Viktor Pavlovich Nogin (; 14 February O.S. 2 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 2 February1878 – 22 May 1924) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet Union, Soviet politician, and statesman in

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 ...

, holding many high positions in the party and in government, including Chairman of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of Mossovet, Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies (

Mayor of Moscow The Mayor of Moscow () is the head and the highest-ranking official of Moscow, who leads the Government of Moscow, the main executive body of the city. Moscow is both a city and separate federal subject, according to the Constitution of ...

). He was a member of first the

Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...

, i.e., the first Government of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, as People's Commissar for Commerce and Industry.

Biography

Viktor Nogin, born in

, then part of the

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 ...

, was the son of a clerk. He left school at 14, and worked in a textile factory in

St 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 ...

. 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 ...

(RSDLP). He was arrested that same year and exiled to

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

. In 1900, he emigrated. He returned to Russia, having agreed to act as a distributor of ''

Iskra ''Iskra'' (, , ''the Spark'') was a fortnightly political newspaper of Russian socialist emigrants established as the official organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). History ''Iskra'' was published in exile and then smuggl ...

'', the newspaper founded abroad by

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 ...

and

Julius Martov Yuliy Osipovich Tsederbaum (24 November 1873 – 4 April 1923), better known as Julius Martov, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and a leader of the Mensheviks, a faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). A close ...

. When the RSDLP split into factions in 1903, Nogin 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, ...

. In 1907, he was a delegate to the RSDLP congress in London, where he was elected to the Central Committee. During his years as a revolutionary, operating illegally in Russia, he was arrested eight times, and escaped six times.
The Moscow City Government Nogin polits

Within the Bolshevik faction, Nogin was a 'conciliator' who wanted to reunite the RSDLP. In January 1910, he was one of the organisers of a three-week conference in Paris, called by the Central Committee. As part of the preparations, he travelled to Baku, hoping to enlist

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 ...

, then known as 'Koba' but failed to make contact with him. At the conference, Lenin was repeatedly outvoted, as the delegates decided in favour of reuniting the Bolsheviks and

Mensheviks 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 ...

. According to Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's widow, Nogin wanted to "unite everybody", including those who wanted to abandon illegal activity, but when he returned to Russia to try to put this into effect, he was rebuffed by the Bolsheviks there. He was arrested in April 1911, for the last time, and spent five years in prison. By 1917, Nogin was one of the leaders of the Moscow branch of Bolsheviks. In April, he was chaired the party conference convened while Lenin was still absent abroad, and when a lone delegate raised the possibility of a second, Bolshevik revolution (democratic

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 ...

occurred earlier that year), Nogin ruled him out of order. The conference elected him to the Central Committee. After Lenin had returned and was calling for a second revolution, Nogin was one of the leading Bolsheviks who argued against him. At the Sixth Party Congress, in August, he warned: "Is it possible, comrades, that our country has made such a leap in two months that it is already prepared for socialism? Where are our allies? So far, we have only the platonic sympathy of the Western European proletariat ... We will find active support only in the “rotten” Soviets". Despite being in what soon became the minority, he was re-elected to the Central Committee in August, with the fifth highest vote (behind Lenin,

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...

Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

and

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 ...

. He was a member of the Provisional Committee during the struggle against General Lavr Kornilov's

affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term Monogamy, monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or ...

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, ...

. From September to November 1917 He was the chairman of the Executive Committee of Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies (

). As Chairman of the Moscow Military-Revolutionary Committee, Nogin tried to lead a peaceful and bloodless transfer of power to the Bolsheviks, hoping to avoid more bloodshed in Moscow. Before a session of the RSDLP Central Committee on 1 November 1917, he joined in advocating the creation of a coalition government involving all of the socialist parties, claiming that a Bolshevik-only government could only be sustained through terror. This was rebuffed by other Bolsheviks and not realized. Nogin was appointed

People's Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English language, English transliteration of the Russian language, Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the pol ...

for Commerce and Industry 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 ...

but resigned on 17 November, along with Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov, Milyutin and others, – after he had presented a declaration repudiating "the preservation of power of a purely Bolshevik government by means of terror." Nogin formally admitted "his mistakes" on 12 December (29 November

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries betwe ...

) 1917, but at Lenin's insistence, his request to be re-admitted to the Central Committee was not granted until January 1918, when he was appointed Commissar for Labour for the Moscow Region. In March, he was permanently dropped from the Central Committee, but in April, Nogin was appointed Deputy People's Commissar for Labour. In this position, he enjoyed great deal of authority in foreign trade and industry circles, accompanying

Leonid Krasin Leonid Borisovich Krasin (; – 24 November 1926) was a Russians, Russian Soviet Union, Soviet politician, engineer, social entrepreneur, Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet diplomat. In 1924 he became the first List of ambassadors of Russia to ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

for the negotiations over the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement. In 1923, Nogin was appointed head of the Soviet textile trust. Unable to purchase raw cotton from the United States, Nogin travelled to New York in August 1923, and negotiated a deal with Anderson, Clayton & Co, one of the United States' largest cotton exporters, which was the first trade deal between a US company and the communist regime. While there, he helped the Coolidge administration communicate with Moscow using the code of the Soviet government, in an attempt to establish relations between the two countries. He died soon after he had returned to Moscow. Viktor Nogin is buried in the Grave No. 6 of the

Kremlin Wall Necropolis The Kremlin Wall Necropolis is the former national cemetery of the Soviet Union, located in Red Square in Moscow beside the Moscow Kremlin Wall, Kremlin Wall. Burials there began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolsheviks who died during the Mosc ...

on the

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

, Moscow.

Family

He married Olga Pavlovna Ermakova, (1885–1977) with whom he had two children. His brother in law, Viktor Radus-Zenkovich, was Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars, Kyrgyz ASSR,

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, from 12 October 1920 to 1921.

Personality

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

described Nogin as "an extremely capable, energetic Russian, so capable, indeed, that I found it hard to believe he could really be a Russian."

Positions held

Some of the Bolshevik party and government positions held by Viktor Nogin are listed below: *Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies (before 1917) *Central Committee member at the Sixth Congress of the RSDLP (July – August 1917) * People's Commissar for Trade and Industry in the first cabinet of the Council of People's Commissars at the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets *Chairman of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies, succeeding Menshevik L.M. Khinchuk, who resigned (5 September 1917) *Head of Moscow as Chairman of the Presidium of the of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies (19 September 1917 – 13 November 1917) *Labor commissar of the Moscow Region and a deputy to the Constituent Assembly (17 November 1917) *Deputy People's Commissar of Labor of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

(April 1918)

Legacy

The historic 14th-century town of Bogorodsk was renamed

Noginsk Noginsk (), known as Bogorodsk () until 1930, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Noginsky District, Bogorodsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located east of the Moscow Ring Road on ...

after him in 1930. In 1934, the USSR Post Office produced a 15 Kopeck stamp honoring Viktor Nogin.Russian Mint Stamps of 1934–35
/ref> A station in the Moscow Metro Kitay-Gorod was called Ploshchad Nogina until 1990, after a square in central Moscow that was renamed after Viktor Nogin in 1924 (now also reverted to the old name of

Slavyanskaya Square Slavyanskaya Square () is a square in central Moscow, renamed in 1924–1990 as northern side of Nogina Square (Площадь Ногина); the southern side of Soviet-era Nogina Square reverted to its old name Varvarka Gates Square (Площ ...

). Streets named after Nogin still exist in many Russia cities, such as 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 ...

Nizhniy Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

, Pavlovskiy Posad,

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

, and

Serpukhov Serpukhov ( rus, Серпухов, p=ˈsʲerpʊxəf) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Oka River, Oka and the Nara (Oka), Nara Rivers, 99 kilometers (62 miles) south fro ...

References