Kamo (Bolshevik)

Kamo
Симон "Камо" Аршакович Тер-Петросян
Simon "Kamo" Ter-Petrosian in 1922
Born	Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosian (1882-05-27)27 May 1882 Gori, Georgia Governorate
Died	14 July 1922(1922-07-14) (aged 40) Tiflis, Georgian SSR
Cause of death	Car accident
Nationality	Russian Empire, then USSR
Other names	Kamo
Known for	1907 Tiflis bank robbery

Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosian (Russian: Симон "Камо" Аршакович Тер-Петросян; Armenian: Սիմոն «Կամօ» Տէր Պետրոսեան; 27 May 1882 – 14 July 1922), better known by his nom de guerre of Kamo, was an Old Bolshevik revolutionary and an early companion to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

From 1903 to 1912, Kamo, a master of disguise, carried out a number of militant operations on behalf of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, mostly in Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. He is best known for his central role in the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, organised by Bolshevik leaders to raise funds for their party activities. For his militant activities he was arrested in Berlin in 1907 but feigned insanity both in German and later Russian prisons, eventually escaping from prison and fleeing the country. He was recaptured in 1912 after another attempted armed robbery and sentenced to death. The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment as part of the celebrations of the Romanov Tercentenary.

Kamo was released after the February 1917 Russian Revolution. He died in 1922 after being hit by a truck while riding a bicycle in Tiflis.^[1] Kamo was buried and had a monument erected in his honor in Pushkin Gardens, near Yerevan Square, but this monument was later removed during Stalin's rule, and Kamo's remains were moved to an unknown location.

The name "Kamo" originated from Ter-Petrosian's lack of fluency in the Russian language. One of Stalin's acolytes, Vardoyan, was teaching Kamo Russian grammar, Kamo kept saying kamo instead of komu [to whom]. Stalin lost his temper, but then laughed: "komu not kamo! Try to remember it bicho [boy]".^[2]