Iosif Fyodorovich Dubrovinsky, alias ''Innokenty'' (; – 1 June .S. 19 May1913) was a

Bolshevik 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, ...

and comrade of

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 ...

prior to the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

Early career

Dubrovinsky was born in the village of Pokrovskoye-Lipovets, in the Maloangelsk district of Orel, the second of four sons of a mechanic, who died in 1882, soon after the birth of the fourth son. He was the elder brother fellow Bolshevik revolutionary Yakov Dubrovisnky His widowed mother, Lyubov, moved with all four boys to

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

, then returned in 1895 to Orel. As a schoolboy in Kursk, Dubrovinsky joined a populist circle modelled on

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

, the group that assassinated the

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Alexander II, but later became a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

. From about the age of 18, he was a full-time revolutionary. He was arrested in December 1897, as an organiser of a workers' circle in Moscow, and the following year was sentenced to four years exile in Siberia. While there, he contracted tuberculosis. In 1902 he was moved to

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

, where he made contact with the illegal newspaper

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

, of which Lenin was the main organiser, and acted as its local distributor. He joined the Bolsheviks after the party split in 1903.

Role in the
1905 revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

Arrested in February 1905, Dubrovinsky was released under amnesty in October. The Bolsheviks sent him to the naval base in

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

, where, on 23 October, he addressed a crowd of thousands, who agreed resolution calling for better conditions for servicemen, and political demands for the overthrow of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic republic. The following day, thousands demonstrated, and for a couple of days Kronstadt was under rebel control, but martial law was imposed and thousands arrested, though Dubrovinsky slipped past the police by pretending to be blind drunk. He moved to Moscow, where he took part in the armed rising in December. He was arrested again in the summer of 1906.

Later career

Dubrovinsky was released in February 1907, and joined Lenin in Finland, which was under Russian rule. He was a delegate to the Fifth Congress of the

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 ...

in London, in May 1907 - the last major gathering before the revolution at which both Bolsheviks and

Mensheviks The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

were present, and afterwards was elected to the 15 member Bolshevik Centre. He was almost the only member of that Centre to back Lenin over the issue of armed robberies carried in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

by revolutionaries secretly directed by 'Koba' (later known as Stalin) to raise funds for the party, but he opposed Lenin over the question of whether to have a final break with the Mensheviks. After the Congress, he returned to Russia to try to rebuild the party organisation, shattered by the defeat of the 1905 revolution. In February 1908 he joined Lenin in Geneva, where he was part of a triumvirate, which also included

Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion, a ...

, running the Bolshevik publication, '' Vperyod'' (Forward). When this group split up, he supported Lenin against Bogdanov. He returned to Russian jurisdiction, hoping to unite the various illegal Marxist groups, but was arrested in Warsaw in November 1908, and was deported to

Solvychegodsk Solvychegodsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Kotlassky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located on the right-hand bank of the Vychegda, Vychegda River, about northeast of Kotlas, the administrative center of the ...

, in north Russia, in iron fetters that left deep wounds in his legs. He escaped and joined Lenin in Paris in 1910.

Death

Dubrovinsky returned to Russia, where he was arrested for the final time in June 1910, and exiled to

Turukhansk Turukhansk () is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located north of Krasnoyarsk, at the confluence of the Yenisey and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. Until 1924, the t ...

in Siberia. Returning to Russia again, in 1910, he was soon arrested and exiled. On 1 June, he drowned in the

Yenisei River The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...

- ironically around the time when he stood a chance of being released under an amnesty to mark the Romanov Tercentenary. He left behind a library, which was appropriated by Stalin, who was also in exile in Turukhansk - an act which other exiles resented. There are two stories around his death. One is that his tuberculosis was so severe that he committed suicide. Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya recorded that he was very ill he arrived in Paris, and needed extensive medical treatment. Another theory is that he went out in a boat and was swept under by the powerful current.

Personality

There is no doubt that if Dubrovinsky had lived a few years longer, he would have played a major role in the early years of Bolshevik rule in Russia. Lenin's widow recorded that the Bolshevik leader "saw how completely devoted Innokenty was to the revolutionary cause...(and) how resolute Innokenty was in the struggle ... prized Innokenty greatly for his fervent devotion to the cause...(and) became very attached to Innokenty." In 1924, Stalin said that "of all the outstanding organisers I am acquainted with, I know only two, of whom, next to Lenin, our Party can and should be proud: I. F. Dubrovinsky, who died in exile in Turukbansk, and Y. M. Sverdlov, who worked himself to death in building the Party and the state."

References