Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky (; ; – 30 August 1918), also known by his pen-name Boretsky () 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, ...

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

ary leader in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. 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 ...

, he was the chief of the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

secret police of the Petrograd Soviet. Uritsky was assassinated by Leonid Kannegisser, a military cadet, who was executed shortly afterwards.

Family

Uritsky was born in the city of

Cherkasy Cherkasy (, ) is a city in central Ukraine. Cherkasy serves as the administrative centre of Cherkasy Oblast as well as Cherkasy Raion within the oblast. The city has a population of Cherkasy is the cultural, educational and industrial centre ...

, then part of the

Kiev Governorate Kiev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire (1796–1917), Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–18; 1918–1921), Ukrainian State (1918), and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–19 ...

, to a Jewish Litvak family. His father, a merchant, died when Moisei was little and his mother raised her son by herself. He attended the

Bila Tserkva Bila Tserkva ( ; , ) is a city in central Ukraine. It is situated on the Ros (river), Ros River in the historical region of right-bank Ukraine. It is the largest city in Kyiv Oblast (which does not include the city of Kyiv) and serves as the ...

Gymnasium, supporting himself through teaching and became an active

social democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

Early political career

Moisei Uritsky studied law at the St. Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev. During his studies 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 ...

and organized an underground network for importing and distributing political literature. In 1897, he was arrested and exiled for running an illegal

mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...

press. Becoming involved in the revolutionary movement, he participated in the revolutionary Jewish Bund. In 1903, he became a

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 ...

. His activities in St Petersburg during 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 ...

earned him a second term of exile. Along with Alexander Parvus, he was active in dispatching revolutionary agents to infiltrate the Imperial security apparatus.

Russian Revolution

In 1914, he emigrated to France and contributed to the Party newspaper ''Our Word'' edited 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 ...

. Back in Russia after 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, Uritsky became a member of the Mezhraiontsy group. A few months before the

, 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, ...

and was elected to their Central Committee in July 1917. Uritsky played a leading role in the Bolsheviks' armed take-over in October and was later made head of the

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, ...

secret police. In this position Uritsky coordinated the pursuit and prosecution of members of the nobility, military officers, rival socialists, ranking Russian Orthodox Church clerics, and anyone who opposed the Bolsheviks. Moisey Uritskiy 1906

Because Uritsky was against Lenin's

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, he resigned his post in 1918, like Bukharin, Bubnov, Piatakov, Dzerzhinsky and Smirnov. On March 4, 1918, the Petrograd committee published the first number of the journal ''Kommunist'', the public organ of the "left communist" opposition, as directed by

Radek Radek is a masculine Christian name of Slavic origin. It is often nickname of Radovan, Ctirad and Radoslav. It is used as a surname and given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Radek Baborák, Czech conductor and French ...

and Uritsky. The Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which was held between March 6 and 8, 1918, rejected the ''Theses on the Present Situation'' that was submitted as a resolution by the "Left Communists". The "Left Communists" Lomov and Uritsky, who were elected to the Central Committee, stated at the Congress that they would not work in the Central Committee, and did not begin work there for several months in spite of insistent demands from the Central Committee. On May 25, 1918, with the Revolt of the

Czechoslovak Legion The Czechoslovak Legion ( Czech: ''Československé legie''; Slovak: ''Československé légie'') were volunteer armed forces consisting predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting on the side of the Entente powers during World War I and the ...

, 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 ...

began and Uritsky resumed his position on the Central Committee. An opponent of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, he nevertheless signed execution warrants approved by his Committee.

Assassination

Leonid Kannegisser, a young military cadet of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

, assassinated Uritsky on , outside the Petrograd Cheka headquarters in retaliation for the execution of his friend and other officers. Following this event, along with the assassination attempt on

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 ...

Socialist Revolutionary Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolut ...

Fanny Kaplan on August 30, the Bolsheviks began a wave of persecution known as the

Red Terror The Red Terror () was a campaign of political repression and Mass killing, executions in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police ...

Palace Square Palace Square ( rus, Дворцо́вая пло́щадь, r=Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, p=dvɐrˈtsovəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ), connecting Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Bridge leading to Vasilievsky Island, is the central city square of St Petersb ...

in Petrograd was known as Uritsky Square from 1918 to 1944. There are still many streets named after him in Russia. Uritsky was buried with honours on the Field of Mars in

on 2 September 1918.

References

External links

Moisei Uritsky
Handbook on history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898–1991. {{DEFAULTSORT:Uritsky, Moisei 1873 births 1918 deaths Members of the Central Committee of the 6th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Cheka officers Politicians from Cherkasy People from Kiev Governorate University of Kyiv, Law faculty alumni Russian people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Jewish socialists Assassinated Jews Mensheviks Mezhraiontsy Old Bolsheviks Russian Constituent Assembly members Jewish Soviet politicians Jewish Russian politicians People of the Russian Civil War Assassinated Russian activists Assassinated revolutionaries People murdered in Russia Burials on the Field of Mars (Saint Petersburg) Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire Assassinated Soviet politicians