Georgy Pyatakov

Georgy (Yury) Leonidovich Pyatakov (Russian: Георгий Леонидович Пятаков; August 6, 1890 – January 30, 1937) was a leader of the Bolsheviks and a politician during the Russian Revolution.

Georgy Pyatakov Юрій П'ятаков
Chairman of Provisional Government
In office November 28, 1918 – January 29, 1919
President	Hryhoriy Petrovsky (chairman of VUTsVK)
Preceded by	position created
Succeeded by	Christian Rakovsky
1st Secretary of Central Committee of the CP(b)U
In office July 12, 1918 – September 9, 1918
Preceded by	position created
Succeeded by	Serafima Hopner
3rd Secretary of Central Committee of the CP(b)U
In office March 6, 1919 – May 30, 1919
Preceded by	Emmanuel Kviring
Succeeded by	Stanislav Kosior
Personal details
Born	(1890-08-18)August 18, 1890 Cherkassy uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	January 30, 1937(1937-01-30) (aged 46) Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Political party	RSDRP (1910–1912) Russian Communist Party (1912–1927, 1928–1936)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Ukraine (1918–1919)
Spouse(s)	Yevgenia Bosch
Alma mater	Saint Petersburg University
Occupation	Politician/Statesman

Biography

Pyatakov (party pseudonyms: Kievsky, Lyalin, Petro, Yaponets) was born August 6, 1890 in the settlement of the Mariinsky sugar factory. His father, Leonid Timofeyevich Pyatakov, was the Chief engineer and Director of the Factory.

He started political activity as an anarchist while he was in secondary school, but joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1910. In 1912, he joined the Bolshevik faction. He was arrested and exiled to Siberia in 1912 with his partner, Evgenia Bosh, but they soon escaped and made their way to Switzerland where they joined the émigré revolutionary community. Pyatakov and Bosh remained together until she committed suicide in 1925 due to chronic poor health.

His opinion on some points of the theory and tactics of the revolutionary struggle contradicted that of the party Central Committee.

He was one of Lenin’s fiercest opponents on the national problem, with regard to the question of the course to be followed towards the socialist revolution, and on the issue of the Bolsheviks' peace settlement with Germany.

Pyatakov lived in Ukraine from March 1917, heading the Kiev Committee of the RSDLP. He was repeatedly elected a member of the Central Committee. But he opposed the Ukrainian nationalists and stood for the transfer of power to the Soviets of Worker’s, Peasant’s and Soldier’s Deputies in Ukraine. He also headed the Kiev Military-Revolutionary Committee. He declared that the party had to throw out the idea of self-identification of every nation. He stood on the anti-chauvinistic international principles.[1]

In 1918, Pyatakov was a leader of a group of Left Communists in Ukraine. He was one of the initiators of Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine formation. At the First Congress of CP(b)U in Moscow, Pyatakov was elected the Central Committee secretary, and headed the unsuccessful anti-Hetman rebellion in August 1918. From October 1918 until mid-January 1919, he was a head of the Provisional Worker’s and Peasant’s Government formed by Bolsheviks for the fight with the Directory, and took part in the formation of the Red Army in Ukraine.

In March 1919, he attended the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, where he unsuccessfully opposed Lenin's position on national self-determination.

He collaborated with Nikolai Bukharin by co-authoring the chapter on "The Economic Categories of Capitalism in the Transition Period" in The Economics of the Transformation Period, published in 1920.[2]

Pyatakov was placed in charge of the management of Donbass coal mining industry in 1921, becoming a deputy head of the Gosplan (State Planning Committee) of the RSFSR in 1922, and deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR.

The likeness of Pyatakov’s Left-Communist views and Trotsky’s ideas led to his participation in practically all the opposition trends then designated as "Trotskyist".

He was expelled from the party for belonging to the "Trotskyite-Zinovievite" bloc, but was reinstated in 1928 after he renounced Trotskyism, and became Deputy head of Heavy Industries. He was appointed Chairman of the Board of the USSR State Bank in 1929 holding the position for a year.[3]

In 1936, he was again accused of anti-party and anti-Soviet activity, and expelled from the party. At his trial, he was accused of conspiring with Trotsky in connection with the case of the so-called Parallel anti-Soviet Party Centre, to overthrow the Soviet Government. He was accused of entering into a conspiracy with the Nazis with the intent of seizing power in the Soviet Union, promising to reward the Germans with large tracts of Soviet territory, including Ukraine. The prosecution presented evidence that he had secretly met with Trotsky in Norway for these purposes. On January 30, 1937, he was sentenced to death and executed.

Pyatakov was rehabilitated posthumously in 1988; that is not until Gorbachev's time.

References

1. Orest Subtelny, History of Ukraine
2. Bukarin, Nikolai; Field, Oliver (1979). The Politics and Economics of the Transition Period (PDF). Routledge, Kegan and Paul. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
3. "The State Bank of the USSR". Bank of Russia Today. Bank of Russia. Retrieved 26 May 2015.

External links

• Biography
• Mentioning of Leonid Pyatakov
• Biography of his brother Leonid

Political offices
Preceded by Valerian Obolensky	Commissar of the National Bank of Russia 1917–1918	Succeeded by Aleksandrs Spunde (acting)
Preceded by Mykola Skrypnyk	Chairman of the Provisional Government of Ukraine 1918–1919	Succeeded by Christian Rakovsky
Preceded by position created	Chairman of the Main Concession Committee of the USSR 1922–1923	Succeeded by position liquidated
Preceded by Aron Sheinman	Chairman of Board of the Soviet State Bank 1929–1930	Succeeded by M. I. Kalmanovitch
Party political offices
Preceded by position created Emanuil Kviring	1st Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine 1918–1918 1919–1919	Succeeded by Serafima Hopner Stanislav Kosior