Stanislav Adamovich Messing (Russian: Станислав Адамович Мессинг) (1890,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Russian Tsar Empire – September 2, 1937,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, USSR) was a Soviet national party leader and a leader of the Soviet state security and intelligence bodies. He was a member of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU(b) from 1930 to 1934.

Early life

Stanislav Messing was born into a Jewish family, the child of a

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and a

midwife A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and Infant, newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughou ...

( accoucheuse). Due to financial difficulties, he only finished four classes in grammar school, after which he studied to become a locksmith. He eventually began working in a

printing house In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses. Origins of printing The history of printers in publishing in Western Europe dates back to the mid-15th century wit ...

Career

In 1908, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Poland, where he met

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...

and

Józef Unszlicht Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht (; nicknames "Jurowski", "Leon"; 31 December 1879 – 29 July 1938) was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet government official and one of the founders of the Cheka. Biography ...

, who had given him patronage after the Great Revolution of 1917. He was arrested several times and imprisoned in the

Warsaw Fortress Warsaw Fortress (, ) was a system of fortifications built in Warsaw, Poland during the 19th century when the city was part of the Russian Empire. The fortress belonged to a Western Russian fortresses, chain of fortresses built in Congress Poland an ...

. In the same year, he was sentenced to administrative deportation to Belgium, where he earned his livelihood as an unskilled laborer. In 1911, Messing returned to his homeland and continued to participate in the activities of the Social Democratic Party of Poland. He was arrested again and then released. In 1913, he was drafted into the army and served in Turkestan as a common soldier of the 17th Turkestan Regiment, which had been based at the Caucasian Front since 1914. In 1917, he was elected a member of the regimental soldiers' committee.

Petrograd and Moscow

In the spring of 1917, during 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 ...

, Messing was in Moscow and participated in street unrest. Immediately after the

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 ...

he was appointed secretary of the Sokolniki Executive Committee and chairman of the

Sokolniki District Sokolniki District () is a district of the Eastern Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow located in the north-east corner of the city. Population: Etymology Sokolniki derives its name from the word "" (''sokol'', meaning "falcon") ...

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

. Beginning in December 1918, Messing was the head of the secret operations department of the

Cheek The cheeks () constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear. ''Buccal'' means relating to the cheek. In humans, the region is innervated by the buccal nerve. The area between the inside of th ...

. In July 1920, he was approved a member of the VChK Council. On January 3, 1921, he was appointed chairman of the

. and in November of that year become chairman of Leningrad, then still called

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, ...

Petrograd

In November 1921,

, who directed 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 ...

during post-revolution Russia,Harry Denny, New York Times July 1936 appointed Messing as chairman of the

. He held this rank from November 3, 1921, to February 6, 1922. Petrograd was a capital of Russia until 1922; in 1922, Moscow became the capital again.

Moscow

In 1929, implicated in Bukharin-Kamenev affair and the poor health conditions of Mezhinsky, Trilisser lost out against Messing and Messing was appointed as second deputy chairman of OGPU.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Messing, Stanislav 1890 births 1937 deaths Politicians from Warsaw Politicians from Warsaw Governorate Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Polish communists Jews from the Russian Empire Soviet Jews Soviet people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish socialists Old Bolsheviks Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Executive Committee of the Communist International Cheka NKVD officers Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Jews executed by the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Poland Soviet rehabilitations