Alexander Helfgot

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Alexander Helfgot, his wife Elena Tumpovskaya and their children Mikhail and Natasha

Alexander Pavlovich Helfgot (Russian: Александр Павлович Гельфгот, 1887 – 25 April 1938) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary politician and economist.[1] He was a prominent Socialist-Revolutionary figure from 1917 to 1922. Arrested in 1922, he spent 17 years in prisons or internal exile before being executed in 1938.

Early life[edit]

Alexander Helfgot was born in 1887.[2][3] His father was Pavel Grigorevich Helfgot, born around 1861 in a Jewish family from Tiflis, who had been arrested in 1885 by the Warsaw Governorate Gendarmerie in connection with the Second Proletariat case.[4][5] Alexander Helfgot grew up in Rostov-on-Don.[3] He joined the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1904.[6]

Political career[edit]

In 1915-1916, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Labour Bureau, which was set up under the section for placement of refugees of the All-Russian Union of Cities.[2]

As of 1917, he was one of the editors of the newspaper Trud ('Labour'), the organ of the Moscow Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1] He was elected to the Moscow City Duma in 1917.[7] As of 1919, he was a member of the Yekaterinodar Governorate Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1][8] In 1920, he was inducted into the Central Bureau of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2] The Central Bureau was a party leadership body formed after the entire Central Committee had been arrested, albeit the Central Bureau members were soon also arrested.[9]

Arrest[edit]

On 23 March, 1921, Helfgot was arrested on Nikolsky Lane [ru] in Moscow.[2][1][6] He was detained at Butyrka prison.[2] Whilst in prison, Helfgot wrote an essay about the Cheka titled Korabl smerti ('Ship of Death').[1] The text was smuggled out of Russia and published by the exiled Central Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in Berlin in 1922.[3][8]

On 24 February 1922, the Presidium of the GPU included him in the list of Socialist-Revolutionaries who, in connection with the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, were charged with anti-Soviet activities.[2] He was a witness for the defense at the trial.[6] On 18 December 1922, an NKVD commission sentenced him to three years imprisonment for anti-Soviet actions and he was sent to a prison camp in Arkhangelsk.[6]

Years in internal exile[edit]

As of 1930, he was serving his "minus six" period of exile in Kokand. He was arrested and charged with organization of Socialist-Revolutionary activities and foreign connections.[6] On 3 January 1931, the Special Department of the OGPU Collegium decreed that he be exiled to Ust-Sysolsk. In 1933, his site of exile was shifted to Vologda.[6] In February of that year, a two-year extension of his exile was issued.[6]

Great Terror[edit]

Helfgot was arrested by the NKVD in Vologda on 8 February 1937. The indictment was signed off by Major Sergei Zhupakhin [ru], Head of the NKVD Department in Vologda. Helfgot was accused of having tried to reorganize the Socialist-Revolutionary movement after arriving in Vologda. The NKVD investigation lasted for over one year.[6] Helfgot was sentenced and executed on 25 April 1938.[1][6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Историческая энциклопедия. ГЕЛЬФГОТ Александр Павлович
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Сергей Александрович Красильников, Константин Николаевич Морозов, И. В Чубыкин. Судебный процесс над социалистами-революционерами, июнь-август 1922 г: подготовка, проведение, итоги : сборник документов. РОССПЭН, 2002. p. 859
  3. ^ a b c Юрий Дойков. А.А. Евдокимов: судьба пророка в России. Акрополь, 1999. p. 129
  4. ^ Минувшее. Atheneum, 1986. p. 46
  5. ^ Деятели революционного движения в России: Vosʹmidesi︠a︡tye gody: vyp.1. A-B. vyp.2. G-Z. Izd-vo Vsesoi︠u︡znogo obshchestva politicheskikh katorzhan i ssylʹno-poselent︠s︡ev, 1933. p. 765
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Из работы Вологодского Чека : чекистская мельница молола и «лучших людей России» и их палачей // Русская мысль. – 1996. – № 4140 (12–18 сент.)
  7. ^ Любовь Федоровна Писарькова. Московская Городская Дума, 1863-1917. Мосгорархив. p. 506
  8. ^ a b Марк Веньяминович Вишняк. Годы эмиграции, 1919-1969: Париж--Нью-Йорк : (воспоминания). Hoover Institution Press, 1970. p. 129
  9. ^ Минувшее. Atheneum, 1989. p. 208
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