Boris Kamkov

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Boris Kamkov

Boris Davidovich Kamkov (Russian: Бори́с Дави́дович Камко́в; June 3, 1885 – August 29, 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, a leader of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and a member of the Council of People's Commissars. He was killed during the Great Purge.

Early years

Boris Davidovich Kats, who became known under the name 'Kamkov', was born on June 3, 1885 (O.S.) in

Revolution of 1905, was arrested and banished to Turukhansk. In 1907, Kamkov escaped and went into exile abroad, living mostly in Germany, France and Sweden. He contributed to various SR publications and studied law at Heidelberg University, graduating in 1911.[1]

World War I and February Revolution

During

Internationalist position. He belonged to the Parisian SR group 'Life' and supported the Zimmerwald Conference
. Kamkov was also involved in organising aid to Russian prisoners of war, using the opportunity to distribute revolutionary propaganda.

After the

Avram Gots; Gots and Kamkov had both been commissioned to report on the War and gave sharply divergent reports, with Kamkov denouncing Gots as a 'social patriot' and calling for an end to the war.[note 1]

Kamkov occupied various minor posts in the PSR but increasingly called for a break with the

Lenin's Bolsheviks, and in the lead-up to the October Revolution, the Left SRs collaborated closely with the Bolsheviks. The Left SRs were not privy to the Bolsheviks' plans for a revolution and were not included in the very first Council of People's Commissars
; in fact, they had tried to discourage the Bolsheviks from a unilateral seizure of power.

Collaboration with the Bolsheviks

However, after the victory of the Bolsheviks, the Left SRs accepted the October Revolution, and Kamkov participated in negotiations with the Bolsheviks to form a coalition government. Kamkov favoured some agreements between all socialist parties, a popular position at the time, feeling that "the Left should not isolate itself from the moderate democratic forces."[2] However, efforts to bring about such an all-socialist coalition quickly foundered on the opposition of both Lenin and the SR/Menshevik leaders. The Left SRs were the only party to enter a coalition with the Bolsheviks. Along with Isaac Steinberg, A.L. Kollegaev, Vladimir Karelin, V.Y. Trutovsky, V.A. Algasov and P.P. Proshyan, Kamkov became a member of the Council of People's Commissars (without portfolio). He was also elected to the new Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.

The Bolshevik/Left SR coalition was short-lived. Although Kamkov supported the Left SRs' participation in the Russian delegation in the peace negotiations with Imperial Germany at

Socialist Maximalists
' and Ukrainian revolutionary groups.

Conflict with the Bolsheviks

In June 1918, the Left SRs abandoned the policy of peaceful protest and began to organise illegal strikes, uprisings and assassination attempts. They killed the German ambassador Count Mirbach on July 6, 1918, and on August 30 attempted to kill Lenin. The Bolsheviks responded with violent repression. The Left SR party was, however, by no means unanimous in favour of violent resistance to the Bolsheviks. Mark Natanson was one of the most prominent Left SRs, but alone in his desire to call for continued co-operation with the Soviet government. This sentiment was echoed by many local Left SR branches. This split contributed to the disintegration of the Left SR party. Kamkov was among the anti-Bolshevik hardliners. On July 7, Kamkov helped organise an armed anti-Bolshevik demonstration by Left SRs, which was quickly suppressed. Kamkov went into hiding. The Bolsheviks regarded the July event as a counter-revolutionary uprising; the Left SRs insisted they had merely wanted to demonstrate the Russian people's opposition to the Bolsheviks and the 'German Imperialists'.

Prison, exile and death

Boris Kamkov in the 1920s

In November 1918, much of the Central Committee of the Left SR party was put on trial. Kamkov, who had escaped to newly independent

upcoming show trial of Nikolai Bukharin
in March 1938. However, Kamkov steadfastly refused to incriminate Bukharin in the charge of having plotted with the Left SRs to assassinate Lenin back in 1918, in spite of severe pressure from the GPU. On August 29, 1938, Kamkov himself was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out the same day. He was rehabilitated by the Soviet Government in 1991.

Notes

  1. ^ A.R. Gots and B.D. Kamkov frequently served as spokesmen for the Defencist and Internationalist wings of the PSR.

References

  1. ^ Great Russian Encyclopedia. Moscow, 2009.
  2. ^ Minutes of the First Congress of the PLSR, pp. 40-42.
  3. ^ Cp. Rabinowitch, A., The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007, p. 205.