Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov

Yakov Sverdlov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1885. When he was a student he became involved in radical politics and in 1902 joined the Social Democratic Party. He quickly became a supporter of the Bolshevik faction led by Vladimir Lenin. Sverdlov took part in the 1905 Revolution and developed a reputation as one of the party's leading orators. Arrested in June, 1906, and was imprisoned for three years. On his release in 1909 he moved to Moscow but he was now a well-known revolutionary and was soon arrested and deported to Siberia. Sverdlov escaped in 1910 but was re-arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. He made several unsuccessful attempts to escape and on one occasion nearly died after spending several hours in icy water. In the autumn of 1912 Sverdlov managed to escape and reach St Petersburg. He worked on Pravda until he was betrayed by the double agent Roman Malinovsky and was exiled to Turukhansk in Siberia. After the February Revolution and the abdication of Nicholas II, Sverdlov was released and he returned to Petrograd where he became a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee. Together with Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, Sverdlov was a strong advocate of an armed uprising and helped organize the October Revolution. A close ally of Vladimir Lenin, Sverdlov played an important role in persuading leading Bolsheviks to accept the decisions to close down the Constituent Assembly (bourgeois parliament) and the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. It was claimed that Lenin provided the theories and Sverdlov made sure they worked. Despite his young age, Sverdlov was expected to be Lenin's choice as the party's next leader. In 1919 Sverdlov toured the country making speeches encouraging people to support the Bolsheviks in the struggle against the White Army. While in Oryol he got he was a victim of the influenza epidemic that was spreading all of Europe. Yakov Sverdlov died, aged thirty-three, on 16th March, 1919. Speech of Lenin in memory of Sverdlov: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/mar/18.htm Memorial article on Sverdlov written by Leon Trotsky: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1925/03/sverdlov.htm Lunacharsky on Sverdlov: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lunachar/works/silhouet/sverdlov.htm