The Old Bolsheviks (Russian: ста́рый большеви́к|stary bolshevik), also called the Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, were members of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Many Old Bolsheviks became leading politicians and bureaucrats in the Soviet Union and the ruling Communist Party. While some died over the years from natural causes, many were removed from power, imprisoned in gulags or executed in the late 1930s, as a result of the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin.
Initially, the term "Old Bolshevik" referred to Bolsheviks who joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party before 1905. On February 13, 1922, under the chairmanship of the Old Bolshevik historian Mikhail Olminsky, the Society of Old Bolsheviks (Russian: Общество старых большевиков) at the Istpart (Commission on the Study of the History of the October Revolution and RCP(b)) was established. The first Statute required membership before January 1, 1905, with admission in some cases of other Social Democrats with the same career time who later joined the Bolsheviks.[1] Initially there were 64 members. Later it was renamed the All-Union Society. The 1931 Statute had a requirement of a continuous party membership of at least 18 years, with exceptions to be granted by the Society Presidium (approved by the Society Council). By 1934, there were over 2,000 members. The All-Union Society was self-dissolved in 1935, announcing that "it has completed its tasks".[2] Vladimir Lenin wrote about the "enormous, undivided authority of that thinnest layer, which can be called the old party guard".[3] Old Bolsheviks that were part of Lenin's inner circle or directly worked with him formed a sub-designation known as the "Lenin Guard" (Russian: Ленинская гвардия,).
Vadim Rogovin cites the statistics published by the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) that, in 1924, of 600,000 Party members, 0.6% joined before 1905, 2% joined in 1906–1916 and less than 9% joined in 1917.[1] Over time the definition of "Old Bolsheviks" loosened. For example, according to a 1972 Soviet book by D. A. Chygayev, in 1922 there were as many as 44,148 Old Bolsheviks.[4]
By the end of the Russian Revolution in 1923, Old Bolsheviks filled many of the powerful positions in the state apparatus of the Soviet Union, its constituent republics, and the ruling All-Union Communist Party. By the mid-1930s, General Secretary Joseph Stalin and the upper ranks of the party were predicting that major social upheaval would occur in the aftermath of the forced collectivization process since 1928 and the subsequent Soviet famine of 1932–1933.
Stalin, himself an Old Bolshevik, became paranoid of challenges to his rule from within the party, fearing that Old Bolsheviks were potential usurpers who could exploit the upheaval and use their prestige to depose him. Stalin used the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934 as a pretext to purge the party and removed a great part of the surviving Old Bolsheviks from positions of power during the Great Purge from 1936 to 1938. Purged Old Bolsheviks were condemned in a series of show trials known as the Moscow Trials, and then executed for treason or sent as prisoners to the Gulag system of labor camps. By 1938, the number of Old Bolsheviks who remained in power (other than Stalin himself) was small, and the vacant positions were filled by a younger generation of party members who were considered to be more loyal to Stalin himself. In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev argued that Stalin's widespread purges of the "most advanced nucleus of people" among the Old Bolsheviks and leading figures in the military and scientific fields had "undoubtedly" weakened the nation.[5]
Various things in the Soviet Union had the name Old Bolshevik, such as a publishing house, several steamships, motorboats, kolkhozes and populated places.[6] [7] [8]
This list lists Old Bolsheviks according to the original definition, i.e. those who joined Bolshevik faction before 1 January 1905.
| Born | Died | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikolai Chuzhak | 1876 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. Died of natural causes in 1937. | |
| Mikhail Frunze | 1885 | 1925 | Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Sergey Ivanovich Gusev | 1874 | 1933 | Member of the SBORK since 1896. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Founding member of the Bolshevik faction in 1903. | |
| Simon Kamo | 1882 | 1922 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. Died in a traffic accident. | |
| Lev Karpov | 1879 | 1921 | Member of the SBORK. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. | |
| Sergei Kirov | 1886 | 1934 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. Kirov's assassination was used as a pretext for Stalin's Great Purge. | |
| Leonid Krasin | 1870 | 1926 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1903. | |
| Valerian Kuybyshev | 1888 | 1935 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. | |
| Mikhail Lashevich | 1884 | 1928 | Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Vladimir Lenin | 1870 | 1924 | Leader of SBORK since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Main founder and leader of the Bolsheviks since 1903. | |
| Anatoly Lunacharsky | 1875 | 1933 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. | |
| Viktor Nogin | 1878 | 1924 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Mikhail Olminsky | 1863 | 1933 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. First President of the Society of Old Bolsheviks (1922–1931). | |
| Stepan Shaumian | 1878 | 1918 | Member of the RSDLP since 1900. Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov | 1870 | 1928 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. | |
| Pyotr Smidovich | 1874 | 1935 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. | |
| Sofia Smidovich | 1872 | 1934 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898, sided with Bolsheviks in 1903. | |
| Suren Spandaryan | 1882 | 1916 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. | |
| Pēteris Stučka | 1865 | 1932 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Supported Bolsheviks in 1903. | |
| Yakov Sverdlov | 1885 | 1919 | Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Alexander Tsiurupa | 1870 | 1928 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. | |
| Anna Ulyanova | 1864 | 1935 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Sister of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova. | |
| Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova | 1878 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Sister of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov and Anna Ulyanova. | |
| Vatslav Vorovsky | 1871 | 1923 | Founding member of the Bolshevik faction in 1903. Assassinated by a White émigré. | |
| Vladimir Zagorsky | 1883 | 1919 | Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Joined Bolsheviks in Geneva in 1904. Killed by a bomb planted by an anarchist group. |
| Born | Died | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sultan Majid Afandiyev | 1887 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. Sentenced to death and executed. | |
| Alexander Bekzadyan | 1879 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Arrested in 1937. Sentenced to death and executed in 1938. | |
| Andrei Bubnov | 1883 | 1938 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the same day. | |
| Semyon Dimanstein | 1886 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. Arrested in February 1938. Sentenced to death and shot in August. | |
| Yuri Petrovich Figatner | 1889 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the same day. | |
| Gaia Gai | 1887 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. Arrested in 1935 and shot in 1937. | |
| Nikolai Glebov-Avilov | 1887 | 1937 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Sentenced to death and shot in March 1937. | |
| Filipp Goloshchyokin | 1876 | 1941 | Bolshevik since 1903. Participant at the Prague Conference (1912). Shot without trial by the NKVD in 1941. | |
| Lev Kamenev | 1883 | 1936 | Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death at the Trial of the Sixteen and executed. | |
| Olga Kameneva | 1883 | 1941 | Sister of Leon Trotsky and the first wife of Lev Kamenev. Arrested and killed in the Medvedev Forest massacre. | |
| Semyon Kanatchikov | 1879 | 1940 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Arrested by the NKVD in 1936 and sentenced to 8 years. Died in a Gulag. | |
| Aleksei Kiselyov | 1879 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Arrested and shot in 1937. | |
| Nikolai Krylenko | 1885 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. Sentenced to death and shot. | |
| Nikolai Kuzmin | 1883 | 1938 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and shot on 8 February 1938. | |
| Polikarp Mdivani | 1877 | 1937 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and executed. | |
| Alexei Medvedev | 1884 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Joined Bolsheviks in 1904. Arrested in August 1937 and shot in October. | |
| Nikolay Muralov | 1877 | 1937 | Bolshevik since 1903. Found guilty in the Trial of the Seventeen and executed. | |
| Vladimir Nevsky | 1876 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death and shot the next day. | |
| Georgy Oppokov | 1888 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. Arrested in June 1937, and shot in September. | |
| Mamia Orakhelashvili | 1881 | 1937 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death in a private trial and executed. | |
| Sergo Ordzhonikidze | 1886 | 1937 | Joined Bolsheviks in 1903. Committed suicide after being searched by the NKVD. | |
| Jēkabs Peterss | 1886 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. Аrrested and executed during the Latvian Operation of the NKVD. | |
| Osip Piatnitsky | 1882 | 1938 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death and executed. | |
| Olga Pilatskaya | 1884 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904.[9] Arrested and shot. | |
| Pavel Postyshev | 1887 | 1939 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. Sentenced to death and shot. | |
| Boris Pozern | 1882 | 1939 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. Arrested in July 1938 and executed in February 1939. | |
| Karl Radek | 1885 | 1939 | Sentenced to 10 years at the Trial of the Seventeen in 1937. Killed in prison. | |
| Alexei Rykov | 1881 | 1938 | Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Found guilty in the Trial of the Twenty-One and executed. | |
| Alexander Serebrovsky | 1884 | 1938 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. Sentenced to death and shot two days later. | |
| Alexander Shliapnikov | 1885 | 1937 | Switched from the Mensheviks to the Bolsheviks in 1903. Sentenced to death and executed. | |
| Alexander Shotman | 1880 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Sided with Lenin at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903). Sentenced to death and shot in September 1937. | |
| Boris Shumyatsky | 1886 | 1938 | Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. | |
| Mykola Skrypnyk | 1872 | 1933 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Delegate at the 3rd Congress of the RSDL Party (1905). Committed suicide after being removed from power. | |
| Ivan Smirnov | 1881 | 1936 | Member of the RSDLP since 1899. Arrested in 1933 and shot in 1936. | |
| Aleksandr Smirnov | 1877 | 1938 | Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death and executed. | |
| Mikhail Tomsky | 1880 | 1936 | Bolshevik since 1904. Committed suicide before his trial. | |
| Valentin Trifonov | 1888 | 1938 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Arrested and executed during the Great Purge. | |
| Ilya Tsivtsivadze | 1881 | 1938 | Bolshevik since 1903. Arrested in 1937. Sentenced to death and shot in March 1938. | |
| Varvara Yakovleva | 1884 | 1941 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Sentenced to 20 years at a secret trial. Killed in the Medvedev Forest massacre. | |
| Avel Yenukidze | 1877 | 1937 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Sentenced to death in a private trial and executed. | |
| Tengiz Zhghenti | 1887 | 1937 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Committed suicide during the Great Purge. | |
| Grigori Zinoviev | 1883 | 1936 | Member of the RSDLP since 1901. Bolshevik since 1903. Sentenced to death at the Trial of the Sixteen and executed. |
| Vladimir Adoratsky | 1878 | 1945 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. |
| Aleksei Badayev | 1883 | 1951 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. |
| Cecilia Bobrovskaya | 1873 | 1960 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. |
| Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich | 1873 | 1955 | Member of the Moscow Workers' Union since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. |
| Feodor Chuchin | 1883 | 1942 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. |
| Pauls Dauge | 1869 | 1946 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Arrested during the Great Purge, but survived. |
| Lydia Fotiyeva | 1881 | 1975 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. |
| Serafima Hopner | 1880 | 1966 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. |
| Mikhail Kalinin | 1875 | 1946 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903. |
| Platon Kerzhentsev | 1881 | 1940 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. |
| Pyotr Kobozev | 1878 | 1941 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. |
| Nadezhda Kolesnikova | 1882 | 1964 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. |
| Pyotr Krasikov | 1870 | 1939 | Member of the Emancipation of Labour since 1892. Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Bolshevik since 1903. Died of illness. |
| Nadezhda Krupskaya | 1869 | 1939 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. Wife of Lenin. |
| Gleb Krzhizhanovsky | 1872 | 1959 | Member of the SBORK since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Dora Lazurkina | 1884 | 1974 | Member of the RSDLP since 1902. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. Spent 17 years in Gulag, but survived.[10] |
| Olga Lepeshinskaya | 1871 | 1963 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Maxim Litvinov | 1876 | 1951 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1903. |
| Ivan Lychev | 1881 | 1972 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. |
| Dmitry Manuilsky | 1883 | 1959 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. |
| Nikolai Meshcheryakov | 1865 | 1942 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. |
| Matvei Muranov | 1873 | 1959 | Joined the Bolsheviks in 1904. |
| Grigory Petrovsky | 1878 | 1958 | Member of the SBORK since 1897. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Elected member of the 4th State Duma at the 1912 Russian legislative election. |
| Nikolai Podvoisky | 1880 | 1948 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. |
| Viktor Radus Zenkovich | 1877 | 1967 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Maximilian Saveliev | 1884 | 1939 | Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Nikolai Semashko | 1878 | 1949 | Bolshevik since 1904. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1907. |
| Andrey Shestakov | 1877 | 1941 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. |
| Konstantin Shvedchikov | 1884 | 1952 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. |
| Aaron Soltz | 1872 | 1945 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Sent to a psychiatric clinic during the Great Purge, but survived. |
| Joseph Stalin | 1878 | 1953 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. Leader of the USSR during 1924–1953. |
| Elena Stasova | 1873 | 1966 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Adolf Taimi | 1881 | 1955 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1903. |
| Mikhail Tskhakaya | 1865 | 1950 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov | 1874 | 1943 | Bolshevik since 1903. Brother of Vladimir Lenin, Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova and Anna Ulyanova. |
| Alexander Vinokurov | 1869 | 1944 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1903. |
| Mikhail Vladimirsky | 1874 | 1951 | Member of the Moscow Workers' Union since 1895. Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. |
| Boris Volin | 1886 | 1957 | Member of the Bolshevik faction since 1904. |
| Yemelyan Yaroslavsky | 1878 | 1943 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Bolshevik since 1903. President of the Society of Old Bolsheviks (1931–1935). |
| Rosalia Zemlyachka | 1876 | 1947 | Member of the RSDLP since 1898. Elected member of the Central Committee in 1903. |
| Konstantin Zharnovetsky | 1881 | 1941 | Member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP since 1904. Died during the Siege of Leningrad. |