Ivan Adolfovich Teodorovich (; ; September 10 O. S. August 29">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. August 29 1875 – September 20, 1937), was a Russian Bolshevik activist and Soviet Union, Soviet statesman, served as the first People's Commissariat for Food, Commissar for Food at the establishment of the Council of People's Commissars (October - November 1917). He also became a Soviet historian of the Russian revolutionary movement.

Life and political career

Teodorovich, the son of a land-surveyor from

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 ...

, was born into a family of ethnic Polish origin.Budaev, I.D. "Теодорович Иван Адольфович" ("Teodorovich Ivan Adolfovich"). ''Культурное наследие земли Смоленской'' (''The Cultural Heritage of Smolensk's Land''). Retrieved 2 March 2009

His great-grandfather took part in the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

in Warsaw in 1830. His father and two of his uncles fought in the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

of 1863. From this background, Teodorovich would write, he first learned to hate "

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 ...

ism, its officials, and hemilitary establishment". Teodorovich spent his childhood in severe poverty: his mother, struggling to support six sons, worked as a

seamstress A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Notable d ...

and

laundrywoman Laundry is the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this uni ...

. Teodorovich attended

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

, where he joined an early

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 ...

group in 1895. From 1902 to 1903 he served as a member of the Moscow Committee 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 ...

. After a series of arrests, in 1903 the tsarist authorities sent Teodorovich into exile in

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

. Escaping in 1905, he fled to Switzerland, where he made personal contact with

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 ...

. In October 1905 Teodorovich returned to Russia and operated in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

; he gained promotion to become a member of the Central Committee in 1907. In May 1909 he was arrested again and remained in custody until 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 ...

of 1917. After the February Revolution of March 1917 he left his place of exile and arrived in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in mid-March. He was a delegate to the 7th (April) All-Russian Conference (where he was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee) and to the 6th Congress of the RSDLP (B). From August 1917 he served as deputy chairman of the , then as a member of the council and special presence in food. Immediately after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, Teodorovich became the first People's Commissar for Food in the first Bolshevik government, or

Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the government of Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1946. It was established by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasant ...

. But ten days later, on 17 November he resigned due to political disagreement with Lenin's majority over a proposed coalition with the

Menshevik 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 ...

s and other factions (Teodorovich supported a broad coalition, against Lenin's will). In 1918, he returned to Siberia, and 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 fought in a partisan detachment against the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

of Admiral Kolchak. In 1920 he returned to the board of the Commissariat for Agriculture and rose to become Deputy Commissar in May 1922; in 1928-1930 he chaired the Peasants' branch of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

. As the Bolsheviks' expert on agriculture, Teodorovich delivered speeches to various councils and international forums, and authored brochures, journal and newspaper articles dealing with agriculture and agrarian policy. Teodorovich was a proponent of Lenin's

New Economic Policy The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...

(the NEP); he further endorsed liberal land-reforms (delegating authority over land from the state to peasants). Contrary to the Bolsheviks' platform on agrarian policy, Teodorovich vehemently opposed the policy of food requisition and

war communism War communism or military communism (, ''Vojenný kommunizm'') was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921. War communism began in June 1918, enforced by the Supreme Economi ...

. He supported the formation of a homogeneous socialist government with the participation of the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. After The Central Committee of the RSDLP (B) rejected the agreement with these parties, Teodorovich on November 4 (17), 1917 signed a statement of withdrawal from the SNK, but continued to carry out his duties until December. "(T)he disagreement concerned the question of whether our party had to start with "war communism" or whether it was possible to proceed from what was called the "new economic policy" in 1921. I held in 1917 the latter opinion .." - Ivan Teodorovich Autobiography In articles of the 1920s, Teodorovich interpreted the NEP as a means of accumulating funds in the capitalist agrarian sector through the development of "strong" peasant farms, which was to serve as a source of funds for industrialization, including its transition to socialism. In the People's Commissariat Teodorovich supervised the work of economist N. D. Kondratiev, who led the department of agricultural economics and statistics of the Department of Agriculture and provided Teodorovich with a degree of protection and patronage (in particular, Kondratiev contributed in 1920 to his release from arrest). At the beginning of 1918 Teodorovich left for

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

after parting ways with Lenin's first government. In 1919-1920 he was in the red partisan units in Siberia. In 1920-1928 Teodorovich served as a member of the College of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the RSFSR. From May 1922 to 1928 he was deputy of the People's Commissar of Agriculture of the RSFSR, 1926-1930 Director of the International Agrarian Institute. Teodorovich was removed from his post as Deputy People's Commissar a few weeks after the People's Commissar, Aleksandr Smirnov had been sacked, in February 1928, for 'peasant deviation', meaning that he had resisted a decision taken by

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 ...

to send detachments into the countryside to seize grain form the peasants to revolve a food shortage in the cities. Teodorovich was not publicly denounced at this stage, even if he was suspected of sharing Smirnov's pro-peasant sympathies. In 1923, he had been a delegate to the founding conference of Peasant International (Krestintern), and in March 1928, he replaced Smirnov as in October 1923, and was secretary general of Krestintern. In July 1930, the economist

Nikolai Kondratiev Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kondratiev (; also Kondratieff; Russian: Никола́й Дми́триевич Кондра́тьев; 4 March 1892 – 17 September 1938) was a Russian Soviet economist and proponent of the New Economic Policy (NEP) best ...

was arrested, and accused of organising a clandestine "Peasants' Labour Party". This was near the start of the programme that forced peasant to give up their land and live in collective farms. Stalin suspected Teodorovich, whom he called a "scoundrel", of acting as a link between Kondratiev and

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 ...

Alexei Rykov Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 t ...

and

Mikhail Tomsky Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky (''Russian:'' Михаи́л Па́влович То́мский), born Mikhail Pavlovich Yefremov (''Russian:'' Ефре́мов) (31 October 1880 – 22 August 1936) was a factory worker, trade unionist, and Soviet poli ...

, who had led the opposition to forced collectivisation. Teodorovich was sacked from his position in Krestintern, but unlike Smirnov, Kondratiev and others, he was not arrested. He was allowed to continue working in Moscow, as a member of the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers. In 1929–35, he edited the society's journal, '. An ordinance of the Central Committee of the VKP (b) of the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers closed the magazine on June 25, 1935, for factional activities. Teodorovich was arrested during 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 ...

on 11 June 1937, and convicted in the trial of the so-called ''Moskva Center'' group (involving a total of 120 people). Stalin and Molotov sanctioned the trial on September 15, 1937. Teodorovich was executed five days later. Ivan Teodorovich was posthumously rehabilitated on April 11, 1956, and is buried in the Don Cemetery in Moscow.

Works

* О государственном регулировании крестьянского хозяйства. М., 1921 * Судьбы русского крестьянства, М., 1923, 1924, 1925 * К вопросу о сельскохозяйственной политике в РСФСР, М., 1923 * Уроки союза рабочих и крестьян в СССР. Доклад на 2-м съезде Международного крестьянского совета, М., 1925 * Восемь лет нашей крестьянской политике. М., 1926 * Вопросы индустриализации и сельское хозяйство. Свердловск, 1927 * Историческое значение партии «Народной воли», М., изд. Политикаторжан, 1930 * О Горьком и Чехове, М.—Л., ГИЗ, 1930 * «1 марта 1881 г.», М., 1931

Family

* Wife - Okulova-Teodorovich, Glafira Ivanovna (23.4 (6.5) .1878–19.10.1957) - Soviet politician and party leader. * Son - Konstantin Ivanovich Teodorovich (1907–1964) - an artist and writer

References

External links

* http://www.knowbysight.info/TTT/00395.asp {{DEFAULTSORT:Teodorovich, Ivan Adolfovich 1875 births 1937 deaths Members of the Central Committee of the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party Candidates of the Central Committee of the 7th Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) Prospectives of the Central Committee of the 6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) Comintern people Party leaders of the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Russia Old Bolsheviks People from Smolensk Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Russian revolutionaries People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Soviet people of Polish descent Polish people executed by the Soviet Union Soviet politicians Russian people of Polish descent