square in Moscow were renamed in his honour. Some historians regard his untimely death as a key factor which enabled the rise of Stalin after Lenin's death in 1924, as Sverdlov was a natural candidate for the post of General Secretary held by Stalin from 1922.[1][2]
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- ^ Mccauley, Martin (13 September 2013). Stalin and Stalinism: Revised 3rd Edition. Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-317-86369-4. Archived from the original on 13 July 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ^ Ragsdale, Hugh (1996). The Russian Tragedy: The Burden of History. M.E. Sharpe. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-56324-755-2. Archived from the original on 18 August 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.