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Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to 1917 and a leading figure in the early Soviet government. He served as chairman [predsedatel] of the Communist International (Comintern) from 1919 to 1926.
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entertainment · Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician (1883–1936) · actor · politician · revolutionary · also Grigory Zinoviev, Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev, Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, Zinoviev
Born 23 September 1883 · Died 25 August 1936 · Q207459
34 published statements · 0 followers
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[A] young Petersburg delegate spoke. All had hastily left their seats and almost no one listenen to him. The speaker was obliged to mount a chair in order to attract attention. But notwithstanding these extremely unfavorable circumstances, he managed to draw an ever-growing press of delegates around him and before long the assemblage quieted down. That speech made the novice a member of the Central Committee.
These incidents were forgiven and, in large measure, forgotten by the party. But they left the impression of a basic timidity of character beneath a blustering exterior. Zinoviev shrank from the responsibility of decisive action, but shrank equally from the consequences of persisting in his opposition.
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“[A] young Petersburg delegate spoke. All had hastily left their seats and almost no one listenen to him. The speaker was obliged to mount a chair in order to attract attention. But notwithstanding these extremely unfavorable circumstances, he managed to draw an ever-growing press of delegates around him and before long the assemblage quieted down. That speech made the novice a member of the Central Committee.”
“These incidents were forgiven and, in large measure, forgotten by the party. But they left the impression of a basic timidity of character beneath a blustering exterior. Zinoviev shrank from the responsibility of decisive action, but shrank equally from the consequences of persisting in his opposition.”
“My head spun in the spring sun. I hurried home with the paper, which was not yet dry. There I found already a telegram from Vladimir Ilyich, ordering me to come 'immediately' to Zurich.”
“Zinoviev was not in the least a systematic thinker who could state a coherent outlook in propositional form. On the other hand, he was an inspirational speaker who very often told stories — small anecdotes from daily life, large narratives about the revolution as a whole — in order to impress his audience. An assessment of the coherence and consistency of his outlook therefore requires a systematic survey of his many speeches during his time in the top leadership of the ruling Bolshevik party.”
During perestroika, Zinoviev and his co-defendants were formally rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
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Published in English translation in 1960 as Reminiscences of Lenin
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That Stalin and his inner circle were already focused on enemies in the Leninigrad party organization, phoning up Yezhov with the instruction to "look for the killer among the Zinovievites
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Died 1936-08-25.
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Zinoviev was accused of complicity in the assassination of Sergei Kirov and was sentenced to ten years in prison
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With Zinoviev purportedly joining the so-called Moscow Center; the assassin Leonid Nikolaev was listed as a member of the dual Leningrad organization
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Due to the Ryutin affair, and rejoined in 1933
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And 1928, with its participants having "melted away" by the latter date so that "after 1929 there was no organization at all
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— a work which was gradually expanded and politically "doctored" in subsequent editions of 1930, 1932, and 1934
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Zinoviev and Kamenev joined with Trotsky in the United Opposition against Stalin
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With the publication of Leninism: Introduction to the Study of Leninism
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Zinoviev allied with Kamenev and Joseph Stalin in a leadership "troika" against Trotsky
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Lenin suffered a second severe stroke, pushing the leadership of the Russian Communist Party into an even deeper flux
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“Radomyslsky...did not immediately strike me as very promising. He was rather a fat young man, pale and sickly, who suffered from shortness of breath and was, I thought, too phlegmatic in temperament. [His companion] Kazakov never allowed him to get a word in edgeways. However, after we had been in permanent touch with them for some time we became convinced that Radomyslsky was an efficient lad...”
Reviewing the history of the Bolshevik party from its foundation down to February 1917
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A move intended to help entrench a close associate in a position of authority
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Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1921–1926).
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Until being removed some time shortly after the enlarged plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) held in February–March 1926
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Career landmark: Candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1919–1921).
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While Ukraine was under German occupation, the rabbis of Odessa ceremonially anathematized (pronounced herem against) Trotsky, Zinoviev, and other Bolshevik leaders of Jewish descent in the synagogue
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“Each of them, to be sure, was Stalin's intellectual superior. But they lacked sufficient character. Lenin had precisely this trait in mind when he wrote in his 'testament' that it was 'no accident' that Zinoviev and Kamenev were opponents of the insurrection in the autumn of 1917. They failed to withstand the pressure of bourgeois public opinion.”
Career landmark: Member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (1917–1917).
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Were brought close together for a time by their opposition to the October Revolution
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Including the Georgian Sergo Ordzhonikidze, later a key member of Joseph Stalin's inner circle
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Following a meeting of the editorial board of the Bolshevik paper Vperëd [Forward], the Okhrana picked up Zinoviev off the street and jailed him at a district police station
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When the Bolshevik faction bitterly split into camps composed of Lenin's supporters and those supporting Alexander Bogdanov and he remained reliably committed to Lenin's various factional maneuvers
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To join the Bolshevik editorial team located there
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Preferring the prospect of college to the prospect of prison
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And sided with Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks in the party's 1903 split, forging a close political relationship with him
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Born 1883-09-23.
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Zinoviev was not in the least a systematic thinker who could state a coherent outlook in propositional form. On the other hand, he was an inspirational speaker who very often told stories — small anecdotes from daily life, large narratives about the revolution as a whole — in order to impress his audience. An assessment of the coherence and consistency of his outlook therefore requires a systematic survey of his many speeches during his time in the top leadership of the ruling Bolshevik party.
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