Karl Yanovich Bauman (, ; August 29, 1892 – October 14, 1937) was a Latvian-born Soviet politician and Communist Party functionary.

Early years

He was born in

Viļķene Parish Viļķene Parish () is an administrative unit of Limbaži Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It borders with Pāle, Katvari, Limbaži, Liepupe and Salacgrīva parishes. The center of the parish is in . Area: 224.5 km² Popula ...

Kreis Wolmar Valmiera county (, , ) was a historic county of Latvia. Its capital was Valmiera (''Wolmar''). History The county of Valmiera was created during the administrative territorial reform of the Governorate of Riga in 1783 by merging of parishes fr ...

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

to the family of a Latvian peasant; his father died while he was still young. After the

revolution of 1905 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 ...

, he joined the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (LSDSP), known at the time as the "Social-Democracy of the Latvian Territory", in 1907. He studied at the agricultural school in

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=Ru-Псков.oga, p=psˈkof; see also Names of Pskov in different languages, names in other languages) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov O ...

, but in 1908 he was arrested for illegal political activity and imprisoned. He also conducted illegal political work in Lemzale,

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and

Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...

. He studied at the Kyiv Commercial Institute (1913–1916).

Soviet career

He participated in 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 ...

of 1917 in Kyiv. From December 14, 1920, to May 9, 1923, he was the executive secretary of the

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 ...

gubernatorial committee of the

Russian 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 ...

("RCP(b)"). He was also the chair of the Kursk provincial trade union council during this period. In 1923–1924, he was deputy head of the Organizational and Instructor Department of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). From September 1924, he was deputy head of the organisation department of the Moscow regional communist party, which at that time was controlled by

Nikolai Uglanov Nikolai Aleksandrovich Uglanov (; December 5, 1886 – May 31, 1937) was a Russian Bolshevik politician and Soviet statesman who played an important role in the government of the Soviet Union as a Communist Party leader in the city of Moscow dur ...

. He was a member of the

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

, from 1925 until 1937. In 1928, when Joseph Stalin decided to embark on a campaign to force peasant farmers to give up their individual holding and move onto collective farms, he was opposed by almost every senior party official in the Moscow region, except Bauman, who as early as November 1927 had suggested that entire rural settlements, and even entire districts, should be collectivised. As head of the Department for Rural Work of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), (now named the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks) in 1928–29, and a member of the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee

Orgburo The Orgburo (), also known as the Organisational Bureau (), of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919 to 1952, when it was abolished at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party and its functions wer ...

from April 1928, Bauman was one of the most zealous supporters of collectivization by any means. In April 1929, Bauman was appointed First Secretary of the Moscow provincial party committee, a secretary opf the Central Committee, and a candidate member of the

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 ...

, making him one of the dozen or so most powerful officials in the Soviet Union. He was also chairman of the commission responsible for policy on the

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 ...

, or wealthy peasants. As the Moscow party boss, he distinguished himself by driving collectivisation through at a rapid pace. When the party secretary from one of the Moscow districts reported to the regional bureau in February 1930 that they had succeeded in moving 82.4 per cent of peasant households onto collective farms, in less than two years, Bauman told them it was "too little". On 2 March 1930, ''

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 '' Dizzy with Success'', Stalin's warning that 'petty officials' had been pushing collectivisation too rapidly. Bauman was made the most prominent scapegoat for these excesses. On 18 April 1930 the Politburo decided that he was guilty of having "displayed appeasement toward 'leftist deviationists'", and was four days later he was sacked from his post in April 1930 and replaced by

Lazar Kaganovich Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (; – 25 July 1991) was a Soviet politician and one of Joseph Stalin's closest associates. Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, Kaganovich worked as a shoemaker and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party ...

, who then sacked 153 senior official of the Moscow region. on 22 April, Bauman admitted that "we undoubtedly got too far ahead, undoubtedly got carried away." Despite this and other confessions of error, he was removed from his position on the Politburo at the 16th party congress in July 1930, though he retained his rank as a secretary of the Central Committee. In 1931–1934, Bauman was the first secretary of the Central Asian Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. There he conducted such an extensive purge, such that Kaganovich reported to Stalin in September 1931 that "arrests of officials there are continuously increasing - what is to be done?" On 1 December, the Politburo overruled Bauman, who had proposed to have the president and prime minister of Tajikstan removed and arrested." In 1934, Bauman was recalled to Moscow and appointed head of the Scientific and Technical Inventions and Discoveries and the Planning, Financial and Trade departments of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. As head of the science department, he was involved in the dispute between geneticists, involving

Nikolai Vavilov Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ vɐˈvʲiləf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Ivanovich_Vavilov.ogg; – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and Soviet Union, Soviet agronom ...

, who was posthumously recognised as one of the leading scientists of his generation, and

Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (; , ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and scientist.''An ill-educated agronomist with huge ambitions, Lysenko failed to become a real scientist, but greatly succeeded in exposing of the “bourgeois enemies o ...

, whose theories are now discredited, but who at the time had the support of Stalin and Molotov. In a letter to Stalin and Molotov, Bauman warned that "many" scientists considered Lysenko's "overall genetic views to be wrong, contradicting modern science" and that they created "a not completely healthy atmosphere."

Arrest, killing and rehabilitation

On April 14, 1937, he was removed from his post. He was arrested by the NKVD of the USSR on October 12, 1937, as a part of the so-called " Latvian Operation". He was immediately subjected to severe beatings, and two days after his arrest, killed in Lefortovo prison on October 14. There is only one document in the Bauman case, a statement written by him on the day of his death, covered in blood. 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 ...

in 1953, he was rehabilitated (posthumously exonerated) by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office on July 15, 1955, and by the USSR Prosecutor's Office on June 23, 1989; on August 19, 1955, he was reinstated in the party.Бауман Карл Янович
no ''hrono.ru''

References