Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1885 – 16 March 1919) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A key Bolshevik organizer of the October Revolution of 1917, Sverdlov served as chairman of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party from 1918 until his death in 1919, and as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (head of state) from 1917 until his death in 1919.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod to a Jewish family active in revolutionary politics, Sverdlov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902 and supported Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction from 1903. He was active in the Urals during the failed Revolution of 1905, and over the next decade was subjected to constant imprisonment and exile.

After the 1917 February Revolution overthrew the monarchy, Sverdlov returned to Petrograd and was appointed a secretary of the party's central committee. In this capacity, he played a key role in planning the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks came to power. Sverdlov became one of the most powerful figures in the Soviet regime, with Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin.

In November 1917, Sverdlov was elected chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the de facto head of state. He worked to consolidate Bolshevik control of the new regime and supported the Red Terror campaign and decossackization policies. He played major roles in the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, in persuading party members to support the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with the Central Powers that March, and in authorising the execution of the Romanov family that July. He also served briefly as acting head of government after Lenin was injured in an assassination attempt in August.

In March 1919, Sverdlov died at age 33 of the Spanish flu, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. The city of Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk) and Theatre Square in Moscow were renamed in his honour. Some historians regard his untimely death as a key factor which enabled the rise of Stalin after Lenin's death in 1924, as Sverdlov was a natural candidate for the post of General Secretary held by Stalin from 1922.