1883. Grigory Zinoviev was born

130 years ago, on September 23, 1883, Grigory Evseevich Zinoviev (Radomysolsky), one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, the first chairman of the executive committee of the Comintern, was born for many years the closest ally and a friend of Lenin.

During the Civil War, he actively carried out the Red Terror in Petrograd, being the head of the Petrograd labor commune, the Union of Communities of the Northern Region and the chairman of the revolutionary defense committee of Petrograd.

In 1925-1927, Zinoviev was, along with Kamenev and Trotsky, one of the leaders of the United opposition to the Stalinist leadership of the CPSU (b) and was expelled from the party at the 15th Congress; After repentance, he was restored in her ranks.

On December 16, 1934, Zinoviev was arrested and soon sentenced to ten years in prison in the Moscow Center case. He was entrusted with “moral responsibility” for the murder of Kirov. On August 24, 1936, he was sentenced to the highest degree of punishment in the case of the "Anti-Soviet United Trotskyist-Zinovievsky Center". He was rehabilitated in 1988.

Trotsky characterized Zinoviev as follows: “In the agitation whirlwind of that period, Zinoviev, a speaker of exceptional force, occupied a large place. At the first moment, his tall Tenor voice was surprised, and then bribed a peculiar musicality. Zinoviev was a born agitator ... Opponents called Zinoviev the greatest demagogue among the Bolsheviks ... At the party’s meetings, he knew how to convince, conquer, fascinate when he appeared with a ready -made political idea tested at mass rallies and, as if rich in hopes and hatred of workers and soldiers. Zinoviev was capable of, on the other hand, in a hostile meeting, even in the then Executive Committee, to give the most extreme and explosive thoughts an enveloping, insinuating form, climbing into the heads of those who treated him with a pre -ready distrust. To achieve such invaluable results, he had little consciousness of his innocence; He needed a sedative confidence that political responsibility was removed from him with a reliable and strong hand. Such confidence was given to him by Lenin. "