Alexei Rykov | |
|---|---|
Алексей Рыков | |
(2).jpg) Rykov in 1924 | |
| 2ndPremier of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 2 February 1924 – 19 December 1930 | |
| Preceded by | Vladimir Lenin |
| Succeeded by | Vyacheslav Molotov |
| Chairman of theCouncil of People's Commissars of theRussian SFSR | |
| In office 2 February 1924 – 18 May 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Vladimir Lenin |
| Succeeded by | Sergei Syrtsov |
| Chairman of theCouncil of Labor and Defense | |
| In office 19 January 1926 – 19 December 1930 | |
| Preceded by | Lev Kamenev |
| Succeeded by | Vyacheslav Molotov |
| People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs | |
| In office 30 May 1931 – 26 September 1936 | |
| Premier | Vyacheslav Molotov |
| Preceded by | Nikolai Antipov |
| Succeeded by | Genrikh Yagoda |
| Full member of the11th,12th,13th,14th,15th,16thPolitburo | |
| In office 3 April 1922 – 21 December 1930 | |
| Member of the10th,11th,12thOrgburo | |
| In office 16 March 1921 – 2 June 1924 | |
| Full member of the9th,10th,11th,12th,13th,14th,15th,16thCentral Committee | |
| In office 5 April 1920 – 10 February 1934 | |
| Candidate member of the17th Central Committee | |
| In office 10 February 1934 – 12 October 1937 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (1881-02-25)25 February 1881 Saratov, Russian Empire |
| Died | 15 March 1938(1938-03-15) (aged 57) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Political party | RSDLP (1898–1903) RSDLP (Bolsheviks)(1903–1918) Russian Communist Party (1918–1937) |
| Children | Natalia Alekseevna Rykova (1917–2010)[1] |
| Signature |  |
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov[a] (25 February 1881 – 15 March 1938) was a RussianBolshevikrevolutionary and aSoviet politician and statesman, most prominent aspremier of Russia and theSoviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively.[2] He was one of the accused inJoseph Stalin's show trials during theGreat Purge.
Rykov joined theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, and after it split into Bolshevik andMenshevik factions in 1903, he joined the Bolsheviks, which were led byVladimir Lenin. He played an active part in the1905 Russian Revolution.[2] Months prior to theOctober Revolution of 1917, he became a member of thePetrograd and Moscow Soviets and was elected to the Bolshevik PartyCentral Committee in July–August of the same year, during theSixth Congress of the Bolshevik Party.[2] Rykov, a moderate, often came into political conflict with Lenin and more radical Bolsheviks but proved influential when the October Revolution finally overthrew theRussian Provisional Government and as such served many roles in the new government, starting October–November (Old Style) asPeople's Commissar for Internal Affairs on the first roster of theCouncil of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), which waschaired byLenin.[2]
During theRussian Civil War (1918–1923), Rykov oversaw the implementation of the "War Communism" economic policy, and helped oversee the distribution of food to theRed Army and theRed Navy. After Lenin was incapacitated by his third stroke in March 1923 Rykov, along withLev Kamenev, was elected by the Sovnarkom to serve asdeputy chairman to Lenin. While both Rykov and Kamenev were Lenin's deputies, Kamenev was the acting premier of the Soviet Union. Lenin died from a fourth stroke in January 1924, and in February, Rykov was chosen by the Council of People's Commissars as premier of both theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of theSoviet Union, which he served as until May 1929 and December 1930, respectively.[2] In December 1930 he was removed from thePolitburo.[2] From 1931 to 1937, Rykov served as People's Commissar of Communications on the council he formerly chaired. In February 1937 at a meeting of theCentral Committee, he was arrested withNikolai Bukharin.[2] In March 1938, both were found guilty of treason and executed.[2]
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was born on 25 February 1881 inSaratov,Russia.[2] His parents were ethnic Russian peasants from the village ofKukarka (located in the provinceVyatka). Alexei's father, Ivan Illych Rykov, a farmer whose work had led the family to settle in Saratov died in 1889 fromcholera while working inMerv. His widowed stepmother could not care for him, so he was cared for by his older sister, Klavdiya Ivanovna Rykova, an officeworker for theRyazan-Uralsk railroad. In 1892 he began his first year of middle school in Saratov. An outstanding student, he started high school at age 13. He excelled in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences. At 15 Rykov stopped attending church and confession, and renounced his faith. He graduated from high school in 1900 and enrolled at theUniversity of Kazan to study law, which he did not complete.
Rykov joined theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1898 and supported itsBolshevik faction when the party split into Bolsheviks andMensheviks at itsSecond Congress in 1903.[2] He worked as a Bolshevik agent inMoscow andSaint Petersburg and played an active role in theRussian Revolution of 1905. He was elected a member of theParty's Central Committee at its3rd Congress (boycotted by theMensheviks) inLondon in 1905 and its4th Congress inStockholm in 1906. He was elected candidate (non-voting) member of the Central Committee at the5th Congress in London.
Initially supportive of Bolshevik leaderVladimir Lenin in the 1908–09 struggle withAlexander Bogdanov for the leadership of the Bolshevik faction, Rykov voted to expel the latter at the June 1909 mini-conference inParis. He spent 1910–11 exiled inFrance, and in 1912 expressed reproach towards Lenin's proposal that the Bolsheviks become an independent party.[2] The dispute was interrupted by Rykov's exile toSiberia for revolutionary activity.
Rykov returned from Siberia after theFebruary Revolution of 1917 and re-joined the Bolsheviks, although he remained skeptical of their more radical inclinations. He became a member of thePetrograd Soviet and the Moscow Soviet. At the6th Congress of the Bolshevik Party in July–August 1917 he was elected to the Central Committee.[2] During theOctober Revolution of 1917, he was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee in Moscow.
After the revolution, Rykov was appointedPeople's Commissar of Internal Affairs. On 29 October 1917 (Old Style), immediately after the Bolshevik seizure of power, the executive committee of the national railroad labor union,Vikzhel, threatened a national strike unless the Bolsheviks shared power with other socialist parties and dropped Lenin andLeon Trotsky from the government.Grigori Zinoviev,Lev Kamenev, and their allies in the Bolshevik Central Committee argued that the Bolsheviks had no choice but to start negotiations since a railroad strike would cripple their government's ability to fight the forces that were still loyal to the overthrownProvisional Government. Although Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Rykov briefly had the support of a Central Committee majority and negotiations were started, a quick collapse of the anti-Bolshevik forces outsidePetrograd allowed Lenin and Trotsky to convince the Central Committee to abandon the negotiating process. In response Rykov,Zinoviev,Kamenev,Vladimir Milyutin, andVictor Nogin resigned from the Central Committee and from the government on 17 November 1917 .[2]
On 3 April 1918 Rykov was appointed Chairman of theSupreme Council of National Economy and served in that capacity throughout theRussian Civil War. On 5 July 1919, he also became a member of the reorganized Revolutionary Military Council, where he remained until October 1919. From July 1919 and until August 1921, he was also a special representative of theCouncil of Labor and Defense for food supplies for the Red Army and Navy. Rykov was elected to the Communist Party Central Committee on 5 April 1920 after the9th Party Congress and became a member of itsOrgburo, where he remained until 23 May 1924.[2]
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Once the Bolsheviks emerged victorious in the civil war, Rykov resigned his Supreme Council of National Economy post on 28 May 1921.[3] On 26 May 1921, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of theCouncil of Labor and Defense of the Russian SFSR under Lenin. With Lenin increasingly sidelined by ill health, Rykov became his deputy at the Sovnarkom (Council of People's Commissars) on 29 December. Rykov joined the rulingPolitburo on 3 April 1922, after the11th Party Congress. A government reorganization in the wake of the formation of the Soviet Union in December 1922 resulted in Rykov's appointment as Chairman of the USSR Supreme Council of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of People's Commissars on 6 July 1923.
After Lenin's death on 21 January 1924 Rykov gave up his position as Chairman of the USSR Supreme Council of National Economy and becameChairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and, simultaneously, of the Sovnarkom of theRSFSR, on 2 February 1924.[2]
According to Polish historian,Marian Kamil Dziewanowski, Rykov was placed in the position ofChairman of the Soviet Union due to support from Stalin as part of a wider effort to build an alliance in thePolitburo. Dziewanowski argued that Trotsky rather than Rykov would have been the natural successor to Lenin had he accepted the position ofVice Chairman.[4]
Along withNikolai Bukharin andMikhail Tomsky, Rykov led the moderate wing of the Communist Party in the 1920s, promoting a partial restoration of the market economy underNEP policies. The moderates supportedJoseph Stalin,Grigory Zinoviev, andLev Kamenev againstLeon Trotsky and theLeft Opposition in 1923–24. After Trotsky's defeat and Stalin's break with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1925, Rykov, Bukharin and Tomsky supported Stalin against theUnited Opposition of Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1926–27. After Kamenev voiced opposition to Stalin at the14th Party Congress in December 1925, he lost his position as Chairman of the Soviet Council of Labor and Defense—which he had assumed from Lenin following Lenin's death—and was replaced by Rykov on 19 January 1926.
Under his leadership vodka was heavily taxed, and became known as "Rykovka". Some of his political opponents claimed that he was a heavy drinker,[5] but in reality he was an abstainer.[6]
Rykov's Premiership encompassed drastic change in the power structure of the Soviet Union. From 1924 to 1930 the role of theCommunist Party—informally led by Stalin who, asGeneral Secretary, controlled Party membership—increasingly usurped powers from the legitimate governmental structures. Although an exact date cannot be given forStalin's rise to power, theUnited Opposition—which consisted of Kamenev, Zinoviev, and Trotsky—was defeated and its followers were expelled from the Party by December 1927.After the defeat of the United Opposition, Stalin adopted more radical policies and came into conflict with the moderate wing of the party. The two factions maneuvered behind the scenes throughout 1928. In February–April 1929 the conflict came to a head and the moderates, branded theRight Opposition, or "Rightists", were defeated and forced to "admit their mistakes" in November 1929. Rykov lost his position as Premier of the Russian SFSR toSergei Syrtsov on 18 May 1929, but retained his other two posts. On 19 December 1930, after admitting another round of "mistakes", he was replaced byVyacheslav Molotov as both Soviet Premier and Chairman of theCouncil of Labor and Defense. Two days later, Rykov was expelled from thePolitburo, taking with him any chance of political advancement.[2]
On 30 May 1931, Rykov was appointedPeople's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, a position that he continued to occupy after the Commissariat was reorganized asPeople's Commissariat for Communications of the USSR in January 1932. On 10 February 1934, he was demoted to a candidate (non-voting) member of the Party'sCentral Committee. On 26 September 1936, in the wake of accusations made at the firstMoscow Show Trial against Kamenev and Zinoviev, and Tomsky's suicide, Rykov lost his position as People's Commissar of Communications, but retained his membership in the Central Committee.
Expecting the worst, Rykov nearly decided to follow the example of his close friend Mikhail Tomsky and preempt arrest by committing suicide, but was convinced otherwise by his family.[7] As Stalin'sGreat Purge intensified in early 1937, Rykov and Bukharin were expelled from the Communist Party and arrested at the February–March 1937 meeting of the Central Committee on 27 February. On 13 March 1938, at theTrial of the Twenty-One, Rykov, Bukharin,Nikolay Krestinsky,Christian Rakovsky,Genrikh Yagoda, and sixteen other Soviet officials were found guilty of treason (having plotted with Trotsky against Stalin) and sentenced to death by theMilitary Collegium. Rykov wrote a letter to the collegium requesting clemency but failed to get them to overturn the verdict.[2][8] On 15 March, most of them were executed.[7] Rakovsky was executed in 1941.
Rykov's wife, Nina Semyonova, née Marshak, was arrested in 1937.[9]Yevgenia Ginzburg, who was also arrested in 1937, recorded being approached insideButyrka prison by "a woman of about 55, with an expression of acute suffering on her face" who demanded: "Have they tried them yet? They've shot them, haven't they?" Ginzburg was told this was Rykov's wife, vainly seeking news of her husband.[10] Nina Rykov was shot on 4 March 1938.[11]
Their daughter Natalya, born 1916, worked for the NKVD as a teacher until her father's arrest, when she was sent into administrative exile inTomsk, where she was arrested on 1 March 1938 and sentenced to eight years in thegulag for 'anti-soviet agitation'. On completing her sentence in 1946, she was sentenced to five years exile in East Kazakhstan, but before that had expired, she was arrested again and exiled to theYenisey region ofKrasnoyarsk.[11] In exile, she underwent two operations for cancer,[12] could not work, and had to depend on her husband, Walter Perli (1907–1961), a former officer in the Estonian army, arrested during the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940, whom she married in exile in June 1949.[11] Perli, who worked as an accountant, also financially supported Nina Rykova's elderly sister, Yelena Tolmacheva, until he was admitted to hospital with tuberculosis.[12] She was released in September 1954, after 16 years prison and exile.
TheSoviet government annulled the verdict in 1988 andrehabilitated him during theperestroika. Rykov was then reinstated in theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR 1924–30 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR 1924–29 | Succeeded by |
| Awards and achievements | ||
| Preceded by | Cover ofTime magazine 14 July 1924 | Succeeded by |
