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Aleksei Ivanovich Stetskii (
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
: Алексе́й Ива́нович Сте́цкий; January 15, 1896 – August 1, 1938) was a Russian
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
politician, journalist and official and propagandist of the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
.


Biography

Stesky was born in a village in the Vyazemsky district of
Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...
province of Russia, where his father was a petty
official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...
. He was of
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
ethnicity. The family later moved to
Chernihiv Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine ...
province of Ukraine, where as a teenager, he distributed anti-war literature early in the
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In 1915 he enrolled at the Petrograd Polytechnic University and joined the
Bolshevik Party The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
in the same year. He did not graduate from the university because he was expelled in 1916 for his revolutionary activities, and banned from living in Petrograd, though he returned illegally just before the
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
. During 1917, he was an agitator of the Petersburg Party Committee, then secretary of the factory committee, and member of the Vyborg District Party Committee. Delegate of the VI Congress of the Russian Communist Party (b). Stesky was a participant of the October uprising in Petrograd and the suppression of the Kerensky–Krasnov rebellion. From 1918 to 1920 he worked in military-political and staff of the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
. After the Civil War he studied at the
Institute of Red Professors The Institute of Red Professors of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) () was an institute of graduate-level education in the Marxist social sciences located in the Orthodox Convent of the Passion, Moscow. History It was founded in February 1 ...
, where he became a member of the group known as 'Bukharin's Professors' – acolytes of the Bolshevik leader,
Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...
, whom Stetsky supported in the power struggles on the 1920s, while Bukharin was an ally of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
. In 1924–27, Stetsky was a member of the Central Control Commission, chaired by
Sergo Ordzhonikidze Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, ; (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman. Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an e ...
, which heard disciplinary cases against supporters of the
Left Opposition The Left Opposition () was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1923 to 1927 headed '' de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. It was formed by Trotsky to mount a struggle against the perceived bureaucratic degeneration within th ...
. In May 1925, when
Komsomolskaya Pravda ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (; ) is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper that was founded in 1925. Its name is in reference to the official Soviet newspaper '' Pravda'' (English: 'Truth'). History and profile During the Soviet era, ''Komsomolskaya ...
was launched as the official organ of the
Communist Youth League The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC; also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League or CYL) is a people's organization of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, r ...
, Stetsky was appointed its first chief editor. In 1926–27, when thousands of members of the Leningrad (St Petersburg) communist party were purged after a public rift between Stalin and the regional party boss,
Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...
, Stetsky was sent to the region to assist the new, Stalinist first party secretary,
Sergei Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (born Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolsheviks, Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction ...
as head of the regional agitprop department. In 1927, he was recalled to Moscow and elected to the Central Committee. In summer 1928, Stalin executed an abrupt change in party policy, sending detachments into villages to force the peasants to hand over grain to be used to finance a rapid expansion of industry. When the Central Committee met in July, Stetsky was one of the main speakers opposing the new policy, along with Bukharin, but found himself in a minority, and was disowned by the delegation from Leningrad, of which he was a member. In October, he approached Kirov and Ordzhonikidze to tell them that he had decided to sever his links with Bukharin and support Stalin. His defection was publicised in ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...
'' in March 1929. He was the only one "Bukharin's Professors" to change allegiance. From 1930 to May 1935 he was head of the Central Committee Department of Culture and Propaganda. He was also a member of the organizing committee of the
Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...
which was nominally under the chairmanship of
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...
however Stesky was the de facto leader of the union and in charge of all its affairs. He was a key speaker at the
First Congress of Soviet Writers The First Congress of Soviet Writers was an all-Union meeting of writers, held in Moscow from August 17 to September 1, 1934, which led to the founding of the Union of Soviet Writers. It was staged soon after Communist International, Comintern h ...
in September 1934, extolling the "free, creative competition" that he claimed to be the mark of Soviet literature. After the assassination of Kirov in December 1934, Stetsky sent a memo to party leaders, dated 23 January 1935, telling them that a painting created to mark the event by an artist named Nikolai Mikhailov (1898–1940) was 'counter-revolutionary' because it included an image of a skeleton whose "feet, limbs and so forth are given in different colours and patches", while the "shine and colour of the hard part of the skull is emphasised, and could not be a human head." He recommended that Mikhailov should be arrested – which he was. He was either shot, or died of a stroke after years in a labour camp. In 1935 Stetsky became chief editor of the magazine '' Kommunist''. Early in the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
, Stetsky was given a personal assurance that Stalin had confidence in him despite his past association with Bukharin, but he was arrested on 26 April 1938, a month after Bukharin's execution, and under interrogation was forced to 'confess' that he had been part of a secret anti-soviet organisation headed by Bukharin since 1924. He was sentenced to death on 1 August 1938, and shot the same day. After the death of
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
, by the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR he was posthumously rehabilitated in May 1956.


Bibliography


Przewodnik po historii Partii Komunistycznej i ZSRR (ros.)
* http://az-libr.ru/index.htm?Persons&0B5/84e77bbb/0001/ceb6f017 (ros.) * * http://www.sakharov-center.ru/asfcd/martirolog/?t=page&id=17131 (ros.)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stetskii, Aleksei 1896 births 1938 deaths People from Safonovsky District People from Vyazemsky Uyezd Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Members of the Central Committee of the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Orgburo of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) First convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities First convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Russian communists Soviet journalists Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations Institute of Red Professors alumni Head of Propaganda Department of CPSU CC