Grigory Sokolnikov

Grigori Yakovlevich Sokolnikov (born Hirsch Yankelevich Brilliant; 15 August 1888 – 21 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, economist, and Soviet politician.

Born to a Jewish family in Romny (now in Ukraine), Sokolnikov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905, and was active as a Bolshevik during the 1905 Revolution. He was exiled to Siberia from 1907 to 1909, when he escaped to Western Europe, and obtained a doctorate in economics from the Sorbonne. In 1917, Sokolnikov returned to Russia and was elected to the party's Central Committee, and following the October Revolution, oversaw the nationalisation of banks, was a member of the delegation at the negotiations for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and served as political commissar during the Russian Civil War. He served as the People's Commissar for Finance from 1922 to 1926 before being demoted to lower positions due to his opposition to Stalin's rise to power. In 1936, Sokolnikov was arrested during the Great Purge, and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment at the Moscow trials. He was later killed in prison in 1939.