Alexander Pavlovich Helfgot (Russian: Гельфгот Александр Павлович, 1887-1938) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary politician and economist.[1] He was a prominent Socialist-Revolutionary figure during the years of 1917-1922. Arrested in 1922, he spent 17 years in prisons or internal exile before being executed in 1938.
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Early life edit
Alexander Helfgot was born in 1887.[2][3] His father was Pavel Grigorevich Helfgot, born around 1861 in a Jewish family from Tiflis and who had been arrested in 1885 by the Warsaw Governorate Gendarmerie in connection with the Second Proletariat case.[4][5] Alexander Helfgot grew up in Rostov-on-Don.[3] He joined the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1904.[6]
Political career edit
In 1915-1916 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Labour Bureau, which was set up under the section for placement of refugees of the All-Russian Union of Cities.[2]
As of 1917 was one of the editors of the newspaper Trud ('Labour'), the organ of the Moscow Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1] He was elected to the Moscow City Duma in 1917.[7] As of 1919 he was a member of the Yekaterinodar Governorate Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1][8] In 1920 inducted into the Central Bureau of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2] The Central Bureau was a party leadership body formed after all of the Central Committee members of the party had been arrested, albeit the Central Bureau members were also soon arrested as well.[9]
Arrest edit
On March 23, 1921 Helfgot was arrested on Nikolsky Lane in Moscow.[2][1][6] He was detained at Butyrka prison.[2] Whilst in prison Helfgot authored an essay about the Cheka titled Korabl smerti ('Ship of Death').[1] The text was smuggled out of Russia and was published by the exiled Central Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in Berlin in 1922.[3][8]
On February 24, 1922, the Presidium of the GPU included him in the list of Socialist-Revolutionaries who, in connection with the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, were charged with anti-Soviet activities.[2] He served as a witness for the defense at the trial.[6] On December 18, 1922 a NKVD commission sentenced him to three years imprisonment for anti-Soviet actions, and he was sent to prison camp in Arkhangelsk.[6]
Years in internal exile edit
As of 1930 he was serving his "minus six" period in Kokand. He was arrested and charged with organization of Socialist-Revolutionary activities and foreign connections.[6] On January 3, 1931 the Special Department of the OGPU Collegium decreed that he be exiled to Ust-Sysolsk. In 1933 his site of exile was shifted to Vologda.[6] In February a two-year extension of his exile was issued.[6]
Great Terror edit
Helfgot was arrested by the NKVD in Vologda on February 8, 1937. The indictment was signed off by Major Sergei Zhupakhin, Head of the NKVD Department in Vologda. Helfgot was accused of having tried to reorganize the Socialist-Revolutionary movement since arriving in Vologda. The NKVD investigation lasted for over one year.[6] Helfgot was sentenced and executed on April 25, 1938.[1][6]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f Историческая энциклопедия. ГЕЛЬФГОТ Александр Павлович
- ^ a b c d e f g h Сергей Александрович Красильников, Константин Николаевич Морозов, И. В Чубыкин. Судебный процесс над социалистами-революционерами, июнь-август 1922 г: подготовка, проведение, итоги : сборник документов. РОССПЭН, 2002. p. 859
- ^ a b c Юрий Дойков. А.А. Евдокимов: судьба пророка в России. Акрополь, 1999. p. 129
- ^ Минувшее. Atheneum, 1986. p. 46
- ^ Деятели революционного движения в России: Vosʹmidesi︠a︡tye gody: vyp.1. A-B. vyp.2. G-Z. Izd-vo Vsesoi︠u︡znogo obshchestva politicheskikh katorzhan i ssylʹno-poselent︠s︡ev, 1933. p. 765
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Из работы Вологодского Чека : чекистская мельница молола и «лучших людей России» и их палачей // Русская мысль. – 1996. – № 4140 (12–18 сент.)
- ^ Любовь Федоровна Писарькова. Московская Городская Дума, 1863-1917. Мосгорархив. p. 506
- ^ a b Марк Веньяминович Вишняк. Годы эмиграции, 1919-1969: Париж--Нью-Йорк : (воспоминания). Hoover Institution Press, 1970. p. 129
- ^ Минувшее. Atheneum, 1989. p. 208