Zinoviev, Grigori Evseyevich

Zinoviev, Grigori Evseyevich

(grĭgô`rē yĭfsyā`əvĭch zēnô`vēĕf), 1883–1936, Soviet Communist leader, originally named Radomyslsky. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor party in 1901 and sided with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction after 1903 (see Bolshevism and MenshevismBolshevism and Menshevism
, the two main branches of Russian socialism from 1903 until the consolidation of the Bolshevik dictatorship under Lenin in the civil war of 1918–20.
..... Click the link for more information.
). He conducted agitation in St. Petersburg during the 1905 revolution and was elected to the central committee of the party in 1907. After a brief period in jail, he went abroad in 1908. Zinoviev was one of Lenin's closest collaborators in exile (1909–17) and returned to Russia with him after the Feb., 1917, revolution. He and Lev KamenevKamenev, Lev Borisovich
, 1883–1936, Soviet Communist leader. His original name was Rosenfeld. He joined (1901) the Social Democratic party and sided with the Bolshevik wing when the party split (1903).
..... Click the link for more information.
 opposed Lenin's plan for the Bolshevik seizure of power in Nov., 1917 (Oct., 1917, O.S.), which they regarded as premature, but they were outvoted and abided by the majority decision. After the Bolshevik takeover, Zinoviev served as head of the CominternComintern
[acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International, founded at Moscow in 1919. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin feared a resurgence of the Second, or Socialist, International under non-Communist leadership.
..... Click the link for more information.
 (1919–26) and as a member of the Communist party politburo (1921–26). On Lenin's death (1924), Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Joseph StalinStalin, Joseph Vissarionovich
, 1879–1953, Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own death, b. Gori, Georgia.
..... Click the link for more information.
 formed a ruling triumvirate. Zinoviev led the triumvirate's attack on Leon TrotskyTrotsky, Leon
, 1879–1940, Russian Communist revolutionary, one of the principal leaders in the establishment of the USSR; his original name was Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Early Career

Trotsky was born of Jewish parents in the S Ukraine.
..... Click the link for more information.
, calling for his expulsion from the party. After an initial victory over Trotsky (1924), Stalin, in an effort to consolidate his own power, turned against Zinoviev and Kamenev, defeating them and their so-called left opposition in 1925. Zinoviev and Kamenev then allied themselves with Trotsky (1926), but to no avail. Zinoviev was removed from his party posts in 1926 and expelled from the party in 1927. He recanted and was readmitted in 1928 but wielded little influence. Many features of the Zinoviev-Kamenev program, emphasizing rapid industrialization and collectivization, were incorporated (1928) in Stalin's first Five-Year PlanFive-Year Plan,
Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR and the Soviet bloc members, especially developing countries, have adopted such
..... Click the link for more information.
. In 1935, Zinoviev was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment purportedly for giving his encouragement to the assassins of Sergei KirovKirov, Sergei Mironovich
, 1888–1934, Russian Soviet leader. He fought in the civil war of 1918–20 and rose to power as one of Stalin's most trusted aides. A member of the Communist party Politburo from 1930, he was secretary of the party at Leningrad (now St.
..... Click the link for more information.
. Accused (1936) of conspiring to overthrow the government, he was the chief defendant in the first of the trials held by Stalin, which resulted in Zinoviev's execution along with Kamenev and 13 other old Bolsheviks. In 1988, he was posthumously rehabilitated and the verdict of his show trial was annulled by the Soviet supreme court. The so-called Zinoviev letter was published (1924) in the British press. It was allegedly written by Zinoviev in his capacity as Comintern chief and contained instructions for Communist revolution in England. Although a forgery, the Zinoviev letter helped to defeat Britain's first Labour government in elections that year.

Bibliography

See E. M. Carr, The Russian Revolution (1979).