Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky (, ; 1 November 1895 – 10 February 1938) was a
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 who was the 2nd
First Secretary of
Azerbaijan Communist Party, and one of founders of the health care system in the
Soviet Union
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 ...
.
Early life
Kaminsky was born in the family of a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
in
Ekaterinoslav,
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
.
He became involved in the revolutionary movement as a 16 year old pupil in a
Gymnasium in
Minsk
Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
, in
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
, distributing ''
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 ...
'' to factory workers.
He joined the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
in 1913. In 1915, he entered the
Lomonosov Moscow State University, to study medicine.
Political career
In 1917, while still a student, Kaminsky became a member of Moscow bureau of
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...
, and had to break off his studies in March when the party sent him to
Tula, where Bolsheviks and
Mensheviks were united in a single party organisation, but which split after
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
's return to Russia. In May, Kaminsky was elected secretary of the Tula Bolsheviks. In July 1918, he launched ''Kommunar'', Tula's first legally published Bolshevik newspaper.
During the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, he was also chairman of the
Military Revolutionary Committee, and a political commissar with the 2nd army.
He was recalled in September 1920, to acting as head of the
People's Commissariat of Nationalities, while the People's Commissar,
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 ...
, was absent on the front line during the
war with Poland. Late in 1920, Kaminsky was sent to Azerbaijan, soon after it had been reoccupied by the Red Army. Aged only 25, he was First Secretary of
Azerbaijan Communist Party, chairman of the
Baku Commune and
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 ...
deputies. He was recalled to Moscow in 1921, and replaced by
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 ...
.
Agricultural co-operatives
With the introduction of the
New Economic Policy in 1921, a major concern of the communist party was that the re-introduction of free trade in the countryside would result in rich peasants – known as
kulak
Kulak ( ; rus, кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈɫak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over ...
s exploiting the poor. As a counter measure, the communist party encouraged the formation of peasant co-operatives. Kaminsky was put in charge of their development, as Deputy Chairman of the Agricultural Union, and Chairman of the Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (''Vserabotzemles''), and head of several specialised centres.
In this capacity, he was a leading champion of co-operatives.
During a
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
session in January 1925, he warned that most peasants did not yet see the value of co-operating, and called for co-operatives to be given a commercial advantage over individual producers, and for co-operative chairmen to be elected, not appointed, and objected to the ruling which banned kulaks from joining co-operatives, because "it is much more profitable to have a kulak in agricultural co-operatives under our supervision than outside it. His policy was vehemently opposed by
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
, leader of the
Left Opposition, who claimed, in July 1926, that it would lead to the co-operatives being run not by communists and poor peasants but by 'middle' peasants.
In 1928, after Stalin had decided to drive peasants onto collective farms, Kaminsky was appointed head of Kolkhozsentr, the main farm agency for the Russian republic. In this role, he was an enthusiast advocate of the rapid formation of large collective farms, equipped with tractors and other machinery, which he believed would be the route out of poverty for peasants struggling to subsist on small landholdings. In contrast to his earlier views, he argued that kulaks should be barred from joining kolkhozes, and should be repressed. During an agricultural conference in January 1930, he urged delegates not to fear going too far in the drive for collectivisation, because it was a "revolutionary cause".
Party official
Late in 1929, Kaminsky was appointed head of the
Central Committee department for agitation and mass campaigns. From 1930 until his arrest, he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee. In 1930, he was appointed the Secretary of Moscow State Committee of the
Communist Party, rising to the rank of Second Secretary.
Commissar for Health
Kaminsky served as the for the Russian Federal Republic from 15 February 1934. In August, he was given the additional title of USSR Chief Sanitory Inspector. In July 1936, he was appointed the first USSR
People's Commissar for Health.
He is credited with extensive work in establishing production of medicine, preparation of medical personnel, fighting
malaria
Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
in Soviet Union and promotion of medical science in education system.
[
Kaminsky tried to protect scientists working in the field of health from being harassed for political reasons. On 26 December 1936, '']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 ...
'' published an article deploring the suppression of a bulletin that had been prepared ahead of the Second Congress of Neurologists and Psychiatrists. Kaminsky had ordered it to be withdrawn because of a paragraph which accused three named scientists of 'pseudoscience' linked to fascism and racism. He was rebuked for that, and for proposing that Solomon Levit, the founder of soviet genetics, should be elected to the praesidium of the congress, when he had recently been expelled from the communist party. In an unpublished speech, he maintained that Professor Levit could still contribute usefully to science from outside the party, and warned that "If you declare people to be fascists, you need to know that this threatens them with prison". (Professor Levit was arrested and shot in 1938) Kaminsky also protested against the practice of suppressing information about epidemics.
Death
On 18 February 1937, 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 ...
– whom Kaminsky had known since his time in Azerbaijan in 1920 – committed suicide, and Kaminsky was required to sign an official medical report falsely claiming that he had had a heart attack. This may have prompted him to take a stand against the spread of the Great Terror.
The speech that Kaminsky reputedly delivered during a plenary session of the Central Committee of June 1937 was not included in the report, and is known only from hearsay. The historian Robert Conquest was told by an unnamed source that he spoke "with particular effect and firmness, presenting a full but calm indictment of Yezhov (head of the NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
) and his methods." He is reputed to have told Stalin: "The NKVD is still arresting honest people." To which Stalin retorted: "They are enemies of the people, and you are a bird of the same feather." Anna Larina, widow of 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 ...
was told years later that Kaminsky spoke out against her husband's arrest. He is also credited with denouncing the future NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria, then the party boss in Transcaucasia, mentioning that Beria had worked for the counterintelligence of the Musavat party in Azerbaijan. Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
corrobated this in his memoirs.
Kaminsky was arrested that same day, 25 June 1937. He told the arresting officers: "Comrades, it's provocation!". He was accused of having been recruited by Bukharin into an anti-soviet organisation in 1929, and of having created a wrecking organisation with the commissariat of health. He admitted the charges under interrogation, probably under torture, but at his trial on 8 February 1938, which lasted 15 minutes, he said that he did not feel that he was an 'enemy of the people.' He was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French , rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually re ...
the same day.
Kaminsky was posthumously 'rehabilitated' in March 1955.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaminsky, Grigory
1895 births
1938 deaths
Politicians from Dnipro
People from Yekaterinoslav Governorate
Jews from the Russian Empire
Jewish Ukrainian politicians
Soviet Jews
Jewish socialists
Old Bolsheviks
All-Russian Central Executive Committee members
Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 14th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Candidates of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Ministers of health of the Soviet Union
Russian Constituent Assembly members
Azerbaijan Communist Party (1920) politicians
Jews executed by the Soviet Union
Great Purge victims from Ukraine
Soviet rehabilitations
Head of Propaganda Department of CPSU CC
History of Tula Oblast