Grigory Zinoviev

Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Григорий Зиновьев
	Zinoviev in 1920
Chairman of the Communist International
	In office; 2 March 1919 – 22 November 1926
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Nikolai Bukharin
Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet
	In office; 13 December 1917 – 26 March 1926
Preceded by	Leon Trotsky
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Full member of the 6th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th Politburo
	In office; 10 October – 29 November 1917
	In office; 16 March 1921 – 2 June 1924
Candidate member of the 8th, 9th Politburo
	In office; 25 March 1919 – 16 March 1921
Personal details
Born	Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; 23 September 1883; Yelizavetgrad, Russian Empire
Died	25 August 1936 (aged 52); Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Execution by shooting
Political party	RSDLP (1901–1903) ; RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1903–1918) ; Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1918–1927, 1928–1932, 1933–1934)

Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev^[a] (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky;^[b] 23 September [O.S. 11 September] 1883 – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. An Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a prominent figure in the leadership of the early Soviet Union and served as chairman of the Communist International (Comintern) from 1919 to 1926.

Born in Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) to a Jewish family, Zinoviev joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1901. He sided with Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks in the party's 1903 split with the Mensheviks, becoming one of his closest associates. He spent time in exile with Lenin and returned with him to Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. Before the October Revolution, Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev opposed an armed seizure of power, losing the trust of Lenin, who began relying on Leon Trotsky. During Lenin's final illness and after his death in 1924, Zinoviev allied with Kamenev and Joseph Stalin against Trotsky. The "troika" fell apart, and in 1926 Zinoviev and Kamenev briefly entered with Trotsky in the United Opposition against Stalin; this alliance was defeated. Zinoviev was expelled from the party in 1927, and soon re-admitted after submitting to Stalin.

After the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a close ally of Stalin, in 1934, Zinoviev was accused of complicity in his killing, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in prison. While imprisoned in 1936, Zinoviev was further accused of treason during the Stalinist Great Purge, and he was executed after a show trial in August 1936.
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