Nikolay Krestinsky

Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky (Russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Крести́нский; 13 October 1883 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet Bolshevik revolutionary and politician who served as the Responsible Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Born in Mogilev to a Ukrainian family, Krestinsky studied law at Saint Petersburg Imperial University, where he embraced revolutionary politics. He became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1903, and two years later he supported Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction following the RSDLP split. Repeatedly arrested, he was exiled to the Urals in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. After the 1917 February Revolution brought an end to the monarchy, Krestinsky led the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg before returning to Petrograd. He was named People's Commissar for Finance and elected to the first Politburo. After the death of Yakov Sverdlov, Krestinsky also served as Responsible Secretary of the Russian Communist Party.

Krestinsky was an ally of Leon Trotsky and supported the Left Opposition. With the rise of Joseph Stalin, Krestinsky gradually fell from power and lost his positions in the government, save for his post as Soviet ambassador to Germany. He eventually repudiated his opposition and capitulated to Stalin. Krestinsky was arrested in 1937 in the Great Purge and charged with treason. He was found guilty in the 1938 Trial of the Twenty-One and executed.

Krestinsky was born in the town of Mogilev, in what is now Mogilev Region of Belarus in to the family of a teacher. His family was Ukrainian. He was educated at the Vilno (Vilnius) Gymnasium and studied law at St Petersburg University. After graduating in 1907, he worked for ten years as a barrister and barrister's assistant.

Having become radicalised when he first entered university, Krestinsky joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in Vilno in 1903. From 1905, he supported its Bolshevik faction, led by Vladimir Lenin. He was arrested in Vilno in 1904, then again in St Petersburg in February 1905, but was released both times, pending a trial. He was arrested again, twice, during the 1905 revolution, but released under an amnesty. In total, he was arrested nine times. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he was deported to the Urals.

After the February Revolution, which overthrew monarchy in Russia, Krestinsky was chairman of the Yekaterinburg and Urals committee of the Bolshevik party, and was elected a member of the Central Committee in July 1917. After the October Revolution, he moved to Petrograd (St Petersburg) as deputy head of the state bank. In August 1918 – 1921, he was People's Commissar for Finance.

In January 1918, during the dispute over whether to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to take Russia out of the war, Krestinsky was one of just two members of the Central Committee to vote to reject the treaty and fight a 'revolutionary war' with Germany, but in March 1918, to avoid a split that might have driven Lenin, he ended his opposition.

In March 1921, after the early death of Yakov Sverdlov, Krestinsky received a sudden promotion to the post of Secretary of the Central Committee. He was also elected a member of the original five-member Politburo, and of the first Orgburo. At first, he was the only Central Committee secretary. In 1920–21 he was the senior one of three.