Balashov, Semen

(pseudonym, Strannik). Born Feb. 11 (23), 1874, in the village of Sal’tsevo, Shuisk District, Vladimir Province; died Feb. 3, 1925. Soviet Party figure. Member of the Communist Party from 1898.

Born to the family of a peasant, Balashov was originally a worker-weaver. He participated in the organization of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk committee of the RSDLP and was one of the leaders of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk strike of 1905. From 1906 to 1908 he was active in Party work in the Orlov-Briansk committee of the RSDLP, in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, and in Moscow. He was arrested in November 1908 and exiled to Siberia in 1910. In 1917, Balashov was chairman of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk committee of the RSDLP (Bolshevik). In 1918 he participated in the struggle against Kaledin’s troops and in the crushing of the counterrevolutionary revolt in Yaroslavl. Beginning in 1919 he did Party and Soviet work in Kharkov, Poltava, and Moscow.