Berg, Eizhen Avgustovich

Born 1892 in Riga; died Sept. 20, 1918. An active participant in the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. Member of the Communist Party from 1917 on. Born into the family of a fisherman.

During World War I Berg was a machinist on the battleship Sevastopol’. After the February Revolution of 1917 he became one of the organizers and leaders of the Bolshevik organization on the ship, as well as a member of the Central Soviet for the Baltic Fleet in the first and third convocations and a member of the Central Soviet for the Navy as a whole. In July 1917 he was arrested by the Provisional Government. He participated in the storming of the Winter Palace on the night of Oct. 26 (Nov. 8), 1917, commanding a sailors’ detachment. He was a member of the Naval Revolutionary Committee. On assignment by V. I. Lenin he, A. R. Zhelezniakov, and N. A. Khovrin headed a detachment of Baltic sailors sent to aid the insurgent workers and soldiers of Moscow. Subsequently he was staff commissar for a detachment of sailors who fought near Belgorod, Kharkov, and Chuguev. During the summer of 1918 he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Soviet and chief of communications for the Caucasian Red Army and participated in combat against the German-Turkish interventionists and counterrevolutionary troops in Azerbaijan. After the temporary downfall of Soviet power in Baku he was arrested and on Sept. 20, 1918, was shot as one of the 26 Baku Commissars.