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Isaac Steinberg
Isaac Nachman Steinberg (Russian: Исаак Нахман Штейнберг; 13 July 1888 – 2 January 1957) was a lawyer, a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, politician, People's Commissar under Lenin, and a leader of the Jewish Territorialist movement and writer in Soviet Russia and in exile.
Steinberg was born in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (today Daugavpils, Latvia), into a family of Orthodox Jewish merchants. He was raised in a traditional religious home. In 1906, Steinberg entered Moscow University, where he studied law. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party (also known as SRs). He was arrested in 1908 and sent to Tobolsk province for 2 years. After exile he left for Germany and studied at the University of Heidelberg, graduating with a master's degree.
In 1910, Steinberg returned to Russia and worked as a lawyer. During the First World War, he conducted anti-war and revolutionary work, was arrested in 1915 and exiled to the Ufa Governorate. He continued his work as a lawyer in Ufa, where he led the Left Socialist Revolutionaries of the Ufa province. He was elected a delegate of the City Duma, was a member of the executive committee of the Ufa Council of Workers and Soldiers and the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies; participant in the All-Russian Democratic Conference; Member of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic. Steinberg condemned the uprising in Petrograd, but became part of the Ufa Provincial Commissar of Agriculture nonetheless. He was elected to the Russian Constituent Assembly on the list of Socialist Revolutionaries from the Ufa province. He soon after became a member of the Left SR central committee.
From December 10, 1917, to March 1918, he was People's Commissar (Narkom) of Justice in Vladimir Lenin's government during the Bolsheviks' short-lived coalition with the left wing of the SRs. On December 18, 1917, some members of the Constituent Assembly by Dzerzhinsky, but Steinberg released them. On December 19, 1917, he signed an “Instruction” to the Revolutionary Tribunal on the termination of systematic repressions against individuals, institutions and the press and sent a corresponding telegram to the Soviets at all levels. From December 1917 - January 1918, the Council of People's Commissars examined Steinberg's claims against the Cheka several times. On December 31, 1917, the Sovnarkom, on his initiative, decided to delimit the functions of the Cheka under the Petrograd Soviet.
After the scandal caused by the murder of Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev and Fyodor Kokoshkin on the night of January 6–7, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars, after hearing the report of Steinberg, instructed the NKJ to “as soon as possible verify the thoroughness of the detention of political prisoners ... all those who cannot be charged within 48 hours should be released”.
According to the decision of the Soviet government, Steinberg determined the amounts that the prisoners in Kresty had to pay as a deposit before being released, as the prison doctor Ivan Manukhin testified:
“The Left SR was then the Commissioner of Justice I.Z. Steinberg. A soft, sympathetic person, he, as a representative of the new government, was bound by a decree of the Bolshevik majority and, according to this decree, demanded that every prisoner pay a certain amount for his bail. The amount of the contribution varied depending on the commissioner's idea of the degree of “bourgeois” that the person was. I had to bargain. Relatives of the next prisoner were usually in the waiting room and immediately paid the amount that they managed to bargain for. [...] Having received a document on release from Steinberg, I usually led the prisoner out of the Crosses myself. [...] and I told everyone the same thing: “Immediately leave Petrograd.” Of my patients at Kresty, one V. L. Burtsev flatly refused to leave my prison on bail. His courage of the old revolutionary, whom does not fear prison in the least, and his devotion to revolutionary activity, which he had devoted his whole life to, apparently shamed the new rulers, and I managed to get him released without bail”
On January 11, at his suggestion, the Sovnarkom decided to investigate the activities of the People's Commissariat, the Bolsheviks Pyotr Krasikov and Mechislav Kozlovsky were accused by Steinberg of illegal activities. During a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars in February, Lenin presented the draft of a decree, "The Socialist Fatherland in Danger!". In it, there was a clause calling for the execution "on the spot" of a loose category of criminals defined as "enemy agents, speculators, burglars, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, [and] German agents". Steinberg expressed objection because a "cruel threat ... with far reaching terroristic potentialities." He stated "Lenin resented my opposition in the name of revolutionary justice. So I called out in exasperation, "Then why do we bother with a Commissariat for Justice? Let's call it frankly the 'Commissariat for Social Extermination' and be done with it!" Lenin's face suddenly brightened and he replied, "Well put ... that's exactly what it should be ... but we can't say that".
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Isaac Steinberg
Isaac Nachman Steinberg (Russian: Исаак Нахман Штейнберг; 13 July 1888 – 2 January 1957) was a lawyer, a Left Socialist-Revolutionary, politician, People's Commissar under Lenin, and a leader of the Jewish Territorialist movement and writer in Soviet Russia and in exile.
Steinberg was born in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (today Daugavpils, Latvia), into a family of Orthodox Jewish merchants. He was raised in a traditional religious home. In 1906, Steinberg entered Moscow University, where he studied law. He joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party (also known as SRs). He was arrested in 1908 and sent to Tobolsk province for 2 years. After exile he left for Germany and studied at the University of Heidelberg, graduating with a master's degree.
In 1910, Steinberg returned to Russia and worked as a lawyer. During the First World War, he conducted anti-war and revolutionary work, was arrested in 1915 and exiled to the Ufa Governorate. He continued his work as a lawyer in Ufa, where he led the Left Socialist Revolutionaries of the Ufa province. He was elected a delegate of the City Duma, was a member of the executive committee of the Ufa Council of Workers and Soldiers and the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies; participant in the All-Russian Democratic Conference; Member of the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic. Steinberg condemned the uprising in Petrograd, but became part of the Ufa Provincial Commissar of Agriculture nonetheless. He was elected to the Russian Constituent Assembly on the list of Socialist Revolutionaries from the Ufa province. He soon after became a member of the Left SR central committee.
From December 10, 1917, to March 1918, he was People's Commissar (Narkom) of Justice in Vladimir Lenin's government during the Bolsheviks' short-lived coalition with the left wing of the SRs. On December 18, 1917, some members of the Constituent Assembly by Dzerzhinsky, but Steinberg released them. On December 19, 1917, he signed an “Instruction” to the Revolutionary Tribunal on the termination of systematic repressions against individuals, institutions and the press and sent a corresponding telegram to the Soviets at all levels. From December 1917 - January 1918, the Council of People's Commissars examined Steinberg's claims against the Cheka several times. On December 31, 1917, the Sovnarkom, on his initiative, decided to delimit the functions of the Cheka under the Petrograd Soviet.
After the scandal caused by the murder of Andrei Ivanovich Shingarev and Fyodor Kokoshkin on the night of January 6–7, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars, after hearing the report of Steinberg, instructed the NKJ to “as soon as possible verify the thoroughness of the detention of political prisoners ... all those who cannot be charged within 48 hours should be released”.
According to the decision of the Soviet government, Steinberg determined the amounts that the prisoners in Kresty had to pay as a deposit before being released, as the prison doctor Ivan Manukhin testified:
“The Left SR was then the Commissioner of Justice I.Z. Steinberg. A soft, sympathetic person, he, as a representative of the new government, was bound by a decree of the Bolshevik majority and, according to this decree, demanded that every prisoner pay a certain amount for his bail. The amount of the contribution varied depending on the commissioner's idea of the degree of “bourgeois” that the person was. I had to bargain. Relatives of the next prisoner were usually in the waiting room and immediately paid the amount that they managed to bargain for. [...] Having received a document on release from Steinberg, I usually led the prisoner out of the Crosses myself. [...] and I told everyone the same thing: “Immediately leave Petrograd.” Of my patients at Kresty, one V. L. Burtsev flatly refused to leave my prison on bail. His courage of the old revolutionary, whom does not fear prison in the least, and his devotion to revolutionary activity, which he had devoted his whole life to, apparently shamed the new rulers, and I managed to get him released without bail”
On January 11, at his suggestion, the Sovnarkom decided to investigate the activities of the People's Commissariat, the Bolsheviks Pyotr Krasikov and Mechislav Kozlovsky were accused by Steinberg of illegal activities. During a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars in February, Lenin presented the draft of a decree, "The Socialist Fatherland in Danger!". In it, there was a clause calling for the execution "on the spot" of a loose category of criminals defined as "enemy agents, speculators, burglars, hooligans, counter-revolutionary agitators, [and] German agents". Steinberg expressed objection because a "cruel threat ... with far reaching terroristic potentialities." He stated "Lenin resented my opposition in the name of revolutionary justice. So I called out in exasperation, "Then why do we bother with a Commissariat for Justice? Let's call it frankly the 'Commissariat for Social Extermination' and be done with it!" Lenin's face suddenly brightened and he replied, "Well put ... that's exactly what it should be ... but we can't say that".