Zinoviev, Grigorii Yevseevich

(b. Ukraine 24 Sept. 1883; d. Moscow 25 Aug. 1936) Russian; chair of Petrograd Soviet Dec. 1917 (and of Leningrad Soviet 1924 – 6), first chair of Comintern Executive Committee 1919 – 26 Joining the RSDLP in 1901, Zinoviev met Lenin in Switzerland in 1903 and became his close associate, helping to organize the Bolshevik faction. Returning to Russia, he became a member of the St Petersburg Central Committee, but went back to Western Europe in 1908 to become Lenin's chief assistant in party organization and propaganda. He worked with Lenin in Poland and Switzerland (where he studied at Bern University), editing the journal Sotsial-Demokrat and acting as his representative. In April 1917 he accompanied Lenin through Germany to Russia and went into hiding with him in Finland after July.

In October, after returning with Lenin to Russia, he publicly opposed (with Kamenev) the seizure of power as premature and resigned from the Central Committee when Lenin refused to form a coalition socialist government. But he was soon reinstated and in December 1917 became chair of the Petrograd Soviet (remaining chair when it became the Leningrad Soviet in 1924). In 1919 he became a candidate member and in 1921 a full member of the Politbureau and from 1919 became chair of the newly formed Communist International's Executive Committee, to which Lenin attached great importance.

He formed part of the "Triumvirate" (with Stalin and Kamenev) which took over, when Lenin died, to oppose Trotsky. However, in 1925 he attacked the then pro-NEP policy of Bukharin and Stalin and was dismissed as chair of the Leningrad Soviet in 1926. He then joined Trotsky's "United Opposition" and was expelled from the Politbureau in July 1926 and from the Central Committee and the IKKI (Comintern) in October. He was dismissed from the party in 1927, but readmitted in 1928 after recanting and worked in the state apparatus. In 1932 he was again expelled but again readmitted in 1933. He spoke at the "Congress of Victors" in 1934, but after the assassination of Kirov in 1934 was arrested and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in 1935 for alleged involvement. In 1936 was a subject of the first show trial, when he was found guilty and shot as the alleged organizer of terrorist groups. He was officially rehabilitated in 1988.