Karl Andreevich Peterson (; 1877 – 17 January 1926) was a Latvian

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 ...

revolutionary,

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 ...

statesman, military and party leader, and an active participant in the

Civil War in Russia 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 ...

Biography

Born into the family of a tenant, he studied at the volost school. In 1895, he moved to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, where he first worked as a laborer and then as a reporter for various democratic newspapers. In 1898, he joined 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 the same year, he organized one of the first social democratic circles in Latvia. In 1899, a member of the Riga Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, since 1900, he has been conducting party work in Libava.Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Karl Andreevich Peterson
/ref> In 1901, he was arrested and sentenced to 3 years of exile in

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. Upon his return in April 1904, at the party propaganda work in Riga and Libava, he participated in organizing unrest among agricultural workers.Hrono
Karl Andreevich Peterson
/ref> In 1908, he was transferred to revolutionary work in Moscow, where he was again arrested and sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment in a fortress. Returning to Riga in 1911, he became the editor of various social–democratic party publications – the newspaper Laika Balss (Voice of the Time), and others. At the end of 1912, he was arrested again and sent to a settlement in the

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for 3 years. At the end of 1915, he returned to

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, ...

, where he worked as a secretary of the health insurance fund at the Krasny Triangle factory. In 1916, in the army, served in the reserve regiment of

Latvian Riflemen The Latvian Riflemen (; ) were originally a military formation of the Imperial Russian Army assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic governorates against the German Empire in World War I. Initially, the battalions were forme ...

in the city of

Valmiera Valmiera () is the second largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020, it was at 24,879. It is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city, and ...

. In 1917, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Joint Council of Latvian Rifle Regiments, delegate and representative of Latvian Riflemen at the 2nd All–Russian Congress of Soviets. At the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th All–Russian Congresses of Soviets, he was elected a member of the All–Russian Central Executive Committee. Member of the All–Russian Extraordinary Commission on 1 January 1918. On 13 April 1918, by order of the People's Commissar For Military Affairs of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, he was appointed Commissar of the Latvian Division.Latvian Riflemen Website
Peterson, Karl Andreevich
/ref> In 1919, he was a member of the government of Soviet Latvia, People's Commissar For Military Affairs and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Army of Soviet Latvia. In 1920 – military commissar of the Yenisey Governorate, from November 1920 to January 1921 – a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front. Since 1921 – authorized by the

People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics () was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (1923–1946), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1946–1991) ...

in Novorossiysk. He died in 1926 from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

References

Sources

*Nikolay Kondratyev. "Comrade Peterson", Riga, 1959 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Karl 1877 births 1926 deaths Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party politicians Mensheviks Bolsheviks Russian Constituent Assembly members Latvian Riflemen Latvian revolutionaries Tuberculosis deaths in the Soviet Union 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Russia Cheka officers