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Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev was a Russian communist politician. He was born in 1883 and died in 1936. His name was attached to the forged Zinoviev letter inciting Britain's communists to rise, which helped to topple the Labour government 1924. A prominent Bolshevik, Zinoviev returned to Russia in 1917 with Lenin and played a leading part in the Revolution. He became head of the Communist International in 1919. As one of the 'Old Bolsheviks', he was seen by Stalin as a threat. He was accused of complicity in the murder of the Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov in 1934, and was tried and shot.
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Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) was a Soviet revolutionary and leader. He was born in 1879 at Tblisi, Georgia and died in 1953. Educated for the priesthood at The Theological Seminary, he was expelled for preaching Marxism and joined the Bolshevik opposition for which he was arrested and deported to Siberia. He became close with Lenin and took part in the 1917 revolution, becoming leader in 1924 upon the death of Lenin.
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Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov was a Russian politician and soldier. He was born in 1881 near Dneppropetrovsk, Ukraine and died in 1969. In 1903 he joined the Bolshevik movement, leading to his exile in Siberia. He returned to Russia and fought in the Great War and the revolution of 1917, and in 1935 was appointed Marshall of the Soviet Union. In 1925 he was appointed Commissar for Defence, a post he held until 1940 when he became commander-inchief of the Russian Northern Army, leading the legendary defence of Leningrad at which he urged the people to 'take up your arms and defend the city at all costs'. Upon the death of Stalin in 1953 he became President of the Soviet Union, apost he held until 1960.
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Roman Malinovsky was an Okhrana penetration agent within the Bolshevik movement in Russia. He operated at least from 1913 under cover as a Bolshevik deputy, advising Lenin until his identity was revealed by captured Okhrana files and he was shot in the Kremlin in 1918.
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Tom Conway (real name Thomas Charles Sanders) was a Russian-born actor. He was born in 1904 at St Petersburg and died in 1967. His wealthy family fled the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and went to England.
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The Battle of Maracesti was a defeat of Austro-German force by combined Russian and Romanian forces in August 1917 during the Great War. After defeating the Russians in Galicia in 1916, the German general von Mackensen advanced toward Maracesti, an important railway junction. He was stopped close to the town by a strong Russo- Romanian force and the battle continued for some days. Bolshevik agitators subverted the Russian troops who abandoned the defences and ran. However, by this time Romanian reinforcements were arriving and in spite of heavy fighting defeated Mackensen's force and prevented him from taking Moldavia.
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The Cheka was the first Soviet security and intelligence agency. It was formed on the 20th of December 1917, six weeks after the Bolshevik Revolution.
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The Envoys' Plot was a conspiracy of western politicians and secret agents to overthrow the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in the summer of 1918. The plot was instigated by Robert Lockhart and contributed to by Sidney Reilly of the British MIIC. The plot was quickly discovered, and taken over by the Cheka as a trap for western conspirators. In August 1918 Yan Buikis, a Cheka officer posing as an anti-Bolshevik conspirator under the name of Shmidkhen succeeded in persuading Lockhart, Reilly and the French consul-general that Colonel Eduard Berzin, commander of a Latvian regiment in the Kremlin (in fact a Cheka agent provocateur) was ready to lead an anti-Bolshevik uprising. Reilly supplied 1200000 roubles to finance the coup which were promptly passed to the Cheka. The operation was wound up by the Cheka in September following the assassination attempt on Lenin and the assassination of the head of the Petrograd Cheka.
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The Expedition to Archangel was a Joint Allied (British, French, and American) operation during 1918 and 1919 officially to stabilise the Eastern Front following the Russian Revolution and safeguard the large concentration of military stores which had been sent to Archangel and other Western military interests in the area, though secretly it was intended to support the White Russians against the Bolsheviks. The Allied force succeeded in capturing Murmansk in July 1918 and then bombarded Archangel by air and sea, taking the city in August 1918. The Bolsheviks were driven from the area and a new local government established.
However by early 1919, Archangel was little more than an enclave in an otherwise almost entirely Bolshevik country and it was evacuated during August and September 1919. The expedition had three main objectives: to safeguard the large concentration of military stores which had been sent to the Russians and which lay in Archangel; to safeguard the flank of the Murmansk Expedition; and to try to stabilise the Eastern Front and make contact with the Czech Legion and the White Russian forces of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. A mixed force of British, French, and American troops occupied Murmansk in July 1918. Using this as a base, the Allied naval squadron, with air support, attacked and captured Modiuga Island, some 48 km north of Archangel, which allowed them to bypass Bolshevik defences and enter Archangel. A land force then cleared the valleys of the rivers Dvina and Vaga and defeated the Bolshevik forces which had been occupying Archangel. A local government was formed and formally recognised and several thousand Russians enlisted with the Allies.
After the Armistice, the Bolsheviks were able to concentrate troops in the area and by early 1919 there seemed little point in holding on to this enclave in a country which had almost entirely become Bolshevik. Archangel was successfully defended until August, when withdrawal began, and the British naval base was finally closed and the last troops evacuated on the 27th of September, having handed their equipment over to White Russian forces.
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The Okhrana was the Tsarist Russian security and intelligence agency from 1881 to 1917. After the Bolshevik revolution, the Cheka modelled itself on the Okhrana which had successfully used penetration agents and agents provocateurs.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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